and the miscellaneous alavey work of keeping up the Japanese camp
 
area, such as the latrine detail. And it was at this time that
 
Major Maida made us a speech.
 
     "You have been used to a soft easy life since your
 
capture," Major Maida told us. "All that will be different here
 
Now you will learn about hard labor. Every prisoner will continue
 
to work until he is actually hospitalized. Punishment for maling-
 
ering will be severe."
 
     Major Maida's orders were never relaxed.
 
Shortly after our arrival, the total number of American
 
prisoners at Davao was brought to approximately 2000 by the
 
addition of prisoners captured in the Visayah Islands and on 
 
Mindanao itself.
 
     None of us will ever forget how good these prisoners
 
looked When they first arrived--they were all in good physical
 
condition, by comparison making us look like scarecrows. These
 
'prisoners had not been exposed to pollution, disease and hunger
 
as we had, most of them having surrendered or been captured some
 
time after the fall of Corregidor. But it did not take them long
 
to join our ranks. And when I escaped from Davao some five
 
months later, only 1100 of our 2000 prisoners were working. The
 
other 900 were too sick to work. American doctors in the prison
 
hospital told me that, since almost no medicines were available, 
very few of these 900 had a chance to leave the hospital alive. 
 
They would go steadily downhill to the end.
 
     Discipline at Davao was strict, and we soon found that
 
one of our chief tormentors was First Lieutenant Hosume. Among
 
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