Authors: James D. Hornfischer
“
Now when you get in a situation like that
”: Lanson H. Harris, speech, Long Beach Yacht Club. “
If you had a chance to sabotage
…”: Paul E. Papish, UNT interview, 93.
Radios in camp
: John F. Schneider, “The History of KTAB/KSFO”; Horace Chumley, UNT interview, 38; Jess Stanbrough, UNT interview, 107; Thompson,
A Thousand Cups of Rice
, 50; Lloyd Willey, UNT interview, 74–75. “
Oh, it looks to me at least six months
…”: Stanbrough, UNT interview, 111. “
Hang in there
…”
and
“
Had anyone else tried to instigate such a thing
…”: Charles,
Last Man Out
, 44. “
The Japanese knew he had it and laughed
…”: Seldon D. Reese, UNT interview, 63.
“The guards poured out on the grounds to stop it then”:
Charles,
Last Man Out
, 44. “
There were times you’d just say, ‘Well
…’”: Papish, 104. “
I never admitted that we were whipped
”: Melfred L. Forsman, UNT interview, 7.
Buying food
: Charley L. Pryor, UNT interview, Jan. 22, 1973, 33.
Pay rates
: Fujita,
Foo
, 106.
Controversy over funds
: Thompson,
A Thousand Cups of Rice
, 47–48.
Background on Lt. Roy E. Stensland
: La Forte and Marcello,
Building the Death Railway
, 30; Edmonds,
They Fought with What They Had
, 373–374, 385; Marvin Robinson, UNT interview, 93; Eldridge Rayburn, UNT interview, 85; P. J. Smallwood, UNT interview, 158; Daws,
Prisoners of the Japanese
, 224, 241. “
Lieutenant Stensland, before you knew what was happening
…”: Lester C. Rasbury, quoted in La Forte, 61. “
I thought he was a dead man
…”: Houston Tom Wright, UNT interview, 91–92.
“
This one day we were on a working party
…”: Lloyd V. Willey, UNT interview, 62. “
I will obey all orders from the Japanese
”: Harold S. Hamlin, “Statement,” 2. “
At Serang were nearly all the survivors from the
…”
and
“
From first to last perhaps a hundred men
…”: Rivett,
Behind Bamboo
, 101–102.
Dispatch reporting U.S. prisoners at Batavia
: “
Houston
Men Jap Captives?” United Press, dateline Sydney, July 1, 1942. “
I know many of the boys
…”: Mother of Crayton Gordon, quoted in Thompson,
A Thousand Cups of Rice
, 55. “
I am proud of my two boys
…”: Ida Pearl Elliott Fujita, quoted in Fujita,
Foo
, 111–112. “
As I marched my troops up and halted
…”
and
“
I was then taken
…”: Charles D. Smith, “USS
Houston
(CA-30) and Experiences,” 16.
“
If you do not sign the oath
…”: Hamlin, “Statement,” 3. “
You can always be sure that some Australians
…”: Jess Stanbrough, UNT interview, 129. “
The three men were in obvious pain
…”: Hamlin, “Statement,” 2. “
There ain’t a one of us who didn’t think we were traitors
…”: John H. Wisecup, UNT interview, 51. “
After the Fourth of July, all hell broke loose
”: Stanbrough, UNT interview, 120. “
The Brown Bomber was our first infamous one
”: Stanbrough, 120. “
He’d go pick out somebody
…”: Ibid., 131.
Guard nicknames
: Ilo B. Hard, UNT interview, 161, and Charley L. Pryor, UNT interview, Jan. 22, 1973, 42–43. “
A soldier might tell you
…”: George Detre, UNT interview, 58.
“
The only man who could make five-gallon cans invisible
…”: Daws,
Prisoners of the Japanese
, 170. “
Man, he had some gear
…”: John H. Wisecup, UNT interview, 54. “
He became a sort of hero
…”: H. Robert Charles, UNT interview, 87.
First group to leave Batavia
: “Roster of Fitzsimmons Group,” USS
Houston
Survivors Association.
The Australian Army rank of brigadier
was introduced in 1928 to replace the rank of colonel commandant, which had briefly replaced the rank of brigadier general in 1922. A brigadier is more a senior colonel rather than the lowest rank of general (much like a commodore is to an admiral in the navy).
Hellship departures from Batavia
: “List of Hellship Voyages.” “
The Japanese method of shipping troops
…”: C. D. Smith, “USS
Houston
,” 17. “
They just took a rifle butt and jammed it
…”: Julius B. Heinen, quoted in La Forte,
Building the Death Railway
, 80.
“There had been cattle hauled in that ship
…”: H. Robert Charles, UNT interview, 86. “
It was a night of darkness and heat
…”
and
“
like froth from a boiling saucepan
”: Parkin,
Into the Smother
, 6.
“
Once again, as in Batavia
…”: Rivett,
Behind Bamboo
, 131. “
Oh my God, what in the world
…”: Charley L. Pryor, UNT interview, Jan. 22, 1973, 52. “
Changi was a school for survivors
”: James Clavell,
The Guardian
, quoted in Reminick,
Death’s Railway
, 77. “
It was the strangest thing I’ve ever seen in my life
…”: Otto C. Schwarz, UNT interview, 81–82. “
Why don’t they make a run
…”: H. Robert Charles, UNT interview, 91.
“Lay on one, Yank!”
: Pryor, 65–66. “
Everybody just sat there spellbound
…”: Ibid., 92. “
They’ll be right at our sides
”: Schwarz, interview with the author, 11–12. “
They had their own stuff cached away
…”: Charles, 93. “
Those are the King’s coconuts
”: Frank Fujita, UNT interview, 56; Pryor, 59–60. “
You have got to take that man out
…”: Hamlin, quoted in Jack Bartz, interview with the author. “
Well, my man
!…”
and
“
Pleased to meet you
…”: Rivett,
Behind Bamboo
, 134.
“
Hell, they are going to kill you
…”: Frank Fujita, UNT interview, 68.
Fujita arrives in Japan
: Fujita,
Foo
, 114, 123 fn. 4. “
We carried on our own little war
…”: Fujita, UNT interview, 78. “
He never even kicked
”: Ibid., 78.
“They
were anxious to find out almost anything
…”: Maher, “Jap Prison Experiences,” 15.
Commander Maher in Japan
: Maher narrative, 13; see also Martindale,
The 13th Mission
, 109–10, 120. “
It was an honor, we understand
…”: Raymond Day, “Saga of the
Houston
,” 11. “
You’re going to a health camp
…”: Paul E. Papish, UNT interview, 124. “
Well, we ought to be out of the danger zone
”
and
“
Just incidentally, if
…”: Julius B. Heinen Jr., UNT interview, 80. “
We heard this tremendous
whomp
…”: Charley L. Pryor, UNT interview, Jan. 22, 1973, 76–77. “
Just don’t panic
…”: Heinen, 81. “
What’s the bid
?”: Ibid., 82.
Damage to the
Dai Moji Maru
: Raymond Day, “Saga of the
Houston
,” 13–14; Charles D. Smith, “USS
Houston
,” 18; Col. Tom Sledge, interview with the author and Roy Offerle, UNT interview, 85. “
Up above the water line
…”: Pryor, UNT interview, Jan. 22, 1973, 79.
“I will give credit to the Japanese merchant captain
…”: C. D. Smith, 18.
Rumors of a railway
: Pryor, 76; Donald Brain, UNT interview, 130.
“
Hell, I know where we are
…”: Donald Brain, UNT interview, 132–133.
The Battle for Burma and Japanese strategic plans
: Romanus and Riley,
Stilwell’s Mission to China
, 100–101. “
We were still young and adventurous
…”: James Gee, UNT interview, March 19, 1972, 4.
Colonel Nagatomo, “Very cocky, a king-of-the-walk type
”: H. Robert Charles, UNT interview, 98.
Welcoming speech
: Otto Schwarz and Howard Brooks, interviews with the author; Dan Buzzo, UNT interview, 131; and Gee, 13. “
It is a great pleasure to us to see you at this place
…”: Nagatomo, “Speech Delivered at Thanbyuzayat,” quoted in La Forte and Marcello,
Building the Death Railway
, 287–289. “
We will build the railroad if we have to build it over the white man’s body
…”: This last paragraph does not appear in the September 15, 1942, text of the speech found in the collection of Japanese POW documents edited by John C. Sharp. Nor is it included in Maj. W. E. Fisher’s diary, which contains a transcript of Colonel Nagatomo’s speech, nor in Rohan Rivett’s
Behind Bamboo
. It is included in the text of the October 28, 1942, speech to the Fitzsimmons group, as published in La Forte and Marcello’s
Building the Death Railway
, and also appears in Kyle Thompson’s memoir,
A Thousand Cups of Rice
. Perhaps “We will build the railroad if we have to build it over the white man’s body” may thus have been a special flourish for the Americans’ benefit. “
Thanbyuzayat turned out to be the beginning of a real nightmare
”: Gee, 18–19. “
I knew this guy meant business
…”: Charles, UNT interview, 99.
Japanese designs for the Burma-Thailand Railway
: Davies,
The Man Behind the Bridge
, 91; the civilian consultant’s name was Kuwabara.
For background on the Imperial Army’s attitude toward prisoners
, see Herbert P. Bix’s
Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan
, 359–360.
Regarding
Japan’s treatment of its POWs
, see Bix, 207, where he discusses Emperor Hirohito’s cover-up of the
Army’s 1929 atrocities in Manchuria and the privy council’s failure to ratify the full Geneva Prisoner of War Convention. “The groundwork for the future commission of war atrocities by the Japanese military was also being laid during this period,” Bix writes.
Native Asian laborers on the railway
: see Boggett, “Notes on the Thai-Burma Railway,” 42.
My
basic chronology of Branch Three’s activities
derives from the diary of Brig. Arthur L. Varley.
Establishment of Branch Five
: Harold S. Hamlin, “Statement,” 4; Varley diary, 88. Maj. W. E. Fisher, the Australian doctor, observed the nomenclature “Thai POW Branch” for Burma railway construction units tended to keep the subsequent public focus on the Thailand end of the railway. In fact, in several respects the average prisoner’s plight in Burma was worse. See Fisher, “Medical Experiences,” 2.
Prisoners’ duties on the railway
: See Charley L. Pryor, UNT interview, Jan. 22, 1973, 91–95; H. Robert Charles, UNT interview, 100–109; and the author’s interviews with Howard Brooks and Otto C. Schwarz. “
You might spend a whole month making one fill
…”: Brooks, interview with the author. See also Lanson Harris, speech to Long Beach Yacht Club. “
There was a lot of rock
…”: Melfred L. Forsman, UNT interview, 144–145. “
We got beat up more for bending a shovel
…”: Brooks, interview with the author.
Branch Three
: Per Brigadier Varley’s diary entry for March 28, 1943, Branch Three had 9,534 men, including 4,465 Australians, 481 British, 194 Americans, and 4,394 Dutch.
Background on Brigadier Varley
: Ramsey, “Courage Writ Large in a Steady Hand,”
Sydney Morning Herald
, April 23, 2005. “
They all spoke cheerio and good luck messages
…”: Varley diary, June 6, 1942.
POW pay:
Varley diary, Feb. 19, 1943. “
Were there any good Japanese
?”: Fisher, “Medical Experiences,” 47. “
If you poked your finger into your leg
…”: Otto C. Schwarz, interview with the author. “
You feel like your mind is a closed circuit
…”: Parkin,
Into the Smother
, 155. “
The J’s require absolute proof
…”: Varley diary, entry for Nov. 11, 1942. “
A little quinine would have saved a lot of lives
…”: Schwarz, Ibid.
Henri Hekking’s parley with Major Yamada
: Charles,
Last Man Out
, 78–79.
Rice “rotten and unusable
…”: Ibid., 114; see also Houston Tom Wright, UNT interview, 66. “
Melons were only hog feed
…”: William V. Bell to Mrs. Samuel H. Lumpkin, undated letter, circa June 1953. “
You don’t worry about a day of reckoning
…”: Charles,
Last Man Out
, 114–115.
Dr. Hekking’s jungle remedies
: Wright, 119–120, 150, 152; Charles,
Last Man Out
, 116. “
It was most distressing to him
…”: Ibid., 87.
Lumpkin’s comment:
Per Ilo B. Hard, UNT interview, 170. “
He was the first man that I ever heard of
…”: Wright, 119–120.