Blood Brothers | Page 2

VI "Old" Bilibid Prison
VII Japan Detail - Oriental Tour - Strictly Third Class
X Japan
XI Camp Hoten, Mukden, Manchuria
XII Japan Surrenders
XIII Start Home
XIV The Good Old U.S.A
XV Borrowed Time
Appendix
Acknowledgments
*MY SKETCHES
During the first few weeks of our incarceration in Japanese
Prisoner-of-War Camp No.1 in the Philippines, 1,500 (25% of our
6,000 captives) died of starvation, malnutrition, various vitamin
deficiencies, malaria, diphtheria and various wounds that would not
heal. I knew that within another 6 to 8 months, we would all be dead,
and there would be no record of it. There was no paper to keep any
record of events.
Within a few weeks, I was able to obtain a" nickel school notebook. In
it, I drew many sketches, depicting the lifestyle in prison camp.
Of course, I had to be secretive. There was a penalty for keeping

records in camp; if I'd been caught, I would have been beheaded.
By the time we were being processed for transfer to Old Bilibid Prison
in late October 1944, I had made some 110 sketches. I rolled them up
and placed them in a Mason jar. I buried the jar at the east end of
building No. 12, planning to come back after the war and dig it up.
...
When the war was over, I was flown from Mukden, Manchuria to
Kunming, China and on to Manila, P.I., where I was housed in a tent at
Reple Depot # 29 south of the city. The next day I was flown in a Piper
Cub back to Cabanatuan to look for my drawings, landing at an airfield
we had built as prisoner-labor. A battalion of Engineers furnished a
bulldozer.
The camp buildings were all gone. I figured out where building # 12
had been. We dug for hours and found nothing.
As fate would have it, one year after I returned to Active Duty at
Walter Reed General Hospital in Washington, D.C., I located my 110
sketches at the Pentagon. MacArthur's Sixth Army Rangers had
retrieved the buried drawings when they liberated Camp #1 in late
January 1945.
All of my sketches had been carefully numbered, and marked on the
back "Unidentified Artist." I had been officially declared an artist.
INTRODUCTION

In Japanese prisoner of war camps, all prisoners were divided into
groups of ten, called "blood brothers."
If anyone of the ten "blood brothers" made any attempt to escape, the
other nine would be punished "Sevelery!"
Typical punishments:
Tie the blood brothers to fence posts and require each passing Japanese
soldier to slap and kick them.
More severe punishment required recruits to use the bound brothers for
bayonet practice.
The most severe punishment required an officer to unsheathe his
samurai sword and behead the "brothers."
My ten blood brothers, all Medical Officers of the Regular Army, were:
Lt. Col. William Draper North
Major James Bahrenberg

Wilbur Berry
Wesley Bertz*
Eugene Jacobs
Emmert Lentz
Steven Sitter
Clarence Strand *
Clarence White*
Captain Robert Lewis
The blood brothers with the asterisk (*) were killed or died on "Hell
Ships" enroute to Japan.
The other brothers survived the rigors of Bataan, the "Death March"
Japanese prison camps, labor details, the "farm," and "Hell Ships" to
return to the United States. Since the war, all have died, except the
author, who is anxious to tell his story before the first reunion of the
"brothers."
STAFF Camp John Hay Baguio, Mountain Province, P.I.
Lt. Col. John P Horan, Commanding Officer
Capt. Hubert (Sandy) Ketchum (Cav. Adjutant)
Major Henderson Allen, (Q.M.C.) Supply
Major James Blanning (Cav.)
Major Ronald McDonald, Company A
Captain Ralph Rumbold, Company B
Captain Francis Fellows, Post Exchange Officer
Captain Everett Warner, Provost Officer
Captain Parker Calvert,
Captain Eugene C. Jacobs, Post Surgeon and Hospital Commander
Captain Ruby Bradley, A.N.C., Chief Nurse
Lieut. Beatrice Chambers, A.N.C.
Lieut. Clifford Simenson, Enlisted Men's Dormitories
Lieut. Harold Everman, Signal Officer
Lieut. Cowan,
Lieut. Evans,
Sgt. R.M. Trent
Sgt. Bennet
Sgt. King
Sgt. Hayes
Sgt. Beck

Sgt. Farmer
Sgt. Sibert
Sgt. Adkins
Regret that I can not remember the names of some 200 others on duty
at Camp John Hay; they were all very dedicated personnel.

Chapter I
BOMBS FALL ON CAMP JOHN HAY, REST AND RECREATION
CENTER IN THE PHILIPPINES
The phone next to my bed was ringing with a great deal of
determination. Half-asleep, I raised the receiver:
"WE ARE AT WAR WITH JAPAN! PEARL HARBOR IS BEING
BOMBED! REPORT TO HEADQUARTERS AT ONCE!" It was 0500
hours, December 8th, 1941.
Hawaiian time, it was 1030 hours, December 7th. The bombing was
still going on, lasting from 0755 to 1050 hours.
Greatly surprised and quite groggy, I tried to collect my thoughts while
getting into my freshly starched uniform, Medical Corps, U.S. Army:
"Knocking out the Pacific Fleet