Wood Detail: On good days, a firewood detail went to the forests to get wood for the mess hall stoves.
Rice Detail: One to three times each week, a rice detail composed of from five to ten carabao carts, an American driver for each cart, and several Jap guards, drove to market in the town of Cabanatuan to pick up one hundred pound bags of rice for the mess halls.
Outside Details: Details were taken to many places in the Philippines to build and repair roads, bridges and airfields and to load and unload ships in the port area of Manila. Several details of Americans were taken to Bataan to make a Japanese movie, entitled Down with the Stars and Stripes! Periodically, a detail was taken to Japan.
The Farm: After several months of starvation, some hungry captives suggested to the Japanese that a farm could supply extra food for the captives and might reduce the high morbidity and mortality rates.
The farm was started with a few farmers and expanded very rapidly. Groups of one hundred men each were marched out of camp every morning barefooted to spend the day on the farm.
The farmers worked under many difficulties; the sun became very hot. Farmers were not allowed to squat down or to bend the knees. They had to work bent over from the waist. They received only a fifteen minute yasume (rest period) in the morning and another in the afternoon. There was much language confusion; much misunderstanding followed by frequent slapping, kicking or beating.
Nearly every day the Japanese insisted upon larger and larger details insisted that more and more patients be returned to duty from the hospital in order to work on the farm. The workers received a small amount of extra food.
Much to my surprise, many sick patients, that we thought were too sick for duty, were becoming rather husky farmers.
More to my surprise, the Jap guards soon found they could make extra money by taking farm products to the market in Cabanatuan city, where they were sold to the civilians.
Camp Hospital: The hospital was first opened in June, 1942, by Col. James Gillespie with the mess halls under Major Jim Rinaman. There were sixty six officers and 183 enlisted men. By July 1st there were 2,300 patients and by August, 2,500.