Naval Medical School Class 0/1939. Fer­ guson is number 14. SmiTh, number 5.

Counts}' Lucille Ferguson Yan~tze Patrollers­

\ "., Bilibi(l P8W'S

lAst September marked the 40th anni­ quickly extinguished u.s. po wer in the versary of the end of World War n. Pacific. With the auack on the Philip­ For most veterans who served, home­ pines they were among thefirst Ameri­ coming was a joyous occasion. They cans to fight against hopeless odds jumped back into the mainstream and untilforced to give up. abandoned by a picked up life where they had left it. nation whose priority was liberating For those who hadbeen liberatedfrom Europe from the Nazis.. prisoner of war camps in the Pact/ic The days, .....eeks. and liIonths of the homecoming and recovery would starvation.jorced labor. and the bore­ be long and difficult. The disease, tor­ dom ofprison life have since become a ture, and deprivation they suffered distant blur for many. but even though robbed most oftheir health, and their the human mind might (:hoose to sift lives would never quite return to nor­ out the horror, the survivors will mal. remember their ordeal to their dying Yet over four decades later survi· days. The bondforgedbetween men in vors of . . Camp the camps is as sacred as (he memory O'Donnell, CabanatLian. Davao, Tar­ oj the thousands of comrades who lac. Bilibid. and the Japanese death never came home. ships still remember vividly the early This is the story oftwo such prison­ "'------YanRlu Patroller f"er/tuson ill summer days of 1941 whena seemingly invinci­ ers, LT George T. Ferguson. Me. and unilorm abo d USS Guaml Wake. ble and brutal Japanese war machine LT Alfred L Smith, Me. Brother

Nnvcrnber·Decernbcr 1985 15 medical offrcers, they began their had cruised up and down China's vest of war-bodies of victims slain by Navy careers as classmates 01 the waterways since the early days of the the Japanese noated down the Yang­ Naval Medical School in Washington, 20th century. The instability of that tze and choked 's canals; des­ DC. Upon graduation in 1939, they vast nation brought on by domination titute refugees dogged its streets and were both assigned to the Asiatic of warloads and years of revolution regularly froze to death during the Fleet. As fellow" Patrollers," and civil war required a modest U.S. cold winter nights. they cruised up and down China's Navy presence to protect American rivers showing the.f7ag andprolecting.. business interests, missionaries, and Good Duty American interests even as Japan diplomatic personnel. With the Japa­ From July to September 1939 Fer­ gobbled up what remained of free nese invasion of Manchuria in 1937 guson served with the Fourth Marines China. They knew, and indeed all and increasing occupation ofChina by . 'a('Shanghai before reporting aboard weSlerns liVing in China knew. they Japan, duty on the Yangtle Patrol USS Guam. As medical officer of the were living on borrowed lime. In the became riskier. The sinking of USS I59-foot-long , there was little fall of 1941 time ran oUI. Panay by Japanese warplanes almost official to keep him busy. The crew Ferguson and Smith ended up in brought war between the U.S. and was small and basicalIy healthy. He on lhe eve ofPearl Harbor, the Japan 4 years before Pearl Harbor. administered inoculations, treated former just having missed the last ship When Georgt? Ferguson and nine of minor injuries and illness, monitored home. the latter arriving from his Naval Medical School classmates the vessel's medical supplies, inspected Shanghai-on 4 Dec aboard the river boarded the SS President Ga~rield at messi.ng areas and the Chinese food gunboat, USS . But suddenly San Francisco in June 1939, the crisis handlers who came aboard, acted as the war cough1up Wilh them. On 8 Dec in the Far East did not seem a primary the vessel's coding officer, and partici­ Ferguson cold how. "Up 01 I I AM and concern. The voyage was pleasant. pated in "Repel-Boarders" drills. The this is the day lfind oul ifwe go home These were still the days when the slow rest of the time he enjoyed the "good to US or not. i found out .... [We boat ,to China meant comfortable duty" of golf, tennis, softball, learning learnedJ' that Japan had bombed staterooms, teak decks, polished Chinese, and cultivating the friend­ Honolulu, Guam, Wake, Baguio PI brightwork, elegantly served meals, ships of other foreign nationals. There and we were now at war. "(J) and an element ofclass that faded long were "Lots of movies, dinners, places + The two physicians practiced their before the jet age arrived. people. Americans, Russians, Chi­ noble art ministering 10 lhe wounded It took abou·t a month -to reach nese."(2) OccasionalIy, when Guam as the bombs fell on the Navy China via Hawaii, Yokohama, Kobe, ventured upriver to Hankow and Yard and at Bataan. Driven by the and Hong Kong. What Dr. Ferguson Wuhan, Ferguson was able to examine advancing Japanese 10 the islands of found when he ardved in the Orient or perform surgery on patients in the Corregidor and Caballo in Manila was quite a contrast from what he left many missionary hospitals. Bay. th'ey wilnessed the dreadful and behind. The Shanghai of the late Nevertheless, p ract ici ng med ici ne final siege of the last American bas­ 1930's was a city of extremes-grind­ was an infrequent occurrence. After 21 tions in the For East, and they surren­ ing poverty and indecent wealth. As months of general inactivity he grew dered with the others. China's largest port, Shanghai was more and more restless. "Man O'War," The real ordeal had barely begun. certainly the most westernized of he wrote, "What a laugh, when alI we Both were interned at the infamous cities. a condit ion brought about by do is run freight + passengers from Bilibid prison in Manila and Ferguson years of foreign presence. This was Hankow to Shanghai. Yellow Funnel later at Cabanatuan. They would evident in its architecture and by the Freight Line would be more appro­ spend nearly 34 months in captivity, number of Americans, Russians, Ger­ priate."(3) and then, poised on the very brink of mans, French, and British that resided But boredom aside, suspicions liberatipn, one would die on a Japa­ in the "quarters" and traveled its about Japanese intentions grew daily. nese prison ship. beggar-filled streets in coolie-drawn As Guam rode at her mooring in rickshaws. Shanghai, the crew photographed The city was divided into foreign Japanese vessels and noted their com­ After a month offield medical train­ enclaves, each immune from Chinese ings and goings. When underway, the ing at the Quantico Marine Base, law and enjoying the protection of its lightly armed gunboat was "escorted" LTJG George Theodore Ferguson, a ' own troops and . In the by a Japanese warship. Between medi­ native of Missouri, looked forward to squalid Chinese quarter where the so­ cal duties, Ferguson mulled over his his assignment with the Asiatic Fleet in called "Green Gang" ruled, opium lot. "Personally I like the ·easy going China. Being a "Yangtle Patroller" dens and houses of prostitution nour­ life of a hospital where you work 24 a was considered by many to be the best ished amidst crime and the open day because you like it. Maybe we'll duty in the Navy. The small neet of exploitation of Chinese citilens. have a war + maybe I'll get a bit more shallow draft, twin-screw gunboats Adding to the misery was the har-. practice who can tell!"(4)

16 u.s. Navy Medicine -. I

Guest of the Emperor

CA PT Alfred Littlefield Smith, You'd hold sick call and find that When did things really begin heat­ MC (Ret.), was a lieutenant when nobody's sick. My workday began ing up? Corregidor fell on 6 May 1942. His at 8 o'clock and was over by 8:05. In November of'41 a telegram came nearly 34 months in Bilibid left him ordering the Fourth Marines and ill, malnourished, and nearly blind. What did you do with all tbat spare river gunboats to proceed to Ma­ Yet. he points out. it may have been time? nila. By then the Luzon's sides had his poor condition that kept him off We patrolled up and down the river been raised and reinforced with the death ships. Tn jact, he was the until I knew the Yangtze better than planks. only officer from the crew of USS the back of my hand. I saw things I Luzon who came home. Forty-one had never seen before. One time I That must have been a memorable years later he still asks the question went ashore, not too far from where cruise. repeated by others who somehow the Panay was sunk. There was a When we passed Formosa we could survived rhe camps, "Why am' here little Chinese hospital that had a see Japanese ships waiting. They and nor my buddies?" ward filled with about 30 peop1e. It signaled for us to stop and head U.S. Navy Medicine spent many seemed very strange that no one back to China. But RADM Glass­ hours with Dr. Smith in his Rich­ was sitting up or showing any signs ford [William A. Glassford, Jr.,] mond, VA, home as he raId ofad­ of life. "W hat's wrong with them?" I replied thalt he was proceeding ventures on the , asked. They all had leishmaniasis. I south. One of the cruisers aimed its remembered friends and comrades had never seen a single case in my guns but didn't fire. I didn't know it from long ago, andrelived apainful life and suddenly there was a whole at the time but one of our subma­ chapter that was a common expe­ ward full. rines was accompanying us. ,I never rience for thousands ofAmericans saw it until we approached Luzon who were, like himself, "guests of Were the Japanese yery much in and it surfaced nearby. Later I the emperor." evidence? learned that had the cruiser opened Oh yes. When we patrolled the river fire it would have been torpedoed. USNM: What was your first assign­ we went through terr·itory they con­ It took us 4 days through the ment after reporting to the Asiatic trolled. And it was the same when worst weather I'd ever seen. The Squadron in 1939? we played golf. To get to the golf Luzon had never been in the ocean Dr. Smith: The Cavite Navy Yard course we had to stop at a Japanese before and even though we had

I dispensary in the . I was checkpoint. When they saw the boarded her up she took water and there about 6 months before being American flag and stars on the rolled like crazy. Once she tipped assigned to the U.S. Naval Hospital bumper they usually waved us 45° one way and 46° the other. I at Canacao near Manila and then through. Dishes on shelves with a side rail the Fourth Marines in Shanghai be­ came over the rail and smashed all fore I was transferred to Camp Hol­ over the deck. When we got to Ma~ comb in North China. In August of nila someone pointed out that the 1940 we evacuated to Shanghai, sides of the boat had bent between where I went on river patrol duty each rib. aboard the USS Luzon. Do you recall the date you got What was it like being a Yangtze there? Patroller? In his diary George Fer­ It was December 4th. I had a,lready guson meotioned that because of a been out there 2Y2 years and should healthy crew, he seldom had ·to have been back in the States. Trans­ practice medicine? portation wa's sitting right there in To be truthful, there often wasn't Manila Harbor. I think ADM Hart much to keep us occupied. You're [Thomas C. Hart, Commander in on a ship with a hundred sailors, all Chief, U.S. Asiatic Fleet] knew rough and ready and well-tattooed. Dr. Smith what was up.

January·February 1986 17 NAVMF.1X'OM Arch,,,,

r \

L TiC Smith before he left lor the Asiatic Station in 1939. Right: The river gunboat USS Luzon.

You mean he knew the war was coming? Yes. My orders and many others' were on his desk waiting to be signed. On Sunday, the day before ~ ·I"'-·-·';:';~~P::"~~~~'*l!r~ Pearl Harbor, a CDR Harris and • some other officer went out to the golf course. After the 18th hole everyone came into the clubhouse for a drink, Harris sat down nearby ADM Hart and asked him about :: the orders. Hart said, "Your orders are on my desk with a stack that high. H everything is all right tomorrow at 10 o'clock come by a nd I'll have them signed." I just can't believe that Hart didn't know something was going to happen. The next morning at 4: 10 the pharmacist's mate came tipped off by Washington that Two days later, 21 bombers flat­ down, tapped on my door and said, something was up. Well, then the tened the Cavite Navy Yard in less "Doctor, don't turn on the light and American President Lines ship with than an hour. I was sitting on the don't light a cigarette. We're at war my stateroom shoved off and went Luzon about 200 yards offshore. with Japan." Needless to say, no back to the States. And there I was. We were a small target and one went to the admiral's orrice to The same thing 'happened to obviously not worth hitting. pick up any orders. George Ferguson. Around Christmas-I'm not sure of the date-I recall the skipper I guess ADM Hart figured he How long was it before things standing on the bridge with a pairof .needed all the trained men he could began getting rough? binoculars. He saw two bombers get. About 24 hours. We saw them coming toward us and shouted, Probably so, He may have been bomb Nichols and Clark Fields. "Full steam ahead. right hard

18 U.S. N,ll Y Mc

NAVMEDCOM Archiv«

rudder." The ship took a nosedive forward and the bombs dropped where we had been. Not long after that, we were ordered to sail to Bataan and patrol the coast at night. The Japs would wait until dark and land behind our lines on barges.

'w long did that last? -...... __leW w~eks at most before we ran out of fuel oil for the gunboat. We Hospital ward in BUibid shortly after liberation in February 1945,

January-February 1986 19 CDR Smith, third from riff"', /ro/l/ Courtcsy Alrred L. Smilh row. back home with his colleagues.

would be back and when they came occasions we had fish. The laps. I'd still be around. didn't clean them, just fried them whole. At first we would pick out What became of you after the Japa­ the bones. but after a while we ate nese brought you back to Co,rregi~ them from end to end like a cookie. dor? They brought us to what they called I.read that mongo beans were occa­ the 92d Garage Area. It was a mass sionally available. of humanity with scarcely any room Some of the prisoners had Filipino to lie down. During the day we'd contacts on the outside. Mongo bake in the sun with no shelter. beans look like peas, no bigger then There was no sanitation. We'd have birdshot but are rich in protein. a line waiting for water 200 or 300 One time a dog got caught in the long just to get a canteen of water: wire surrounding the camp. We You got a mess kit full of rice with skinned it and boiled it in rock salt. flies so thick on it you would take a Dogs are not bad eating. Another spoon of it and before you would time the Japanese brought ducks get it to your mouth you couldn't into the prison to eal the garbage we see the rice, Just before you put it in threw out but they got beriberi and your mouth you'd blow the flies off starved to death. and eat the stuff. You had no choice; there wasn't anything else. What was your average day like in eat that moldy stuff anymore." And We were there over a week before Bilibid? they didn't and went right down hill they took us by ship to Manila and Every day was pretty much the and died. We buried a lot of men from there to Bilibid. From that same. Between work details, we behind that pr,ison. day on I never got outside that played chess and cards. prison. When did you first notice that your Where did the cards C0me from? sight was going? In his diary, George Ferguson I remember we bought a deck I had been having some trouble writes about the sanitary conditions from ano,ther prisoner for $50. U.S. with the sun. My eyes seemed more in Bilibid. currency wasn't worth anything sensitive than usual. But the blind­ It was pretty bad. The only good anyway. Fifty bucks for a deck of ness came suddenly. I think it was in thing I could say about that place is cards was a real bargain. September of 1942. I was reading a we had running water. Before I got sick I saw patients in book about the Presidents, the life the hospital we had set up. We had of Andrew Jackson. 1 was on ,page Was rice the main course through­ practically nothing to run it with­ 42 and put it aside for the night. The out your imprisonment? no medicine and few instruments. next day I couldn't even find the It was the only course. We were fed We did have a makeshift operating page number let alone the page. We moldy, musty rice that had been room, but sterile facilities didn't had an ophthalmologist there at the swept up from the floors of ware­ exist. time. He took one look at my eyes houses. The Japanese boiled it and Heck, we had every disease you and said I had probably had optic it had a very sour taste. You could could think of in there-malaria, neuritis but now I showed signs of smell it a mile away. They put it in pellagra, dengue, beriberi, xeroph­ optic atrophy. The nerve endings buckets set on rollers. Those that thalmia, yaws, scurvy, elephantia­ had almost completely disinte­ would n't eat it are still out there. sis, tuberculosis, and general grated. Sometimes we got camote tops. malnutrition. I was sick in bed most The camote is the Filipino equiva­ of the time with swollen ankles, Wa~. this caused by a vitamin A lent of a sweet potato. The tops painful feet, nausea, vomiting, diar­ defiCiency? were boiled in rock salt. That was rhea. It was at that point that many No, vitamin B, thiamine hydrochlo­ the extent of our greens. On rare people said, "Oh hell, I'm not gonna ride. Lack of vitamin A causes xe-

20 U.S. Navy Medicine would wait until the Japanese What was your liberation like? would send out a working party or On the night of February fourth, there would be a transfer of men. 1945, about 8 o'clock in the even­ About 4 hours after the newcomers ing. halftracks and tanks suddenly would arrive, the "stupid" one roared past lhe prison. You could would say. "1 heard a good rumor. hear machinegun bullets bouncing Americans have landed in Leyte." off the walls. The tanks never Never would you get the news right stopped but kept on going. I re­ away, only after some group was member the very first American I sent out on a detail to clean up a saw. He was knocking the boards street or something and they'd off the windows with his riOe butt. come back. Nobody knew where He looked in and said, "What are the rumor came from. you guys doing in here'?" He was After the Americans came, the very fit looking, dark-skinned, and warrant officer set his stool out on wearing a funny kind of helmet the ground and opened up the top we'd never seen before. We were and there was the radio. That was accustomed to the old, flat variety. the best kept secret in t he camp and Someone answered him. "We've the stupid routine was one of the been in here for a long time. Who 'best acts I've ever seen.'" are you'?" "I'm from Ohio with the First Cavalry." he replied. fly ou When did you learn that the Ameri­ mean you're an American'?" He said cans were on their way back to the yes, and then someone shouted, Philippines? "Well then, dammil. give me a I don't remember the date but it was Lucky Strike!" He didn't have a rophthalmia, ulcers on the corneas. sometime in '44. It was a bright sun­ Lucky but he did give the guy a We had plenty of those cases. When shiny day. Two Japanese planes Camel. We knew right then that the I got back to the States they poured were practicing dogfighting. Right Yanks and tanks were back and we vitamins into me every which way out of the blue, they turned tail and were free. but it didn't do much good. headed north in a hurry. Within 5 Dr. Smith and the Bilibid survi­ minutes bombs were hitting the vors had their first American chow I understand that one of your com­ port area. We figured our boys in many years that day and shortly rades had a contraband radio hid­ weren't too far away. This was right thereafter he began the long trip den somewhere so you knew how about the time the Japanese began backfrom the Philippines by way of the war was going. sending our men on convoys north Leyte, Peleliu, Honolulu, and Sail Down a~ the other end of the hall to Japan. Francisco, arriving home 011 17 were fOUf warrant officers. One of March 1945. He wa.5hospitalizedat them appeared to be a little on the Did you see George Ferguson fre­ the Naval Medical Center. Be­ stupid side. He had built himself a quently? thesdafor 16 months and, declared stool to sit on. Underneath, he had I didn't see him every day but it was unfit for further service, retired a compartment with a radio he had frequently. He was very active, car­ from the Navy in 1946 with the put together from scavenged parts. ing for patients. He always ap­ Bronze Star and a Purple Heart. The Japanese appointed these war­ peared to be in good health and His eyesight improved slightly, rant officers to take a head count always cheerful. He was a good allowing him to return to medical every day. Often, these counts took morale builder for those who school, after which he passed the place after dark and so the Japanese thought they were doomed. And boards in internal medicine and had to furnish flashlights. Needless there were plenty who felt we would became a fellow of the American to say, the batteries didn't last very never get out of thaI place alive. I College of Physicians. He worked long in those flashlights. Anyway, remember the day George left for part-time for the Chesapeake and they would get news on the radio. Japan. He just waved and said, "So Ohio Railroad for over 26 years They knew the Americans had long, see you later." while maintaining a private prac­ landed in Bougainville and the tice. At age 77, he is now medical ---.... southern islands but they didn't tell "The radio man was l.T Homer T. Hutchin­ director of the Federal Reserve in us. They couldn't tell us. They son, a former mining engineer. Richmond. VA. -JK H

January-February 1986 21