us--home. As each prisoner ripped open a box, I suspect that
 
there were many besides myself who worked with a catch in the
 
throat.
 
     I will make no attempt to describe the joy with which
 
those Red Cross boxes were received. Just as there is no word
 
for "truth" in the Japanese language, neither are there any words
 
known to me which could describe the feelings with which we
 
greeted this first communication from our homeland. And what a
 
welcome message those boxes contained!
 
     First of all, there was coffee--a concentrate which
 
tasted better than any steaming cup I had ever drunk to cheer an
 
icy night on the bridge of a ship at sea. It was the first I had
 
tasted since a smuggled sip in Old Bilibid Prison, back in Manila.
 
There were chocolate bars, there was cheese, there were tinned
 
meats and sardines, there were cigarettes, and there was a portion
 
each of tea, cocoa, salt, pepper and sugar. Best of all, there
 
were sulfa drugs and precious quinine!
 
     Since I did not smoke, I very quickly made an advan-
 
tageous trade for my cigarettes--the only tobacco available for
 
those who used it was a coarse native leaf which grew within the
 
prison confines. Often this was not available, and the prisoners
 
resorted to cornsilk and dried leaves. In my trading, however, I
 
could find nobody who would give up a crumb of his cheese: we had
 
known no butter, milk or any kind of dairy product since our
 
capture....Our Christmas had been delayed, but it was one of the
 
most enjoyable many of us will ever remember.
 
                                      - 67 -