Thank you very much for sending me the two articles "From Guerilla to POW in the Philippines" and "Diary of a Hell-Ship Journey." They were terrific and say a lot of things that need to be said, less the US forgets the horrors of the way the Japanese treated our prisoners. As you know I fought the war in the European Theater and we had an easy time of it, compared to your experiences. I don't know whether I would have had the fortitude to hang in there and continue to help the others, treat their ills and wounds the way you did. Ruth tells me you are writing a book on the subject and I look forward to reading it.
Time goes by so fast and it is hard to realize that none of the top command of the Army and only a handful of others in the service saw service in World War II. We have a yearly course on the" History of World War II" as West Georgia College and the ignorance of students on the sacrifices so many made is astounding! We need to keep reminding them, that the quality of life they know was paid for dearly by soldiers like you who gave so much for their country.
I was particularly interested in this subject since right after VE Day I commanded 14 POW camps for General Patton in Bavaria. When he gave me the job I complained that I knew nothing about treatment of paws and he replied, "You should treat them the way you would like to be treated if you were a POW." That became our philosophy and we worked our tails off day and night to treat them fairly, keep them warm and well fed and provide necessary medical treatment. I can truthfully say we had very few instances of complaint nor have any surfaced since the war.
Sincerely
"Tige" Beall
APPENDIX: LESSONS LEARNED ON LUZON
"In war there is no substitute for Victory!"
Douglas MacArthur
We were amazed to discover how well-informed the Japanese pilots and invading forces were, as to our beaches, bays, terrain, and especially our military bases. Their geodetic maps were more accurate than ours.
We were amazed to find Japanese fishermen's nets-in the shapes of arrows-pointing directly to our naval bases at Olongapo and Cavite, to Clark and Nichols Airfields, and to Fort McKinley.