Joseph E Robinson

Japan's Honor Joseph E Robinson

Part of a journal found in the Philippines, dated April 22, 1942, by an unknown soldier: We were immediately sent into the Bataan Peninsula, in the Philippines, where the enemy were in full retreat and cornered. It was not long after we arrived that the enemy finally surrendered; that was in early 1942. We were told to expect approximately twenty-five thousand prisoners, but instead we were shocked to find we had over seventy-five thousand prisoners: twenty-five thousand Americans and over fifty thousand Filipino soldiers. We were unprepared to handle such a large mass. Our forces had no training in handling prisoners of war. The problem was so great that no one dared to tackle such an impossible solution. Thousands of these prisoners were hit with malaria, dysentery, poison bites, jungle fever, cholera, diphtheria, starvation, and dehydration. Thousands more needed urgent medical help for their war injuries. There was no water easily available and what water that could be obtained was nearly always contaminated. The area was overgrown with jungles, wild animals, poisonous snakes, insects, and treacherous swamps. It is a very hot and humid country that without available drinking fluids you would die very quickly with dehydration.