Christmas Midnight Mass and Easter Mass were very colorful events attended by all healthy prisoners. On May 30th of each year (Decoration Day), the Japanese allowed one thousand prisoners to visit the cemetery. Chaplain Oliver led the services; Major Iwanaka Oapanese Camp Commander) presented a large wreath.
Chaplains took turns accompanying the Burial Detail from the morgue to the cemetery nearly every day-giving graveside services. Chaplains' visits to the wards of the hospital were much appreciated by the patients-sick, depressed and underground dying.
Underground: After being in camp for several months, I discovered that some of the captives were leaving notes (addressed to friends in Manila) on their beds. In some mysterious way, they were picked up and delivered in Manila. In a couple weeks there would be an answer, also left on the bed of the sender.
Sometimes there would be money, medicine and even food.
Looked like a good idea! I didn't inquire about the mechanics of the Underground. In fact I didn't want to know. I had had amoebic dysentery with bleeding for four months-with a loss of fifty pounds weight. Here was a chance to get some medicine.
I had a Spanish friend in Manila, the president of an insurance company. When he had been in Baguio with his family prior to the war, he brought his eight-year-old son to me because of a chronic stomach ailment. I made the diagnosis of "peptic ulcer" and treated him with good results. The family was quite pleased.
So I wrote Jose Olbes a note explaining my predicament.
Sure enough, in two weeks, on my bed was a note, carbazone (medicine) and twenty pesos. In another two weeks I was feeling better and gaining strength. I never inquired further about the Underground, figuring that someday someone would get caught, and the penalty would be severe.
During the two years that the Underground operated, it undoubtedly saved the lives of hundreds of prisoners. After the war was over, I learned the mechanics of the operation:
In the early days of the war, a 31st Infantry Sergeant John Phillips
married a Claire (?) on Bataan. Sgt. John survived Bataan and the
"Death March," but died on July 27, 1942 in the Japanese P.O.W. Camp
No.1 at Cabanatuan.