How Marine POWs Hung Tough

These servicemen were amazing! This first line really made me want to read more, "The American and Filipino forces that defended the Bataan Peninsula from January to April 1942 fought on desperately short rations." During the first two months of fighting there, Americans who used to weigh two hundred pounds became extremely thin. They also contracted harsh diseases. Even though the American and Filipino troops surrendered on April 9, 1942, it still brought them no relief. It got much worse. The Japanese forced them to march up to 140 miles with barely any food or water. This was known as the Bataan Death March. Ten thousand POWS died due to body failure and some were even brutally killed because they could no longer keep up with the march. When the survivors finally arrived at Camp O’Donnell, they felt extremely hopeless . They reflected on the torture they had witnessed at the POW prisons in the Philippines. 1st Lt. Jack Hawkins even said said in his memoir, "Never say die." Most prisoners were so cruelly treated that they forgot about everything they stood for as soldiers and even sometimes disobeyed orders from their officers. Many of the officers also fell into not caring about their men and the military structure fell apart just as the Japanese had hoped. This is what Maj. Alva R. Fitch said about POW life during that time, "“I have seen men try to go from barracks to the latrine who were too weak to walk and would fall down in the mud and rain, unable to rise—their friends, officers, or enlisted men, would sit in the barracks sheltered from the rain and look at them without moving to help them. I have seen men, not one but fifty or more at a time, lying in their own feces too weak to move and no one to move them.” Col. J. V. Collier also stated that the camp had no discipline and food and water were difficult to find. The sick were not cared for, and the dead only noticed when the smell filled the camp. Most died in the prison camp, but the American Marines held strong. Some of this was due to better treatment. The Marines in North China were in a healthier climate and had Westerners willing to send them supplies. The Red Cross also came to their aid and helped to make China improve camp conditions. It was stated though that even when the Marines and other soldiers staid in harsh conditions, the Marines pulled through better. Lieutenant Hawkins said this in regards to his Fourth Marines unit, “There was a way to inculcate in men the discipline, loyalty, spirit, mental stamina, and moral fortitude that were called for in the Japanese prison camps. It was the Marine Corps way. I was proud indeed to see that there was no collapse of discipline and group spirit among the marine prisoners. Standards of conduct among the marines were generally exce llent, far superior to the norm.” The Marine Corps had a lot of discipline,” agreed Onnie Clem, a corporal in Hawkins’s regiment. “We followed orders and instructions from our officers. There wasn’t anybody who fussed with what the officers told them to do.” It would be easy to say that the Marines were just talking big, but many saw it and could testify to these brave, strong Marines. "Lt. Samuel C. Grashio, an army pursuit pilot who escaped with Hawkins from Davao Penal Colony in 1943, readily conceded, “As a group, the marines stood up better than most others under the burdens, humiliations, deprivations, and temptations of camp life.” The Marines who survived like at Camp Cabanatuan really proved this point. That place was said to be awful. American soldiers turned on each other stealing food from the sick, knowing they were unable to fight back. Second Lt. Charles W. Burris, a fighter pilot with the U.S. Army Air Forces, said, “That was one place where I learned that a human being is a marauder. You couldn’t keep food around because they’d steal it. They didn’t mind seeing a guy die. They just wanted his food. Everybody was concerned about themselves.” Later in October 1952, "Lt. Col. Curtis Beecher of the 4th Marines was transferred to Cabanatuan. He saw the awful conditions and organized a clean up squad. His work was extremely successful. "Cabanatuan experienced its first day without a POW death on January 18, 1943." The deaths decreased to only ten a month after that. When ever they were allowed to do so, Marine officers would bring the camp back to order and direct their men to work for group survival. Even in the Chinese camps, officers maintained order. Maj. Luther A. Brown stated, "POWs or not. “We are a military organization, and I intend to see that we remain one. To do that, there must be discipline.” He was very tough. "When one imprisoned leatherneck responded to a reprimand by snarling, “Goddamn the Marine Corps!” the major laid him out with a roundhouse punch to the face." He kept a manual that contained the rules of the Geneva Convention that stated the prop per treatment of POWs. When he felt the people running the prison were violating the convention, he would go to the commandant’s office and protest such poor treatment. He never showed the slightest bit of fear. "When an enemy interpreter slapped him in the face in the presence of the camp commandant, the marine major promptly decked him. On another occasion, Brown disarmed a different interpreter who was drawing his samurai sword to behead Sir Mark Young, the British governor-general of Hong Kong. In another camp, such gestures would have earned Brown a summary execution, but authorities at Shanghai were either too impressed or intimidated by his courage to punish him." Maj. James Devereux, strongly support Brown's heroic efforts. He stated that, “Hidden behind the routine, under the surface of life in prison camp was fought a war of wills for moral supremacy—an endless struggle, as bitter as it was unspoken, between the captors and the captives. “The stake seemed to me simply this: the main objective of the whole Japanese prison program was to break our spirit, and on our side was a stubborn determination to keep our self-respect whatever else they took from us.” Even despite the harsh life, Devereux continued to insist on observing military courtesy within his captured unit. He stated, “Our morale was good, so much different from some of these places I heard about, because I insisted on military courtesy. As a result of having the respect of the men, we could more properly represent them to the Japanese, and insist upon certain things we thought we were entitled to.” He also made sure to preserve his unit's sense of loyalty. He would say, “This is a unit. “This is the 1st Marine Defense Battalion, Wake Island Detachment. This is a group.” On another day he told his men, “I don’t need to threaten you. You’re still marines. Act like it.” He was so tough about maintaining order, that he would even resort to harsh means. "When one of Devereux’s corporals started a fistfight with a sergeant, Devereux had the Japanese place the corporal in solitary confinement. He then assembled his marines and warned, “I will sacrifice a few of you to get the rest of you back.” Another enlisted man remembered Devereux as saying that “he only wanted the good marines, the people that behaved like marines, and he was going to bring them back—even if he sacrificed the other half.” The major let it be known that he was keeping a list of insubordinate and disobedient men who would be court-martialed on their return home." The threat of court-martial turned out to be just a threat, but it gave him a tool for keeping discipline and identity within his unit ranks. Two senior noncommissioned officers at Shanghai, Gunners Clarence B. McKinstry from Wake and William A. Lee from North China, decided on and distributed punishments throughout the camp. They sentenced two inmates caught stealing to "have their buttocks marked with the letter “T” in silver nitrate and paddled through camp. “The men were taken to each barracks,” related Pfc. Chester M. Biggs Jr., “where two swats were administered to each man’s buttocks with a large wooden paddle." It was a rough punishment, but proved to be extremely effective. Theft pretty much stopped occurring after that. It was amazing how these Marines were so tough during such extremely brutal living conditions. How was this possible? Lieutenant Hawkins pointed out, “Why should the marines be different? “They were the same kind of people. I could only conclude that the roots of the difference were embedded in the Spartan ruggedness of marine training and the fanatical emphasis upon discipline, loyalty, pride, and esprit de corps, which commences for every marine at the recruit depot [boot camp].” With typical marine bluntness, Cpl. Martin Boyle from Guam observed: “When a bastard hits bottom he doesn’t turn into a nice guy or vice versa. I think it’s all there to begin with. This is especially true of a U.S. marine, where esprit de corps is hammered into his thick skull and ass from his first soul-shattering meeting with a drill instructor.” As Cpl. James R. Brown believed, marine training filled his Wake Island comrades with “the kind of morale that brought most of them back with their morals.” High recruiting standards, a luxury the Marine Corps could afford because of its relative smallness, provided marine drill instructors with young men who flourished under high training standards. In boot camp and after wards, marine training stressed pride, aggressiveness, physical fitness, military bearing, personal hygiene, group sanitation, teamwork—and most important of all, the obligation to look out for one’s fellow marines. “Marines don’t surrender!” drill instructors would scream over and over. “Marines bring out their wounded! Marines don’t desert their buddies!” During the Bataan Death March, long-service marines warned their juniors against drinking unsterilized water. Whenever the old hands came across water in the ruts and carabao wallows lining their route, they first purified it with iodine that they had secreted on their persons prior to the surrender. In prison camp, enlisted marines acted on their own initiative to establish “buddy systems,” which measurably improved their survival prospects. If a marine fell ill, sustained a serious injury, or pulled a stint in solitary confinement without food, his buddies often pooled small amounts of their own rations to sneak him double portions. These voluntary assessments kept up until the man in question was out of trouble. Several marines risked beatings and even death to steal food from the Japanese for ailing comrades. Cpl. Henry L. Durrwachter, who was also captured on Wake Island, testified to the power of even the smallest supportive gesture in this entry from his secret diary: “Yesterday was my birthday and believe it or not I had a party. There wasn’t much to it as we only had bread and sugar to eat for cake. I thought it was swell of the fellows to remember. They gave me a couple of packs of cigarettes and a ring made out of a quarter. It made me feel fine to think I had friends like that.” The Marine Corps has never been in the business of producing saints, and those of its sons captured in World War II knew moments of weakness and selfishness. Marine officers refused to dispense with certain nonessential privileges of rank, demanding exemption from heavy labor and orderlies to serve them. They had their food cooked separately, and many enlisted men were sure that their superiors received larger and more nutritious servings. The lower ranks argued among themselves over the distribution of their own food and other issues, many of them trivial. Sometimes these disagreements escalated from shouting matches to fistfights. When an NCO from Wake complained that he was losing control of some of the men in his barracks, Major Devereux barked, “You pick up a pick handle and use it, and don’t forget I said that, because you have to maintain discipline.” These minor conflicts showed that Marines are human, but they still do not let go of their Marine identity in the face of cruel life. They stuck together and helped each other and that's what caused them to make it through so well. Cpl. Robert Brown observed, “I don’t know of any other unit cohesion that works as well as this did. In the very bitterest days we had, this group got through by…one of the greatest cases of friendship the world has ever known.” This article was one of the most inspiring pieces I have ever read. It shows that you can get through anything you face even though it seems impossible. These Marines were so brave and still maintained discipline and unity among their units. They held on even though most would have just given up. They had true courage and determination. I admire them so much. They had to literally go through Hell for our country and were so strong. Even though I live with a disability, my life is a walk in the park on a sunny day compared to what they had to deal with, and they still didn't give into the feeling of wanting to just give up. It sure causes me to view life in a much different way. If they can do it, I can face whatever comes my way and live like a Marine, brave, strong, disciplined, and tough no matter what. I am so proud of their great sacrifices and will always remember these couragious Marines when I feel something is too difficult to handle. Works Cited: www.historynet.com/how-marine-pows-hung-tough.htm