The Will to Live On: Life in a P.O.W. Camp During WWII

By Herbert W. Schroer

Herbert W. Schroer joined the U.S. Army on May 10, 1941 in Portland, Oregon, a healthy man standing five-feet eight-inches tall and 165 pounds. He was stationed on the island fortress of Corregidor in the Philippines when it was surrendered to the Japanese on May 6, 1942. His story that follows begins after almost two years of imprisonment, where he was being sent to work camp nicknamed a “yasumi camp” (the word “yasumi” meaning “rest” in Japanese). His experience, however, would involve very little in the way of rest.

On April 20, 1944, the Japs had a big shakeup. There were too many sick, according to the Japs, so they sorted off the weaker ones. I was among them. They sorted off 100 weaklings, although some of the sickest stayed. I think it was one industrialist trading horses with another industrialist. Anyhow, the Japs did the sorting, told us we were going to a “yasumi camp.” Of course, we were used to their jokes by this time.

We were loaded on a train a few miles from there. We were on this train about 20 hours. Then we arrived in Aomi, Honshu. I think this left 225 men at Tanagawa Prison Camp, so we lost about 65 men in this 17-month period. When you leave a camp like this, you never hear from it again.

This new camp was a lot farther north. When we got there we could see a lot of evidence of snow. It had just melted. We were hiked the usual 3 miles or so to camp. When we got there, we were “welcomed” by about 450 Englishmen. They had been captured at Singapore. They had been there about one year. There were 550 to start, but they had lost 100 men. “Limeys” we always called them; they even liked that name. There were a few Australians, a couple from New Zealand, the rest from Ireland, Scotland and England. At first we had problems understanding them; but if they talked slower we could understand them a lot easier than the Japs. They had three officers, one was a minister and two were line officers. They also had one older American Navy doctor. I never did hear where they got him. He was probably about 65 years old and too feeble to take care of the sick cases. The minister was also in bad shape, with legs swollen with beriberi, but between them they tried to run the M.I. room, where they checked on the sick and injured.

Hair cuts and shaves were hard to come by. The Japs made no provisions. Hair clippers, scissors, razors, even pocket knives were taboo. Even pencils and paper were out. Every so often they had a shake-down inspection. That meant you carried all your possessions out in the yard and displayed it. One bunch of guards went through it while another bunch went through the barracks looking for anything left. If they saw anything they wanted or was illegal, they just took it. On top of that, you probably would get hit over the head for it. However, there were still a few scissors and a few sharp mess kit knives around. So on “yasumi” days, if we weren’t too sick, we’d cut each other’s hair and quite often shaved our heads at the same time. Soap was also a very scarce item. We probably got sheared once every three months or so.

This Limey camp we had been sent to worked at a rock quarry and smelting furnace to make iron. They told us it was low-grade iron ore. The Japanese sorted out the largest and strongest men for the furnaces. I was too weak so I wound up in the quarry.

Well, it was spring and things went along quite well for awhile. My beriberi was bad, swelling mostly. Seemed as though my kidneys didn’t work when I was up walking around, then at night when I lay down I had to get up to urinate every 45 minutes. Either my bladder was inflamed or it would not stretch. I didn’t think it held a cup full of urine. In the daytime I just didn’t urinate.

Well, about July of 1944, we heard we were getting in more men, Americans this time. Among them were four medical men – one doctor, Captain Marvin I. Pizer, and three corpsman. These Americans were in very good shape, at least they sure looked good to us. However, they had never been in a real work camp before. They even talked of getting an occasional Red Cross box in the Philippines, which was unheard of to us at this time.