NOTES

Epigraph translation by Victor Davis Hanson of Forsan et haec olim meminisse iuvabit

Part 1: On Asia Station

CHAPTER 1 (pp. 7 to 13)

The account of the Houston’s ordeal on February 4 is built from interviews with survivors; Morison, History of United States Naval Operations, Vol. 3, 298; Prados, Combined Fleet Decoded, 266; Schultz, The Last Battle Station, 79–91; William J. Weissinger to Robert J. Cressman, Sept. 8, 1977; ONI, The Java Sea Campaign, 1943. “He handled that ship…”: H. Robert Charles, UNT interview, 21. Captain Rooks as second coming of Mahan: “Families Here Hold Hope for 22 Local Men,” Seattle Daily Times, undated. “The pilot found himself sitting on a picked chicken…”: Hamlin, “The Houston’s Last Battles,” 26. “Mad as scalded dogs” and dud AA projectiles: Otto Schwarz interview with the author; Winslow, The Ghost That Died at Sunda Strait, 90. Damage to USS Marblehead: ONI, Battle of the Java Sea, 29–30. Damage to Houston’s after turret: Charles D. Smith narrative, Sept. 18, 1945, 2; Weissinger to Cressman, Sept. 8, 1977, 6; Weissinger to Otto Schwarz, Jan. 22, 1983; James Huffman interview with the author; Jack D. Smith, e-mail to the author, Sept. 2, 2003. “I’m convinced they were never the same…”: E. Miles Barrett, “My Greatest Adventure,” 2. “War came to us in a real way…”: Charley L. Pryor Jr., UNT interview, Nov. 4, 1972, p. 73. “I’m telling you, it was spooky”: John E. Bartz, interview with the author.

CHAPTER 2 (pp. 14 to 19)

“The spit and polish of the U.S. Navy was ingrained in us”: Donald Brain, UNT interview, 12. FDR’s 1938 cruise: “Presidential Cruise, 1938,” by Red Reynolds.

CHAPTER 3 (pp. 20 to 30)

Construction of the USS Houston (CA-30): Bernrieder, “Port Houston’s Latest Asset: The USS Houston,” 2, 5. “No detail, however small, was overlooked…”: Bernrieder, KPRC radio address, Oct. 11, 1930. Houston’s tenure as Asiatic Fleet flagship: Kemp Tolley, foreword to Winslow, The Fleet the Gods Forgot, xi. “Seagoing fire departments”: Tolley, The Yangtze Patrol, 170. “Like their officers, the men were regulars…”: Thomas C. Hart, “Supplementary of Narrative,” 19. Nimitz on Augusta: Potter, Nimitz, 189–200. “We want the brawn of Montana…”: Cdr. Francis H. Higginson, quoted in Spector, At War at Sea, 128. John H. Wisecup’s journey to the Houston: Wisecup, UNT interview, 6–9. Background of James W. Huffman and Melfred L. Forsman per their interviews with the author. Shipboard culture of “officers’ country”: Spector, At War at Sea, 135–136. “Marines were never slow…”: Tolley, The Yangtze Patrol, 170. Charley L. Pryor Jr. to his parents, July 1940, p. 2. “Everyone hates the Japs…”: “The first sting of winter…”: Tolley, 273. Training of Houston personnel: William J. Weissinger to Robert Cressman, Sept. 8, 1977, 3, 4. Clymer, “a real tough old bird”: Otto Schwarz, interview. “Other ships were struggling…”: Robert B. Fulton, interviewed by Joe Kollmyer. Prewar posture of U.S. Pacific Fleet: Morison, History of United States Naval Operations, Vol. 3, 4–7, 33–43. “Japan was the only important nation…”: Morison, History of United States Naval Operations, 5. Japan’s China policy: Bix, Hirohito, 306–307. Natural history of Indonesia: Taylor, Indonesia, 1. Prewar U.S. Army: War Department, United States Army in World War II, 16. U.S. attitudes toward Japan: Bix, 334; Spector, 9; Morison, History, Vol. 3, 14. “About as hopeful as lighting a candle…”: Tolley, Yangtze Patrol, 278–279. “He said the power of the Japanese was far greater…”: Harold R. Rooks interview with the author. “It’s a shame to wish away time at our age…”: Albert H. Rooks to Edith Rooks, Aug. 29, 1941. “My opinion of the Jap situation keeps changing…”: Rooks to Edith Rooks, Sept. 6, 1941. “Few Allied naval officers other than Captain Rooks…”: Morison, 164. “Day after tomorrow it will be one month…”: Rooks to Edith Rooks, Sept. 28, 1941. “The longer they keep from striking…”: Rooks to Edith Rooks, Oct. 5, 1941. “They are really in what must be for them a very unsatisfactory position…”: Rooks to Edith Rooks, Oct. 19, 1941. “The Jap situation is sizzling this week end…”: Rooks to Edith Rooks, Oct. 18, 1941. “It is an interesting fact to me…” and “I have a feeling that fate is going to be kind to me…”: Rooks to Edith Rooks, Oct. 19, 1941.

CHAPTER 4 (pp. 31 to 37)

Houston stripping down at Cavite: William J. Weissinger Jr., interviewed by Samuel Milner, August 12, 1989, and Charley Pryor, UNT interview, Nov. 4, 1972, 53. Houston’s movements as war loomed: Ship’s log, Dec. 1941. U.S. Navy strategy in the Far East: Hart, “Supplementary of Narrative,” 2–3, and Morison, History of United States Naval Operations, Vol. 3, 153–54. “What did that thing say?”: David C. Flynn, interview with the author. “Japan started hostilities. Govern yourselves accordingly.”: Thomas C. Hart, narrative, 36. “A two-ocean war to wage with a less than one-ocean Navy…”: Morison, History of United States Naval Operations, Vol. 3, 209. Allied withdrawal from Philippines and setup of ABDA: ONI, “The Java Sea Campaign,” 6–14; Morison, Vol. 3, 281–82; Spector, Eagle Against the Sun, 123–125, 127–130; Schom, The Eagle and the Rising Sun, 252–59; and Leutze, A Different Kind of Victory, 262–263. ABDA’s internal conflicts: Thomas C. Hart, “Supplementary of Narrative,” 3–4; Hart, “Narrative of Events,” 2; ONI, “The Java Sea Campaign,” 14; Morison, History of United States Naval Operations, Vol. 3, 281–282; Spector, Eagle Against the Sun, 131. “The Americans have held out on the Bataan Peninsula…”: Wavell as quoted in Parkin, Into the Smother, 15. Sketch of Admiral Helfrich: Pratt, The Navy’s War, 16.

CHAPTER 5 (pp. 38 to 44)

Houston convoy duty: Cdr. Arthur Maher, narrative, 3. “It got to be so bad…”: Winslow, The Ghost That Died at Sunda Strait, 58. Life at Darwin: Howard E. Brooks, interview with the author; Schultz, The Last Battle Station, 61–62. “Sturgeon no longer virgin”: Morison, History of United States Naval Operations, Vol. 3, 283. Battle of Balikpapan: USS Pope (DD–225), “Night Destroyer Attack off Balikpapan, January 24, 1942, January 25, 1942,” p. 1; ONI Combat Narrative, 18–21; Morison, Vol. 3, 285–290; Pratt, The Navy’s War, 21. Admiral Hart’s “exaggerated ideas of Japanese efficiency”: Leutze, A Different Kind of Victory, 273, quoting Wavell’s letter to Churchill. “A movement toward youth in all sea commands”: Thomas C. Hart, “Supplementary of Narrative,” 37. “A worrier who never could sit back…”: Hart’s diary, quoted in Leutze, 321–323. “I did not like to be commanding Admiral Helfrich on his own home ground”: Hart, “Supplementary of Narrative,” 37. “I was scared of the old devil…”: D. A. Harris, skipper of Bulmer, quoted in Leutze, 284. Admiral King to Admiral Hart: An “Awkward situation”: quoted in Leutze, 275. “It’s all on the laps of the gods”: Hart, Feb. 5, 1942, diary entry, quoted in Leutze, 277. “An island which was ours, but belongs to us no more…”: Rooks, “Sound Military Decision,” Part I, 60, 62.

CHAPTER 6 (pp. 45 to 49)

Repairs to Houston: Charles D. Smith, narrative Sept. 18, 1945, 2; Quentin C. Madson, “The Story of the USS Houston,” 10. “Oh, don’t bother with me…”: Howard E. Brooks, interview with the author. “Suddenly, I had the weird impression…”: Winslow, The Ghost That Died at Sunda Strait, 97. “A weird silence enveloped the ship…”: Winslow, 96. “Well, the big news is that we have been in action…”: Rooks to Edith Rooks, Feb. 9, 1942 (the letter is misdated Feb. 9, 1941). “When it comes to judging the ability of men as cruiser captains…. Rooks still had perfect poise…”: Thomas C. Hart to Edith Rooks, March 25, 1942. Rooks “didn’t want our folks to accuse him of manslaughter…”: George D. Stoddard, “The Sinking of the USS Houston and Life in Japanese Prison Camps,” 2. “I think they looked at him as just another god”: Gus Forsman, UNT interview, 16. “Admiration for the Captain bordered on worship”: USS Houston, untitled report, Zentsuji Prison Camp, 1. “Everybody believed that the Good Lord…”: Paul E. Papish, UNT interview, 10. “He always knew who he was…”: Frank E. Gallagher, interview with the author. “After telling me that he would take his ship out again…”: Hart, “Supplementary of Narrative,” 19.

CHAPTER 7 (pp. 50 to 54)

“I am going out into the troubled zone this evening…May God protect and strengthen you”: Rooks to Edith Rooks, Feb. 14, 1942. Admiral Hart’s farewell: Leutze, A Different Kind of War, 277. “Well, boys, we all have a busy day tomorrow…”: Ibid., 278. “Oh it was hard…”: Hart diary, quoted in Leutze, 278. Houston convoy to Timor: ONI, “The Java Sea Campaign,” 36; Winslow, The Ghost That Died at Sunda Strait, 100–101. “I see the USS Houston is escorting four transports…”: John E. Bartz, interview with the author. Air attacks on Houston: USS Houston, “Action Report of the USS Houston (CA-30) in Defense of Convoy off Darwin, Australia, 16 February 1942.” “She was a wonderful sight…”: E. L. Cullis, “Vale Houston,” The Blue Bonnet, newsletter of the USS Houston Survivors Association, Sept. 2001, 5. Rooks’s seamanship under air attack: John D. Lamade, USS Houston: December 8, 1941, to February 28, 1942; Lloyd Willey, UNT interview, 22. “They dropped them so close to us…”: Charley Pryor, UNT interview, 78. “I’d often wondered and worried…”: Griff L. Douglas, UNT interview, 16–17. “You could just see them rocking up there”: Lloyd V. Willey, UNT interview, 22. “All the sea boiled up and Houston was gone”: E. L. Cullis, “Vale Houston,” 5. “It was a proud moment”: William J. Weissinger, interview with Samuel Milner, 4.

CHAPTER 8 (pp. 55 to 63)

The collapse of ABDA: ONI, The Java Sea Campaign, 44; British Admiralty, “The Battle of the Java Sea: 27th February 1942,” 13; Prados, Combined Fleet Decoded, 257; Morison, History of United States Naval Operations, Vol. 3, 336. “I am afraid that the defense of the ABDA area has broken down”: Prados, Combined Fleet Decoded, 257. The Houston at Tjilatjap: Winslow, The Ghost That Died at Sunda Strait, 108; Charles D. Smith, “USS Houston (CA-30) and Experiences in Jap Prison Camp,” 4. “In a fatherly way, he draped his arm around my shoulder…”: Winslow, 108. “Say, didn’t I just hear a gate clang shut behind us?”: Paul E. Papish, UNT interview, 29; see also Hamlin, “The Houston’s Last Battles,” 10. “With all the confusion going on around us”: Winslow, 109. “If this [naval force] is divided…”: Wavell quoted in Payne, HMAS Perth: The Story of the Six-Inch Cruiser, 62. Background on the Seventeenth Pursuit Squadron: Craven and Cate, The Army Air Forces in World War II: Plans & Early Operations, January 1939 to August 1942, 383–87, 397–402; see also Edmonds, They Fought with What They Had, 288–290; U.S. Army Air Force, Historical Division, Summary of Air Action in the Philippines and Netherlands East Indies, 239–240; and Ingram, A Worm’s Eye View, 13. “It was the first time we’d ever fired at anchorage”: Charley L. Pryor, UNT interview, 82–83. “At the end of three or four days of this”: Otto C. Schwarz, in “Death Becomes the Ghost,” video. Gathering of Combined Striking Force: Hamlin, “The Houston’s Last Battles,” 10; Mullin, Another Six Hundred, 205–206; Thomas, The Battle of the Java Sea, 156. “There is a possibility in this action we may have some fighter protection”: Payne, HMAS Perth, 64. “You must continue attacks till enemy is destroyed”: Helfrich to Doorman.

Part 2: A Bloodstained Sea

CHAPTER 9 (pp. 67 to 70)

The approach of the Japanese invasion force is based on Hara, Japanese Destroyer Captain, 72–76; Dull, Battle History of the Imperial Japanese Navy, 72; and Morison, History of United States Naval Operations, Vol. 3, 335. Memories of the Exeter: Paul E. Papish, UNT interview, 36. “A-Hunting We Will Go…”: Schultz, The Last Battle Station, 143. “Even when we found that it was merely a bugle call…”: Hamlin, “The Houston’s Last Battles,” 10. “Notwithstanding air attack…”: CZM (Helfrich) to E.C. (Doorman), INFO COMSOWESPAC (Glassford), Feb. 27, 1942. “Was proceeding eastward…”: Doorman to Helfrich, Feb. 27, 1942. “This day the personnel reached the limit of endurance…”: quoted in Parkin, Out of the Smoke, 214. “Throughout Perth there was general frustration…”: ibid., 215. “The word spread like wildfire…”: Winslow, The Ghost That Died at Sunda Strait, 111.

CHAPTER 10 (pp. 71 to 81)

“Am proceeding to intercept…”: USS John D. Edwards, Action Report, 2. Rooks’s “hurried but deadly serious” conference: Winslow, The Ghost That Died at Sunda Strait, 112. Lamade would return stateside as an instructor at NAS Jacksonville. Later he went aboard the USS Hancock as Commander of Air Group Seven, striking at Japan. He named his fighter plane T. Benny in honor of the Houston’s senior aviator, Thomas B. Payne; Schultz, The Last Battle Station, 129. Doorman’s formation departing Surabaya: Parkin, Out of the Smoke, 216; cf. Winslow, The Ghost That Died, 113, who wrote, “Such an unorthodox deployment of forces suggested that Doorman knew little about proven naval tactics, or chose to ignore them.” Winslow did not account for the nagging mechanical problems of the destroyers. The British Admiralty’s Battle of the Java Sea (Battle Summary No. 28) (fn. on 16) states the U.S. destroyer commander (Commander Binford) wanted the cruisers to scout for the destroyers in advance of any torpedo attack. “A tactical instrument of collective genius…”: Hughes, Fleet Tactics, 74. Communications within Doorman’s squadron: Morison, History of United States Naval Operations, Vol. 3, 342; but Winslow, at 113, says a Dutch liaison officer on the Houston translated the orders, though he too mentions Lt. Otto Kolb on Doorman’s staff on the De Ruyter, 124 fn., without explanation of his duties; see also Schultz, 143. “Everyone knows that you cannot assemble eleven football players…”: Hamlin, “The Houston’s Last Battles,” 10. “One cruiser, large destroyers, number unknown…”: Van Oosten, Battle of the Java Sea, 46; British Admiralty, Battle Summary, 77. “Two battleships, one cruiser, six destroyers…”: British Admiralty, Battle Summary, 77; Winslow, The Ghost That Died at Sunda Strait, 113; Parkin, Out of the Smoke, 216–217. Enemy bearings: USS John D. Ford and USS John D. Edwards action reports. “We realized help would come, but not today…”: Marvin Robinson, UNT interview, 15. HMS Electra “twisting like a hare”: Cain, HMS Electra, 221–222. The predicament about fleet air cover was reflected by Admiral Helfrich, who stated: “All my previous requests for fighter protection had been refused. The lack of cooperation in this instance shows clearly that the fleet and the aircraft operating over the sea must be under the same command”: British Admiralty, Battle of the Java Sea, 24, fn. 1. Regarding air reconnaissance reports, the British Admiralty further reports: “In order to minimize the delay attendant on the centralized system adopted by the [Dutch] Reconnaissance Group at Bandoeng, RADM Doorman urgently requested the Naval Seaplane Base at Moro-Krambagan, Surabaya to repeat to him immediately all reports made by Reconnaissance Group flying boat pilots to their headquarters at Bandoeng. However, since ABDAair and Recgroup (although they…[were] both at Bandoeng) [had] been separated, it frequently happened that reconnaissance signals only…[reached Doorman] after great delay”: British Admiralty, 15. Report of the U.S. air attack on troop transports: Army Air Forces, “Summary of Air Action,” 241–242. “Our first shots were fired almost ahead…”: Hamlin, “The Houston’s Last Battles,” 11. “Jesus Christ, you just can’t imagine…”: James W. Huffman, interview with the author. “This is a thing that you couldn’t do in peacetime…”: Hamlin, “USS Houston in Battle of Java Sea,” 1. “Near-miss underwater well aft”: Capt. Oliver Gordon in HMS Exeter, Dispatch on Battle of the Java Sea, para. 19. “What possible bloody good can we do here?”: Captain Waller quoted in Parkin, Out of the Smoke, 218. Regarding damage to Japanese ships during the engagement: Judging claimed hits is difficult. However, most all Allied witnesses report seeing hits on a Japanese CA early in the engagement. Because no Japanese sources cite any damage, some historians have concluded that no Japanese ships were hit. See Prados, Combined Fleet Decoded, 261. However, numerous American and British observers reported hits on the enemy heavy. The abundance of simultaneous and specific Allied reports of damage to a Japanese heavy cruiser in this action cannot be negated by documentary silence on the other side. Capt. Oliver Gordon reported hitting a Sendai-class light cruiser after ten salvoes, forcing her to turn 180 degrees, and “she was last seen disappearing in a thick high column of smoke”: Exeterdispatch, para. 16. Prados, at p. 263, speculates that the smoke was of the Japanese ship’s own making, concealing in by-the-book fashion the countermarch following a torpedo launch. “I saw us hit this enemy cruiser one very good wallop indeed…”: Hamlin, “USS Houston in Battle of the Java Sea,” 1. N.B.: Hamlin also reported seeing a Japanese light cruiser “simply blow up and disappear in a tremendous column of smoke and spray and steam that must have gone up four or five hundred feet.” However, all evidence indicates that the Japanese light cruisers in this battle survived. “I whooped lustily and dashed for the voice tube…”: Hamlin, 2. The Japanese cruiser was “put on fire early in the engagement…”: Maher, “Jap Prison Experiences,” 6. “The target was aflame both forward and amidships…”: USS Houston, Action Report. “Clouds of black smoke poured out of her top…”: Parkin, Out of the Smoke, 224. Exeter’s hits on the “lower bridge structure”: Exeter, Dispatch, para. 18. “The range was perfect”: Charles D. Smith, narrative, 7. Premature explosions of Japanese torpedoes: Hara, Japanese Destroyer Captain, 80.

CHAPTER 11 (pp. 82 to 87)

“Salvo after salvo exploded into the sea around us…”: Winslow, The Ghost That Died at Sunda Strait, 116. “Throughout this madness…” and “We were appalled…”: Winslow, 117. Damage to Houston’s communications apparatus: Sholar quoted in Mullin, Another Six Hundred, 226; USS John D. Edwards action report. “I’ll never forget thePerth as she came by…”: Hamlin, “USS Houston in Battle of Java Sea,” 2. “The sea seemed alive with torpedoes…”: Winslow, 118. “It was not going at sufficient speed to detonate”: Charles D. Smith, narrative, 6. “There was only fifteen or twenty feet…”: Ibid. Loss of the Kortenaer: Her captain, Lt. Cdr. A. Kroese, and an officer from the Witte de With, Lt. Cdr. H. T. Koppen, believe Kortenaer was sunk by a submarine torpedo, but Japanese sources do not mention the presence of submarines in the Java Sea on February 27. See also British Admiralty, Battle of the Java Sea, 33; according to HIJMS Haguro, “Tabular Record of Movement,” Haguro fired eight torpedoes at 1622 and hit Kortenaer at 1640. “Passing close aboard…” and “No ship stopped to take on survivors…”: Winslow, 118; see also Quentin C. Madson, diary. “The crystal ball was our only method…”: John D. Edwards, action report, para. 9. From his perch on the Houston’s signal bridge, Walter Winslow, at p. 119, reported witnessing two startling events around this time. First, he saw the HMS Jupiter, returning from a torpedo run, breaking through the smoke screen near the Houston and launching a torpedo in the American cruiser’s general direction. The missile traveled some five hundred yards before exploding, launching into the air two large tubular chunks of metal. An oil slick and a spread of flotsam rose from the deep. It was, Winslow surmised, a Japanese submarine, sunk right in their midst. The John D. Edwards action report, in paragraph 8, mentions “a torpedo apparently hit a submarine about 1,500 yards broad on our port bow, for a column of water and debris went up about 100 feet.” Equally likely it was a Long Lance that passed near the Jupiter and self-destructed at the limit of its range. “Enemy retreating west. Where is convoy?”: British Admiralty, Battle of the Java Sea, 41.

CHAPTER 12 (pp. 88 to 93)

Dutch report of the location of Japanese transports: ONI, Java Sea Campaign, 73. Fetid conditions in Houston’s turrets and magazines: Otto C. Schwarz, interview with the author. “As fast as we popped one group of lights…”: Winslow, The Ghost That Died at Sunda Strait, 123. “Like a long string of Christmas lights”: James Gee, UNT interview, 27. Sinking of HMS Jupiter: British Admiralty, Battle of the Java Sea, 46, and ONI, Combat Narrative, 74. “We stopped shooting star shells…”: Hamlin, “USS Houston in Battle of the Java Sea,” 3–4. Sinking of Java: Charley L. Pryor, UNT interview, 95; Parkin, Out of the Smoke, 239; Charles D. Smith, narrative, 7; and Weissinger, interview with Samuel Milner, 6. De Ruyter “blew up with an appalling explosion…”: HMAS Perth, action report. “It happened with the suddenness and completeness…”: Hamlin, “The Houston’s Last Battles,” 25. “I thought it would fry us”: Parkin, 240. “Captain Rooks frantically maneuvered…”: Winslow, 124–125. “Counted nine separate and distinct explosions…”: Charles D. Smith, 7. “The Houston and Perth raced on…”: Winslow, 125.

CHAPTER 13 (pp. 94 to 100)

“Walking to the telephone building…” and “Java died that night…”: White, Queens Die Proudly, 223. “They are done for,” and “the last Japanese mistake of the battle”: Hara, Japanese Destroyer Captain, 85. “Houston and Perth retiring to Batavia…”: Houston to COMSOWESPAC, Feb. 27, 1942. “In the era before radar…”: Richardson, On the Treadmill to Pearl Harbor, 222–223. The Japanese as “the world’s most capable users of the torpedo”: Rooks, “Estimate of the Situation, Far East Area,” unpaginated. “I don’t think there was ever a minute…”: James Gee, UNT interview, 28. “He was so very cheery…”: Glassford to Edith Rooks, May 21, 1942, 2. Report that Sunda Strait was clear: Hamlin, “USS Houston in Battle of Java Sea,” 4. Houston at Surabaya: Dull, Battle History of the Imperial Japanese Navy, 71; Robert B. Fulton II, interview by Joe Kollmyer, 10; Lloyd V. Willey, UNT interview, 30. “Oil position is serious…”: Helfrich, ABDAfloat message dated Feb. 21, 1942. Houston’s fuel situation: According to Walter Winslow, “The Houston, it was determined, probably had enough remaining fuel to reach Australia,” The Ghost That Died at Sunda Strait, 130. The Houston’s Battle of Sunda Strait action report puts her bunkers at 350,000 gallons. However, the ship’s assistant engineering officer, Robert B. Fulton, disputes that enough fuel was on hand for the ship to reach Australia. “Concussion from the main batteries had played havoc…”: Winslow, 128–129. Other damage to Houston, action report, 7. “He had been off-color for days”: McKie, Proud Echo (or The Survivors), 14. Captain Waller’s service in the Mediterranean: Ibid., 18–19. Regarding Admiral Doorman’s employment of his light cruisers: Admiral Helfrich later discussed why Doorman didn’t separate his heavy and light cruisers, speculating that the poor status of communications made anything other than a simple single-column “follow me” approach unworkable; see British Admiralty, Battle of the Java Sea, Appendix P, 78. “Everyone was lighthearted, and thinking that we had done our share…”: Lloyd V. Willey, interview with the author. “Tom was hoisted on board…”: Winslow, 131.

CHAPTER 14 (pp. 101 to 103)

“One was bad enough…”: McKie, Proud Echo, 5. The cat “took off down that pier into Java…”: Reese, UNT interview, 20; cf. Lieutenant Hamlin’s article (p. 26), which states the Houston had no cat. “Like a cat, the Houston had expended eight of its nine lives…”: Winslow, Proceedings, quoted in McKie, Proud Echo, 138. Red Lead in “irons”: Hamlin, 26. The animal seemed to know something: Bee, All Men Back, 19. Houston departing Batavia: USS Houston, Zentsuji Report, 2. “Many times before I had found solace in its beauty…”: Winslow, “The ‘Galloping Ghost,’” 155. “He felt that this moment at sundown was a dividing line…”: McKie, 12.

CHAPTER 15 (pp. 104 to 108)

Houston approaching Bantam Bay: USS Houston, action report, 1; Charles D. Smith, narrative, 9; Winslow, The Ghost That Died at Sunda Strait, 133; Bee, All Men Back, 20. Background on Krakatoa: Winchester, Krakatoa, 276–77. “Ever since the night of the 23rd…”: Hamlin, “The Houston’s Last Battles,” 26. Piper “pacing the flag deck…”: McKie, Proud Echo, 17. “They could hide a battleship out there…”: Charles, Last Man Out, 22. “I looked in the same direction as the guns…”: Bee, 20. “I found myself in my shoes before I was fully awake”: Winslow, 135. “Our first salvos appeared to strike home…”: Bee, 20. “We were desperately short of those eight-inch bricks”: Winslow, “The ‘Galloping Ghost,’” 161. “I figured we were in for trouble that night”: Stewart UNT interview, 16. “Enemy forces engaged”: USS Houston, action report, 15.

CHAPTER 16 (pp. 109 to 121)

First minutes of Battle of Sunda Strait: Brooks, interview with the author, 26–27; “Batavia Battle,” Senshi Sosho; Van Oosten, Battle of the Java Sea, maps at 56–57; Hara, Japanese Destroyer Captain, 86; Morison, History of United States Naval Operations, Vol. 3, 366. “Two mysterious ships entering the bay”: Hara, 86; “Batavia Battle,” Senshi Sosho, 483–487. “There are four to starboard…”: Payne, HMAS Perth, 74. “You could see the ships just all over…” and “We were firing at any target that [we] saw…”: Gee, UNT interview, 33–34. “Momentarily, I caught a glimpse of tracers…” and “How reassuring it was to hear…”: Winslow, “The ‘Galloping Ghost,’” 161. “The largest landing yet attempted in the Southwest Pacific”: Morison, 365. Dutch reconnaissance report: Winslow, 131–132. “The fight evolved into a melee…”: USS Houston, action report, 4. Japanese attacks on Houston and Perth: “Batavia Battle,” Senshi Sosho; Tully, “Naval Alamo,” www.asiaticfleet.com/javaseaAug02.html. “The tactics were to expose the beam of one light…”: Parkin, Out of the Smoke, 251. “It sounded like somebody throwing pebbles at the ship”: Schwarz, interview with the author. “The whole ship was alive with orders…”: Parkin, 253. “This kind of fighting demands the purest form of courage…”: sailor quoted in Spector, At War at Sea, 81. “That is just what it sounded like…”: Brain, UNT interview, 37. Damage to Harukaze: Allyn D. Nevitt, “IJN Harukaze: Tabular Record of Movement,” 1998 www.combinedfleet.com; also Rough Translation 1. Houston’s hits on Mikuma: “Report of Capt. Shakao Sakiyama of Mikuma,” Senshi Sosho. “We could see the whole outline of these Japanese destroyers…”: Howard Brooks, interview with the author. “Oh Lord, sometimes you felt like you could reach out…”: John Bartz, interview with the author. “The tin cans got so close to us…”: John Wisecup, UNT interview, 18–19. USS Houston engine room operations: Robert B. Fulton to the author, Oct. 26, 2004. “We were making full power…”: Ibid. First damage to the Houston: Houston’s Sunda Strait action report (p. 6) states that it was “presumably” a torpedo to the port side; cf. George Detre, UNT interview, 30, who says it hit the starboard side; Charles D. Smith says it was “a salvo of shells.” A diagram sketched by divers who visited the wreck and catalogued its wounds (collection of Don Kehn) shows no damage consistent with a catastrophic torpedo hit on the port side. While there is a relatively small gash at the waterline on the port side directly below the number-two stack, the extent of the damage seems too limited to have been a torpedo hit and more in line with an armor-piercing shell. What damage may be in evidence on the ship’s starboard side lies buried in the silt of the Java Sea. “When the ship was underway my job was…” and other quotes by Lieutenant Fulton: Fulton to the author, Oct. 26, 2004, and Jan. 2, 2005. Damage to boilers: George Detre, UNT interview, 30–31.

CHAPTER 17 (pp. 122 to 127)

“I wanted desperately to know…”: Winslow, The Ghost That Died at Sunda Strait, 136. Regarding the Navy’s view of the utility of torpedoes on cruisers: in the view of the commander of the Scouting Force in 1933, Adm. Harris Laning, “war games…since we have had light and heavy cruisers indicate that the offensive value of their torpedoes is practically nil,” Friedman, U.S. Cruisers, 132. Perth’s torpedo salvoes: the ship’s torpedo gunner reported hits on an aircraft carrier or tender, as well as two destroyers, though the claim seems optimistic. Parkin, Out of the Smoke, 253. “For God’s sake shoot that bloody light out!”: McKie, Proud Echo, 43. Torpedo hit on Perth: this fish was reportedly from a spread of six fired by the destroyer Harakaze at 11:56, per Payne, HMAS Perth, 75. “Some vital pulse had stopped”: Parkin, 254. “What do we use after these?”: Ibid., 255. “Christ, that’s torn it” and “Prepare to abandon ship, sir?”: McKie, 43; Parkin, at 254, recalled the conversation a bit differently. “I don’t want the Old Girl to take anyone with her”: Parkin, 257. “Across the sea and under the sky came a great roar. From under X turret…”: Ibid., 260–261. “Light, almost gay, in that mad moment…”: McKie, 52–53. Harper “was suddenly appalled…”: Parkin, 262. Parkin noted that “after the fourth torpedo, the starboard list came off her and she heeled slightly to port”; but W. A. Bee, in All Men Back, wrote that the Perth was “listing heavily to port,” 21; McKie quoted Lyons that it was “over on her port side sliding down by the bows,” Proud Echo, 46. “Pieces could be seen flying off as salvoes exploded…”: Parkin, 261. Lt. Frank Gillan’s escape from Perth: McKie, 55–58. “Her four propellers came clear of the sea…”: Parkin, 263. The Perth suffered 356 KIA, per Bee, All Men Back, 130. “I’m the last man out of that ship alive…”: McKie, 58.

CHAPTER 18 (pp. 128 to 131)

“When Captain Rooks realized she was finished…”: Winslow, The Ghost That Died at Sunda Strait, 137. “We couldn’t see…” James Gee, UNT interview, 34. Houston’s gunfire against transports: USS Houston, action report, 6; see also Imamura, quoted in Anthony Reid, The Japanese Experience in Indonesia, 33–34; Morison, History of United States Naval Operations, Vol. 3, 366. “Let the Houston have the credit”: Toland, Rising Sun, Vol. 1, 353 fn. Abandonment of Houston’s Central Station: Houston, action report, 6; Clarence Schilperoort, interview with the author. “You didn’t know where the hell you were…”: David C. Flynn, interview with the author. “I thought I was looking at a moving picture”: Schilperoort, interview with the author.

CHAPTER 19 (pp. 132 to 136)

Damage to Houston generally: USS Houston, Sunda Strait action report, 12. Destruction of Turret Two: USS Houston, action report; Charles D. Smith, “USS Houston (CA-30) and Experiences in Jap Prison Camp,” 10; H. S. Hamlin, “Statement,” 6. “Everything lit up…” and “I’m telling you what I did…”: James Huffman, interview with the author, 5. Casualties in Turret Two: Smith, 11. “We knew the turret was on fire…”: William J. Stewart, UNT interview, 19. “It was just like coming out of a blow torch…”: Ibid., 20–21. In the Mikuma, sailors boisterously celebrated…: Senshi Sosho, Report of Capt. Sakiyama. “It’s coming from all sides…”: Paul E. Papish, UNT interview, 42. Flooding of Turret One: Hamlin, “Statement,” 6–7. Houston engaged by torpedo boats: Winslow, The Ghost That Died at Sunda Strait, 140; Smith, “USS Houston,” 11. “The ship seemed to be thrown sideways…”: William J. Weissinger to Robert J. Cressman, Sept. 1977. Roar of Japanese ships’ firerooms: Donald Brain, UNT interview, 38–39. “It was point-blank…”: Frank King, UNT interview, 26. “It was invigorating to be in a battle like that…”: Melfred L. Forsman, UNT interview, 32. “I thought I was going to get it…”: Ibid. “You could hear them cooking”: Winslow, 146. “My God, those magnesium flares just light a place up”: Papish, 41.

CHAPTER 20 (pp. 137 to 145)

Movements of Houston: USS Houston, “Zentsuji Report,” 3, and Battle of Sunda Strait action report, 7. “Because of the overwhelming volume of fire…”: Sunda Strait Action Report, 8. “In a strong, resolute voice…”: Winslow, The Ghost That Died at Sunda Strait, 140; per the Houston’s action report, the first abandon ship order went over the PA, and the second was blown by the bugler. Since Winslow personally recalls standing next to Captain Rooks when Rooks ordered the bugler to sound abandon ship, and since it seems Rooks was deceased when the second abandon ship order was passed, he must have used the bugler on the first abandon ship order too. “He never missed one beat on that bugle…”: Lloyd Willey, UNT interview, 35. “If widely dispersed over the Far East…”: Rooks, “Estimate of the Situation.” Wounding of Captain Rooks: Charles D. Smith, “USS Houston (CA-30) and Experiences in Jap Prison Camp,” 12; see also Winslow, 141. “He died within a minute”: Charles D. Smith, “Casualty Affidavit No. 5”; see also Smith, “USS Houston,” 12. “Rocking slowly back and forth, he held Captain Rooks…”: Winslow, “The ‘Galloping Ghost,’” 162. “We were really roaring along”: Robert B. Fulton, interview with Joe Kollmyer. The Houston’s Sunda Strait action report, at p. 8, notes that the inert inboard screws were making about 210 rpm; the standard ratio for rpm to speed was 10 to 1. Well, that’s more like it: Melfred L. Forsman, UNT interview, 34. Captain Rooks’s reported intention to ground the Houston: Quentin C. Madson, diary, 26; Weissinger to Robert J. Cressman, Sept. 8, 1977, p. 9; see also Weissinger, interview with Samuel Milner, 7; Seldon Reese, UNT interview, 25. The report was disputed by: Otto C. Schwarz, letter to the author, March 11, 2005, and Robert B. Fulton II, letter to the author, Jan. 2, 2005. “We were really getting the devil knocked out of us…”: James Gee, UNT interview, 35. “No one in the magazine ever said…”: James Gee, UNT interview, 35. “I have never seen eight men face the absolute end so calmly”: Marvin Robinson, quoted in Winslow, 158. “Y’all come on out, and hurry!”: Gee, Ibid. “I told the boys, ‘We’ve had it…”: Robinson, UNT interview, 20. “We were going to go up…”: Gee, 37. “It looked like high noon on the boat deck…”: Weissinger to Cressman, Sept. 8, 1977. “When I got there it was just like the Fourth of July…” and “All of a sudden this guy jumped on top of me…”: Otto C. Schwarz, interview with the author. “Better go, Charlie. It’s all over. Finished” and other quotes between Charles and Standish: Charles, Last Man Out, 34. Is this the way it is?: Charles, UNT interview, 32–33. “I nearly fell through a hole…”: Hamlin, “Statement,” 8. “There were dead fish floating all around…”: Seldon D. Reese, UNT interview, 27. “I thought of her as she was when I joined her…”: Hamlin, “The Houston’s Last Battles,” 27. “She was full of holes all through the side…”: Hamlin, “Narrative,” 8. “She righted herself like a dog shaking water off its back…”: Wisecup to Randall Sutherland, undated ca. February 1989, p. 4. “Perhaps I only imagined it…”: Winslow, Proceedings, 163. Standish, “living up to Marine Corps legend…”: John Wisecup to Randall Sutherland, undated, ca. Feb. 1989, 4. “Not a word was uttered by anyone…”: Wisecup to Sutherland, Feb. 10, 1989, 3. “The Nation’s safest insurance…”: Bernrieder, address, 7.

Part 3: The Emperor’s Guests

CHAPTER 21 (pp. 149 to 152)

The location of the Houston’s wreck: USS Houston (SSN-713), April 1993 track chart; see also navigation chart provided by Don Kehn Jr. “I saw hundreds of unwounded men…”: Harold S. Hamlin, “Statement,” 8. “There is an adage at war colleges…”: Albert H. Rooks, “Estimate of the Situation,” Section V, Paragraph (b). “Evertsen reports sea battle in progress…”: Rear Adm. William A. Glassford to Houston, sent 28/2328. Reaching Fremantle were the gunboats USS Tulsa, Lanakai, and Isabel, and the minesweepers Whippoorwill and Lark. See Morison, History of United States Naval Operations, Vol. 3, 379. The best treatment of the loss of USS Edsall and the mystery of her crew’s fate is Don Kehn’s article “History and Mystery…” and his work in progress, Upon a Blue Sea of Blood. USS Stewart’s fate: Morison, History, Vol. 3, 378. “A magnificent display of very bad strategy”: Admiral King as quoted in Morison, History, Vol. 3, 380. “It drank the cup of defeat to the bitter dregs…”: Ibid.

CHAPTER 22 (pp. 153 to 162)

“I took a deep drink of that sea water…”: James Gee, UNT interview, 40. “You’re just completely beyond exhaustion…”: Charley L. Pryor, UNT interview, Nov. 4, 1972, 112. Ens. John B. Nelson’s boat: Winslow, The Ghost That Died at Sunda Strait, 170–71 and Paul E. Papish, UNT interview, 49. “This jerk was picking up guys…”: William M. Ingram, in Winslow, 149; see also Ingram, interviewed by Floyd Cox, 15. “We weren’t ashore five minutes…”: Ingram as quoted in Winslow, 149. “I could feel myself being carried out to sea…”: Gee, UNT interview, 42. Chaplain Rentz: H. S. Hamlin, “The Houston’s Last Battles,” 27; Lloyd V. Willey, UNT interview, 40; Web site of the USS Rentz (FFG-46), www.rentz.navy.mil/rentz_rentz.html. “You men are young, with your lives ahead of you”: Hamlin, 27, and Walter L. Beeson, “Casualty Affidavit for Cdr. George S. Rentz.” “The surface was dotted with all sorts of objects”: William J. Weissinger to Robert J. Cressman, Sept. 26, 1977, 4. “Transports lined the beach as far as the eye could see…”: John H. Wisecup to Randall Sutherland, Feb. 10, 1989, 4. “Strange guttural-snarling sounds…” and Lt. Dalton’s parley with the Japanese: Weissinger, Attention, Fool! 10–12. “Nobody wanted us”: Weissinger to Cressman, 5–6. Ordeal of Frank Gillan’s group of Perth survivors: McKie, Proud Echo, 73–76, 88–91. “The deck looked like a used shoe store display”: Wisecup to Randall Sutherland, Feb. 10, 1989, 1. Ensign Smith and Red Huffman getting ashore: Charles D. Smith, “USS Houston (CA-30) and Experiences in Jap Prison Camp.” Damage to Japanese landing force: Weissinger to Cressman, Sept. 26, 1977, 4, and Winslow, 185.

CHAPTER 23 (pp. 163 to 170)

“Those Aussies—if you ever have to get captured…”: Otto C. Schwarz, interview with the author; see also Pete Evans, UNT interview, 195. Keith Gosden’s capture: McKie, Proud Echo, 54. There’s a plan for every man…: Ibid., 101. Toppers Island and Sangiang: Parkin, Out of the Smoke, 1, 6, and McKie, 71–83. “They had both disappeared”: William J. Weissinger to Robert J. Cressman, Sept. 26, 1977, 6. “If that’s the sort they are…”: McKie, 83. John A. Thode: McKie, 98–99. On Princes Island: Ibid., 102–103. Capture by the Dutch: Ibid., 106.

CHAPTER 24 (pp. 171 to 177)

“You are prisoners of war. Your lives will be spared”: Charley L. Pryor, UNT interview, Nov. 4, 1972, 114; Otto C. Schwarz, “One Man’s Story,” 4–5. “All my life I was the kind of person…”: Schwarz, videotaped interview, collection of Val Roberts-Poss. Americans at Pandeglang: William J. Weissinger to Robert J. Cressman, Sept. 26, 1977, 9. “You and the Japanese are brothers…”: General Imamura, as quoted in Reid and Akira, The Japanese Experience in Indonesia, 35. Sighting of Sergeant Standish ashore: Griff L. Douglas, UNT interview, 40 (most survivors doubt he got off the ship). Prisoners at Serang: Bee, All Men Back, 130; Charles D. Smith, 14; Harold S. Hamlin, “Report of Service as Prisoner of War,” 45; William J. Stewart, UNT interview, 36; Paul E. Papish, UNT interview, 60–61; and Rohan Rivett, Behind Bamboo, 89. “They’ve now decided after several more counts…”: Ibid., 75. “We thought we were dead pigeons…”: Edward Miles Barrett, diary entry for March 2, 1942. “They just didn’t want to believe we were off the Houston”: Pryor, UNT interview, Jan. 22, 1973, 10. “For the first four or five days at Serang…”: Lanson H. Harris, interview with the author. “We began to mellow out and to think”: Ibid. “We were hungry to the point of it being actual torture…”: Pryor, UNT interview, Jan. 22, 1973, 16. “After about two weeks, things began to get very uptight…”: Lanson H. Harris, speech to the Long Beach Yacht Club.

CHAPTER 25 (pp. 178 to 185)

“From fragmentary reports received in the Navy Department…”: Navy Department, Communique No. 48. “Nothing, however, has been heard from the HMAS Perth or the USS Houston…”: Navy Department, Communique No. 54. “12 Allied Warships Lost in Java Battle…”: Los Angeles Examiner, March 15, 1942, 1. “Kin of Missing Sad but Proud…”: New York Herald Tribune, dateline May 14, 1942. Commander Maher, reported held in “the southern regions”: Waltham News-Tribune, “Some of Houston’s Crew Saved, Japs Indicate.” “A new kind of war…”: Franklin D. Roosevelt, fireside chat, Feb. 23, 1942. “Everybody well. Love, Harold Rooks.” Rooks to Edith Rooks, March 4, 1942. “That means he and the ship are okay…”: “Misdated Cable Gave Wife of Capt. Rooks False Hope,” unattributed, undated. “Just heard that Houston was sunk…”: Harold R. Rooks to Edith Rooks, March 14, 1942. “Characteristic of you in having no hesitation…”: Hart to Edith Rooks, March 25, 1942, 1. “I, myself, am by no means without hope…”: Ibid. “It is with deep regret that I confirm the Navy Department’s dispatch…”: Frank Knox to Edith Rooks, April 9, 1942. Stivers “had word from a most responsible source”: J. W. Woodruff to Edith Rooks, April 22, 1942. Rooks “a tower of strength in getting our scattered forces together…”: William A. Glassford to Edith Rooks, May 21, 1942, 1. “There was a bell in the naval office…”: correspondence of William A. Bernrieder, CHC. “There’s never been anything like it, before or since”: “A Case of Unparalleled Patriotism,” The Houston Chronicle, Texas Magazine, Dec. 9, 1979, 44. “I’m ready to fight…”: Bob Tutt, “Reunion Set for Cruiser ‘Volunteers,’” Houston Chronicle, May 11, 1992, 9A, 16A. “On this Memorial Day, all America joins with you…”: New York Times, May 31, 1942, quoted in John Grider Miller, The Battle to Save the Houston, 6–7. “An unparalleled gift of manpower”: Richard M. Morehead, “Texas Fills Houston Crew,” undated United Press dispatch, dateline Houston, May 30, 1942.

CHAPTER 26 (pp. 186 to 190)

“Officer? Any officer?” and Hamlin’s parley with Japanese officer: Paul E. Papish, UNT interview, 68–69. Bicycle Camp “looked like the Hilton”: Lloyd V. Willey, UNT interview, 58–59. “The whole camp froze…”: James Gee, UNT interview, 56. “When a guy got out of line…” and “They were hard cases…”: John H. Wisecup, UNT interview, 39–40. “They were looking for a soft billet…”: George Detre, UNT interview, 89. “Some of them were so short…”: James Gee, UNT interview, 57. “You did your damnedest to hold your feet…”: Seldon D. Reese, UNT interview, 58. “After a while, hell, a bashing didn’t…”: Wisecup, UNT interview, 41. “The women and the kids had more intestinal fortitude…”: James Gee, UNT interview, 59. “The Japanese soldier placed great emphasis on his masculinity…”: Charles, Last Man Out, 42. “I’ll always thank some good Christian missionary…”: Pryor, UNT interview, Jan. 22, 1973, 20. “At nighttime you’d hear some noise…”: Ibid., 22. “All these other Jap guards rushed out immediately…”: Willey, 63–64.

CHAPTER 27 (pp. 191 to 195)

Hill “willed himself to die…”: Marvin Robinson, UNT interview, 130. Hill died at Serang on April 8, 1942. Medical conditions in camp: Raymond Day, “Saga of the Houston,” 7–8, and Hamlin, statement, 2–3. “This stuff is just like a knife in your guts”: John H. Wisecup, UNT interview, 43–44. “Finally a British colonel interceded…”: Hamlin, “Statement,” 2. “He gave up a long time ago…”: John H. Wisecup, UNT interview, 31. “Generally speaking, petty officers behaved splendidly…”: Hamlin, “Statement,” 2. “Organization was kept in every way…”: Ibid., 3. “We were professional sailors…”: George Detre, UNT interview, 69. “If you got your brass, you got a chance…”: Wisecup, UNT interview, 34. “They would tell us about great naval battles…”: Charley L. Pryor, UNT interview, Jan. 22, 1973, 36. “What’s the matter, sailor?”: Paul E. Papish, UNT interview, 84.

CHAPTER 28 (pp. 196 to 202)

Arrival of the 131st: Donald Brain, UNT interview, 80, and Melfred L. Forsman, UNT interview, 78. Lost Battalion battery associations: Luther Prunty, UNT interview, 11. “We felt very good because we felt that in numbers there was strength…””: James Gee, UNT interview, 54. “Whatever you needed, they seemed to come up with it”: Melfred L. Forsman, UNT interview, 79. “How could there be so much water in the world?”: Jess Stanbrough, UNT interview, 38–39. Lost Battalion’s deployment on Java: Ibid., 53–58, and Eddie Fung, UNT interview, 26. “We were still in an Alice in Wonderland world…”: Stanbrough, UNT interview, 72. “We would pass through a village…”: Thompson, A Thousand Cups of Rice, 37–38. “There’s only a few hundred of them over there…”: Ibid., 38–39. “We entered right off the road, dressed in our fatigues…”: Stanbrough, quoted in Thompson, 40. “The Australian Brigadier says…” and “At last we fully realized that the war had caught up with us”: Ibid., 40–41. “We are forced to surrender…”: Ibid., 42. Surrender of Lost Battalion: Prunty, 38–39. “We still had this eternal hope, prayer for the Houston…”: Wade H. Webb, UNT interview, 47–48. “I guess that was the first time I’d seen a Jap…”: Roy M. Offerle, UNT interview, 36.

CHAPTER 29 (pp. 203 to 208)

Home life of Houston men: Otto C. Schwarz, interview with the author; H. Robert Charles, interview with the author and Last Man Out, 43–44. “Hey, old Joe’s really getting a pounding…!”: Seldon D. Reese, UNT interview, 58. “He’d see a tin can—” and “They’d look at him and kind of shake their heads…”: Charles, UNT interview, 81. “I don’t know what there was in that man…”: Charles, interview with the author. Scavenging by work parties at Batavia: Howard Brooks, interview with the author, 33; William M. Ingram, interview with Floyd Cox, 19; Charley L. Pryor, UNT interview, Jan. 22, 1973, 34; George Detre, UNT interview, 87; Raymond Day, “Saga of the Houston,” 8a. “Hey, Jack, you’ve got a real treasure there…” and “You dumb bastard! Where’s your truck?”: Jack Feliz, UNT interview, 60–63. “This man stole many things”: Lloyd V. Willey, UNT interview, 72. “He was the type of guy that could actually get you in trouble…”: Marvin Robinson, UNT interview, 60.

CHAPTER 30 (pp. 209 to 216)

“Now when you get in a situation like that”: Lanson H. Harris, speech, Long Beach Yacht Club. “If you had a chance to sabotage…”: Paul E. Papish, UNT interview, 93. Radios in camp: John F. Schneider, “The History of KTAB/KSFO”; Horace Chumley, UNT interview, 38; Jess Stanbrough, UNT interview, 107; Thompson, A Thousand Cups of Rice, 50; Lloyd Willey, UNT interview, 74–75. “Oh, it looks to me at least six months…”: Stanbrough, UNT interview, 111. “Hang in there…” and “Had anyone else tried to instigate such a thing…”: Charles, Last Man Out, 44. “The Japanese knew he had it and laughed…”: Seldon D. Reese, UNT interview, 63. “The guards poured out on the grounds to stop it then”: Charles, Last Man Out, 44. “There were times you’d just say, ‘Well…’”: Papish, 104. “I never admitted that we were whipped”: Melfred L. Forsman, UNT interview, 7. Buying food: Charley L. Pryor, UNT interview, Jan. 22, 1973, 33. Pay rates: Fujita, Foo, 106. Controversy over funds: Thompson, A Thousand Cups of Rice, 47–48. Background on Lt. Roy E. Stensland: La Forte and Marcello, Building the Death Railway, 30; Edmonds, They Fought with What They Had, 373–374, 385; Marvin Robinson, UNT interview, 93; Eldridge Rayburn, UNT interview, 85; P. J. Smallwood, UNT interview, 158; Daws, Prisoners of the Japanese, 224, 241. “Lieutenant Stensland, before you knew what was happening…”: Lester C. Rasbury, quoted in La Forte, 61. “I thought he was a dead man…”: Houston Tom Wright, UNT interview, 91–92.

CHAPTER 31 (pp. 217 to 223)

“This one day we were on a working party…”: Lloyd V. Willey, UNT interview, 62. “I will obey all orders from the Japanese”: Harold S. Hamlin, “Statement,” 2. “At Serang were nearly all the survivors from the…” and “From first to last perhaps a hundred men…”: Rivett, Behind Bamboo, 101–102. Dispatch reporting U.S. prisoners at Batavia: “Houston Men Jap Captives?” United Press, dateline Sydney, July 1, 1942. “I know many of the boys…”: Mother of Crayton Gordon, quoted in Thompson, A Thousand Cups of Rice, 55. “I am proud of my two boys…”: Ida Pearl Elliott Fujita, quoted in Fujita, Foo, 111–112. “As I marched my troops up and halted…” and “I was then taken…”: Charles D. Smith, “USS Houston (CA-30) and Experiences,” 16. “If you do not sign the oath…”: Hamlin, “Statement,” 3. “You can always be sure that some Australians…”: Jess Stanbrough, UNT interview, 129. “The three men were in obvious pain…”: Hamlin, “Statement,” 2. “There ain’t a one of us who didn’t think we were traitors…”: John H. Wisecup, UNT interview, 51. “After the Fourth of July, all hell broke loose”: Stanbrough, UNT interview, 120. “The Brown Bomber was our first infamous one”: Stanbrough, 120. “He’d go pick out somebody…”: Ibid., 131. Guard nicknames: Ilo B. Hard, UNT interview, 161, and Charley L. Pryor, UNT interview, Jan. 22, 1973, 42–43. “A soldier might tell you…”: George Detre, UNT interview, 58.

CHAPTER 32 (pp. 224 to 227)

“The only man who could make five-gallon cans invisible…”: Daws, Prisoners of the Japanese, 170. “Man, he had some gear…”: John H. Wisecup, UNT interview, 54. “He became a sort of hero…”: H. Robert Charles, UNT interview, 87. First group to leave Batavia: “Roster of Fitzsimmons Group,” USS Houston Survivors Association. The Australian Army rank of brigadier was introduced in 1928 to replace the rank of colonel commandant, which had briefly replaced the rank of brigadier general in 1922. A brigadier is more a senior colonel rather than the lowest rank of general (much like a commodore is to an admiral in the navy). Hellship departures from Batavia: “List of Hellship Voyages.” “The Japanese method of shipping troops…”: C. D. Smith, “USS Houston,” 17. “They just took a rifle butt and jammed it…”: Julius B. Heinen, quoted in La Forte, Building the Death Railway, 80. “There had been cattle hauled in that ship…”: H. Robert Charles, UNT interview, 86. “It was a night of darkness and heat…” and “like froth from a boiling saucepan”: Parkin, Into the Smother, 6.

CHAPTER 33 (pp. 228 to 231)

“Once again, as in Batavia…”: Rivett, Behind Bamboo, 131. “Oh my God, what in the world…”: Charley L. Pryor, UNT interview, Jan. 22, 1973, 52. “Changi was a school for survivors”: James Clavell, The Guardian, quoted in Reminick, Death’s Railway, 77. “It was the strangest thing I’ve ever seen in my life…”: Otto C. Schwarz, UNT interview, 81–82. “Why don’t they make a run…”: H. Robert Charles, UNT interview, 91. “Lay on one, Yank!”: Pryor, 65–66. “Everybody just sat there spellbound…”: Ibid., 92. “They’ll be right at our sides”: Schwarz, interview with the author, 11–12. “They had their own stuff cached away…”: Charles, 93. “Those are the King’s coconuts”: Frank Fujita, UNT interview, 56; Pryor, 59–60. “You have got to take that man out…”: Hamlin, quoted in Jack Bartz, interview with the author. “Well, my man!…” and “Pleased to meet you…”: Rivett, Behind Bamboo, 134.

CHAPTER 34 (pp. 232 to 239)

“Hell, they are going to kill you…”: Frank Fujita, UNT interview, 68. Fujita arrives in Japan: Fujita, Foo, 114, 123 fn. 4. “We carried on our own little war…”: Fujita, UNT interview, 78. “He never even kicked”: Ibid., 78. “They were anxious to find out almost anything…”: Maher, “Jap Prison Experiences,” 15. Commander Maher in Japan: Maher narrative, 13; see also Martindale, The 13th Mission, 109–10, 120. “It was an honor, we understand…”: Raymond Day, “Saga of the Houston,” 11. “You’re going to a health camp…”: Paul E. Papish, UNT interview, 124. “Well, we ought to be out of the danger zone” and “Just incidentally, if…”: Julius B. Heinen Jr., UNT interview, 80. “We heard this tremendous whomp…”: Charley L. Pryor, UNT interview, Jan. 22, 1973, 76–77. “Just don’t panic…”: Heinen, 81. “What’s the bid?”: Ibid., 82. Damage to the Dai Moji Maru: Raymond Day, “Saga of the Houston,” 13–14; Charles D. Smith, “USS Houston,” 18; Col. Tom Sledge, interview with the author and Roy Offerle, UNT interview, 85. “Up above the water line…”: Pryor, UNT interview, Jan. 22, 1973, 79. “I will give credit to the Japanese merchant captain…”: C. D. Smith, 18. Rumors of a railway: Pryor, 76; Donald Brain, UNT interview, 130.

CHAPTER 35 (pp. 240 to 245)

“Hell, I know where we are…”: Donald Brain, UNT interview, 132–133. The Battle for Burma and Japanese strategic plans: Romanus and Riley, Stilwell’s Mission to China, 100–101. “We were still young and adventurous…”: James Gee, UNT interview, March 19, 1972, 4. Colonel Nagatomo, “Very cocky, a king-of-the-walk type”: H. Robert Charles, UNT interview, 98. Welcoming speech: Otto Schwarz and Howard Brooks, interviews with the author; Dan Buzzo, UNT interview, 131; and Gee, 13. “It is a great pleasure to us to see you at this place…”: Nagatomo, “Speech Delivered at Thanbyuzayat,” quoted in La Forte and Marcello, Building the Death Railway, 287–289. “We will build the railroad if we have to build it over the white man’s body…”: This last paragraph does not appear in the September 15, 1942, text of the speech found in the collection of Japanese POW documents edited by John C. Sharp. Nor is it included in Maj. W. E. Fisher’s diary, which contains a transcript of Colonel Nagatomo’s speech, nor in Rohan Rivett’s Behind Bamboo. It is included in the text of the October 28, 1942, speech to the Fitzsimmons group, as published in La Forte and Marcello’s Building the Death Railway, and also appears in Kyle Thompson’s memoir, A Thousand Cups of Rice. Perhaps “We will build the railroad if we have to build it over the white man’s body” may thus have been a special flourish for the Americans’ benefit. “Thanbyuzayat turned out to be the beginning of a real nightmare”: Gee, 18–19. “I knew this guy meant business…”: Charles, UNT interview, 99.

Part 4: In the Jungle of the Kwai

CHAPTER 36 (pp. 249 to 252)

Japanese designs for the Burma-Thailand Railway: Davies, The Man Behind the Bridge, 91; the civilian consultant’s name was Kuwabara. For background on the Imperial Army’s attitude toward prisoners, see Herbert P. Bix’s Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan, 359–360. Regarding Japan’s treatment of its POWs, see Bix, 207, where he discusses Emperor Hirohito’s cover-up of the Army’s 1929 atrocities in Manchuria and the privy council’s failure to ratify the full Geneva Prisoner of War Convention. “The groundwork for the future commission of war atrocities by the Japanese military was also being laid during this period,” Bix writes. Native Asian laborers on the railway: see Boggett, “Notes on the Thai-Burma Railway,” 42.

CHAPTER 37 (pp. 253 to 256)

My basic chronology of Branch Three’s activities derives from the diary of Brig. Arthur L. Varley. Establishment of Branch Five: Harold S. Hamlin, “Statement,” 4; Varley diary, 88. Maj. W. E. Fisher, the Australian doctor, observed the nomenclature “Thai POW Branch” for Burma railway construction units tended to keep the subsequent public focus on the Thailand end of the railway. In fact, in several respects the average prisoner’s plight in Burma was worse. See Fisher, “Medical Experiences,” 2. Prisoners’ duties on the railway: See Charley L. Pryor, UNT interview, Jan. 22, 1973, 91–95; H. Robert Charles, UNT interview, 100–109; and the author’s interviews with Howard Brooks and Otto C. Schwarz. “You might spend a whole month making one fill…”: Brooks, interview with the author. See also Lanson Harris, speech to Long Beach Yacht Club. “There was a lot of rock…”: Melfred L. Forsman, UNT interview, 144–145. “We got beat up more for bending a shovel…”: Brooks, interview with the author.

CHAPTER 38 (pp. 257 to 266)

Branch Three: Per Brigadier Varley’s diary entry for March 28, 1943, Branch Three had 9,534 men, including 4,465 Australians, 481 British, 194 Americans, and 4,394 Dutch. Background on Brigadier Varley: Ramsey, “Courage Writ Large in a Steady Hand,” Sydney Morning Herald, April 23, 2005. “They all spoke cheerio and good luck messages…”: Varley diary, June 6, 1942. POW pay: Varley diary, Feb. 19, 1943. “Were there any good Japanese?”: Fisher, “Medical Experiences,” 47. “If you poked your finger into your leg…”: Otto C. Schwarz, interview with the author. “You feel like your mind is a closed circuit…”: Parkin, Into the Smother, 155. “The J’s require absolute proof…”: Varley diary, entry for Nov. 11, 1942. “A little quinine would have saved a lot of lives…”: Schwarz, Ibid. Henri Hekking’s parley with Major Yamada: Charles, Last Man Out, 78–79. Rice “rotten and unusable…”: Ibid., 114; see also Houston Tom Wright, UNT interview, 66. “Melons were only hog feed…”: William V. Bell to Mrs. Samuel H. Lumpkin, undated letter, circa June 1953. “You don’t worry about a day of reckoning…”: Charles, Last Man Out, 114–115. Dr. Hekking’s jungle remedies: Wright, 119–120, 150, 152; Charles, Last Man Out, 116. “It was most distressing to him…”: Ibid., 87. Lumpkin’s comment: Per Ilo B. Hard, UNT interview, 170. “He was the first man that I ever heard of…”: Wright, 119–120.

CHAPTER 39 (pp. 267 to 269)

“The prisoners worked in a rather foolish fashion…”: Charles D. Smith, “USS Houston (CA-30) and Experiences,” 19. Planes over Thanbyuzayat: Varley, diary entry for March 1, 1943.

CHAPTER 40 (pp. 270 to 274)

“We’d get in there, and you’d hit one…”: Charley L. Pryor, UNT interview, Jan. 22, 1973, 102. “An elephant’s a smart bugger…”: Ibid., 113. Spider rigs: Pryor, UNT#3, 41, and death of Japanese engineers: Luther Prunty, UNT interview, 114 and Donald Brain, UNT interview, 165. “It seemed impossible, but it worked…”: Prunty, 115.

CHAPTER 41 (pp. 275 to 282)

“As we would go into a new working camp…” and “We kept our structure. We had our officers…”: Otto C. Schwarz, interview with the author. “If a passing fly chose to step into your rice ration…” and “There were times when most of us felt…”: Searle, To the Kwai—and Back, 122–123. “They would either die from the jolting about…”: Varley, diary entry for April 10, 1943. “Major General Sasa has visited camp…”: Varley, diary entry for April 14. Higuchi “knew nothing of medicine…”: Fisher, “Medical Experiences,” 52. Pryor as “nothing but the skin stretched over the bones”: Charley L. Pryor, UNT interview, Jan. 22, 1973, 107–110. “It looked like an Army field hospital…”: James Gee, UNT interview, March 19, 1972, 68–69. Red Cross inspection of Thanbyuzayat: Varley, diary entry for April 26, 28–30, 1943; Gee, 69; and Fisher, “Medical Experiences,” 61. “Bless ’Em all”: Otto C. Schwarz, interview with the author, and Rivett, Behind Bamboo, 192. Deaths at 80 Kilo Camp: of Lawrence F. Kondzela, March 13, 1943; James H. White, April 13, 1943; and Sgt. Joe Martin True Lusk, April 28, 1943. “I’m glad I’m sick because I’m not going to work…”: Benjamin Dunn, UNT interview, 151–152. “Then he became depressed again”: Fisher, 150. “He had tried to be tough with the guards at work…”: Ibid. USMC Service Records for H. H. Dupler: NARA II. Dupler’s burial: Varley, diary entry for May 15, 1943. “They were some of the biggest, strongest guys…”: John H. Wisecup, UNT interview, 90–91.

CHAPTER 42 (pp. 283 to 290)

“It is as if the Wet were a baying animal…”: Parkin, Into the Smother, 87. “The J. will carry out schedule and do not mind…”: Varley, diary entry for May 18, 1943. “I don’t remember any storms; I just remember rain…”: Howard Brooks, interview with the author. “Within the first day and then with ever-mounting zeal…”: Rivett, Behind Bamboo, 195. “It’s awesome to hear a huge tree…”: Ilo B. Hard, UNT interview, 163. “I remember on one occasion that a bridge had washed out…”: Melfred L. Forsman, UNT interview, 170. “Finally they gave up on this truck thing…”: Donald Brain, UNT interview, 181. “You would work whatever they decided you would work…”: Otto C. Schwarz, interview with the author. “There seemed to be no bottom to the mud…”: Charley L. Pryor, UNT interview, Feb. 20, 1973, 6. “That word ‘Speedo’…”: Howard Brooks, interviewed in video, “Secrets of the Dead.” 80 Kilo established as a “hospital”: Hamlin, “Statement,” 5; Pryor, 7; and Smith, “USS Houston and Experiences,” 20. “The least sick of the stretcher cases…”: Smith, 20. “I looked in that hut, and I couldn’t believe…” and “You know he’s not going to live very long…”: Dunn, 170; see also Luther Prunty, UNT interview, 141. A jungle clearing, “the worst I have ever traveled on”: Varley, diary entry for June 4, 1943. “These poor devils do not appear to receive any treatment…”: Ibid. “My fears expressed so often during the past three months…”: Varley diary, entry for June 4, 1943. “It got cold about five o’clock each morning…”: Clyde Fillmore, Prisoner of War, 78. “Everybody died there. That was my station”: Red Huffman, interview with the author.

CHAPTER 43 (pp. 291 to 295)

“Any way you could slow the Japanese down…”: Melfred L. Forsman, UNT interview, 144. “I know we Marines had a code among us…”: H. Robert Charles, UNT interview, 107. “The idea was that we’d crawl under there…”: Ibid., 108. “We agreed not to place the burden of secrecy on anyone…”: Charles, Last Man Out, 135. “I don’t know how many it hurt or mangled…”: Charles, UNT interview, 108; and Last Man Out, 134–136.

CHAPTER 44 (pp. 296 to 300)

Americans join H Force: Reminick, Death’s Railway, 84; Crayton Gordon, UNT interview, 100. “What we lost on that railroad…”: John H. Wisecup, UNT interview, 63. The embankment at Kinsayok: Rod Beattie, quoted in “Secrets of the Dead: The Bridge on the River Kwai” (video). “The road had petered out as the undergrowth changed…”: Searle, To the Kwai—and Back, 105–106. “This period of movement must mean something big…”: Parkin, Into the Smother, 107. “The head of the man holding the drill…”: Parkin, 121, 123. “Occasionally we caught glimpses…”: Searle, 108. “The daily blasting along this section is terrific…”: Parkin, 167.

CHAPTER 45 (pp. 301 to 308)

“The radios were dismantled and smuggled…”: Melfred L. Forsman, UNT interview, 166–167. “I lived day by day…”: Roy M. Offerle, UNT interview, 126. “Jane, you’ve got a funny-looking thing here”: Jane Harris, interview with the author. “You come home from the station or airport…”: quoted in Yellen, Our Mother’s War, 13–14. “Such a statement is either a deliberate evasion or…”: Hodge, “Exchange of Information Sheet for Relatives of Personnel Attached to the U.S.S. Houston, Lost in Sundra Straits [sic], February 28, 1942,” undated, revised to V-J Day, 1946. “It is impossible to estimate the value of Mr. Hodge’s work…”: Smith, “Where Is the Crew of the Ghost Cruiser Houston?” The Oregonian. Lieutenant Hodge’s fate: Statement of Leon W. Rogers, in dispatch from United States Naval Liaison Office, Calcutta, India, Enclosure a(2). “One thing that has always discouraged me…”: Edith Rooks to Hart, April 16, 1943, 8. “Probably I should not have passed to you that rumor…”: Hart to Edith Rooks, May 5, 1943. “I must say more and more I feel the promise…”: Edith Rooks to Hart, May 21, 1943, 2.

CHAPTER 46 (pp. 309 to 313)

Lieutenant Weiler’s ring: Mintzer, “The Long Journey Home: Fran Weiler’s Ring Returns to Annapolis,” 10. “There has got to be another way out…”: Parkin, Into the Smother, 101. Flora and fauna of the railway: Parkin, 72, 92–93, 111. “The thing eats faster than a cancer…”: Charley L. Pryor, UNT interview, Feb. 1973, 3. “Had we known…that they’d wind up in a damn slop-hole grave…”: Crayton Gordon, UNT interview, 141. “At first we made individual graves…”: John Wisecup, UNT interview, 83. “I never will forget this…” and Wisecup’s breakdown: Ibid., 84–85.

CHAPTER 47 (pp. 314 to 317)

“Nippon tearing Asia up into strips…”: Dunlop, War Diaries, 221. Jim Gee’s hallucination: Gee, UNT interview, March 19, 1972, 58. “This dream gave to me the strength…”: Ibid. “Thank you for asking me to sponsor the USS Rooks…”: Edith Rooks to Frank Knox, Dec. 7, 1943.

CHAPTER 48 (pp. 318 to 322)

Bombing of Thanbyuzayat: Varley, diary entry for June 12, 1943; Rivett, Behind Bamboo, 199–200. Varley injured: Varley, diary entry for June 15. Life in the monsoon: Benjamin Dunn, UNT interview, 143; Charles D. Smith, “Experiences,” 20. “No medical officer or orderlies ever had to contend…”: Lionel de Rosario, Nippon Slaves, www.ean.co.uk/Bygones/History/Article/WW2/Death_Railway/html/songkurai.htm (last viewed by the author on March 10, 2005). “Nagatomo was astonished…”: Varley, diary entry for July 1, 1943. 55 Kilo as “one of the worst, if not the worst camp…”: Fisher, “Medical Experiences,” 8. Aircraft of “a type not seen before”: Varley, diary entry for July 9–12, 1943. “He was as regular as clockwork…”: James Gee, UNT interview, March 19, 1972, 52. The Tenth Air Force’s 80th Fighter Group flew P-38s over Burma starting in December 1942; www.talkingproud.us/HistoryBansheesE.html (March 16, 2005). “I guess they’re going to wait for the rains…”: Gee, UNT interview, 52.

CHAPTER 49 (pp. 323 to 330)

“Fu-ji-ta. Where is this Fu-ji-ta?”: Frank Fujita Jr., UNT interview, 82; Fujita, Foo, 155–156. “They got mad as hell when I laughed…”: Fujita, diary entry for June 6, 1943. “I figured my best bet is to keep my head…”: Fujita, UNT interview, 84. “Look what we have here…”: Fujita, UNT interview, 86; Fujita, diary, June 4, 1943. “I was bound and determined those sons of bitches…”: Fujita, UNT interview, 90. Japanese infantrymen, “small, illiterate, absurd…” and “They thanked us with bows…”: Fillmore, Prisoner of War, 85. Prunty and Worthington “had a testament each”: Luther Prunty, UNT interview, 129. Charley Pryor at 80 Kilo Camp: Pryor, UNT interview, Feb. 20, 1973, 16–18. “They’d tell you, ‘I’m finished…’”: John H. Wisecup, UNT interview, 81. “It was Wisecup, I guess, who would stand back there…”: Paul E. Papish, UNT interview, 163. “Look, Charlie, your mind is like the muscle in your arm…”: Jim Gee as quoted in Charles, Last Man Out, 132. “I don’t have a friend”: Dan Buzzo, UNT interview, 176. “Don’t kid me. There are no eggs within a hundred miles”: Ibid., 171–172. “Probably no single factor…”: Fisher, “Medical Experiences,” 87. “A figure of six foot three inches emerges…”: Parkin, Into the Smother, 105–106. “As small a thing as hiding, from yourself…”: Marvin Robinson, UNT interview, 133. “It’s people you’ve known, gone to school with…”: Prunty, UNT interview, 135. Aborted escape by Forsman, Stensland, and Lattimore: Melfred L. Forsman, UNT interview, 189–191.

CHAPTER 50 (pp. 331 to 334)

Lumpkin “had the weight of the whole camp on his shoulders…”: William V. Bell letter to Mrs. Samuel H. Lumpkin, 4. “It was hard to find anyone with such disregard for his self…”: C. J. Vidler, letter “to whom it may concern,” April 21, 1947. “Once the dysentery took a hold of him…”: Roy Offerle, UNT interview, 135. “It was almost like a death blow to all of us…”: Dan Buzzo, UNT interview, 175. “He didn’t have it left in him…”: Melfred L. Forsman, UNT interview, 186. “It was like a ghost town…”: George Detre, UNT interview, 172. “You could smell that camp for miles”: Eddie Fung, UNT interview, 124. “Suffer is a dangerous word here…”: Parkin, Into the Smother, 93. “I find beauty in everything, even in death…”: Frank Fujita, UNT interview, 53. “There is a lot to grumble about…”: Ray Parkin, Into the Smother, 134. “It has become quite an institution…” and “They’ll be droppin’ thousand-pounders when they come…”: Ibid., 215.

CHAPTER 51 (pp. 335 to 339)

Joining of the line at Three Pagodas Pass: Allen, “The 18th Division Royal Engineers,” Royal Engineers Journal. 80 Kilo Camp abandoned: Smith, “USS Houston (CA-30) and Experiences,” 21; Charley L. Pryor, UNT interview, Feb. 20, 1973, 16. Burials at 80 and 100 Kilo Camps: Smith, 21. “They had the bugle going all of the time…”: Roy Offerle, UNT interview, 120. “It was more or less like a Toonerville trolley…”: Melfred L. Forsman, quoted in La Forte and Marcello, Building the Death Railway, 256. “I think we all came to the conclusion…”: James Gee, UNT interview, March 19, 1972, 79. “We were lucky”: Ibid., 62–63. “In my opinion it is a virtue since ancient times…” and “We have exploited untrodden jungles…”: Nagatomo quoted in Sharp, “Japanese Documentary,” 22–23; see also Fisher, “Medical Experiences,” 46. “Do you have anything to eat…?” Houston Tom Wright, UNT interview, 165–166.

CHAPTER 52 (pp. 340 to 345)

Deaths in Branches Three and Five: Arthur L. Varley, diary entry for Jan. 11–19, 1944. Deaths in F and H Forces: Kinvig, River Kwai Railway, 198. Movements of A Force: Varley, diary entry for Nov. 7, 1943. The Japanese “seemed to indulge in a system of competitive bidding…”: Harold S. Hamlin, “Report of Service as Prisoner of War,” 5. “This camp was much better than anything we had seen…”: Charles D. Smith, “USS Houston (CA-30) and Experiences,” 21–22. “Like dining at the Savoy in Hollywood”: Houston Tom Wright, UNT interview, 166. “He lost no telling how many dollars…”: Marvin Robinson, UNT interview, 138. “They’d chloroform the guy…”: John H. Wisecup, UNT interview, 101. See also Wright, 170. Construction of the bridge at Tamarkan (“the Bridge on the River Kwai”): Davies, The Man Behind the Bridge, 100–103. “They were in a hurry to finish it…”: Wisecup, UNT interview, 96. Air attacks on the bridge: U.S. Army Air Forces, Historical Office, The Tenth Air Force: 1943, 91.

CHAPTER 53 (pp. 346 to 351)

The Tenth Air Force: Army Air Forces Historical Office, The Tenth Air Force: 1943, 32–38. “A resourceful, able and wily enemy must be blasted from the jungles…”: General Order No. 1, Headquarters, Eastern Air Command, Dec. 15, 1943, quoted in Ibid., 38. January 1943 reconnaissance of railway: Fritsche, “Liberators on the Kwai,” 82. Friendly casualties from air attacks: Davies, The Man Behind the Bridge, 144; Kinvig, River Kwai Railway, 180–181. Houston men lost on the Tamahoko Maru were yeoman second class Robert P. Willerton and seaman first class Joseph J. Alleva, USS Houston Association crew roster; “List of Hellship Voyages,” last updated January 27, 2005, www.west-point.org/family/japanese-pow/Ships.htm. Lost Battalion hell ship KIA: Fillmore, Prisoner of War, 151–153. Submarine attack on Rakuyo Maru and Kachidoki Maru: Kinvig, 188. Death of Brigadier Varley: Kelly, Just Soldiers, www.anzacday.org.au/ history/ww2/anecdotes/survivors.html. “As men were received on board, we stripped them…”: “USS Pampanito (SS-383): The Third War Patrol.” “The first ‘open source’ information on conditions in the railway camps…”: Kinvig, 188.

CHAPTER 54 (pp. 352 to 357)

“Look at the mighty Japanese air force…”: Frank King, UNT interview, 138–139. Failed air attacks on Burma bridges: The Tenth Air Force: 1943, 105, 110–111. “When we protested the camp being located…”: Fillmore, Prisoner of War, 94. “You cussed the planes and everyone in them…”: Ibid., 101. “You want to cheer them for tearing up the bridge…”: Roy Offerle, UNT interview, 141. “Prisoners will not laugh at Japanese guards…”: Fillmore, 101. “That little P-51 came down with the B-24s…”: Luther Prunty, UNT interview, 195. “My friends, American airmen…”: Houston Tom Wright, UNT interview, 173. “I don’t believe it…”: James “Red” Huffman, interview with the author; see also Melfred L. Forsman, UNT interview, 204. “When the all-clear would go…” and “He was breathing under the ground…”: Huffman, Ibid. The AZON bomb: Kinvig, 182. Bombing of “Bridge 277” (the bridge at Tamarkan): Carl H. Frische, “Liberators on the Kwae,” 88. “You could see they were worried…”: John H. Wisecup, UNT interview, 115. “They had been very casual about guarding us…”: Eddie Fung, UNT interview, 139–140. Troops were advised to kill “cautiously and circumspectly…”: Brackman, The Other Nuremberg, 246. Declaration regarding “liquidation” of prisoner populations: Exhibit 2015, Tokyo War Crimes Trials, January 9, 1947, translated by Stephen H. Green, in Holmes, Unjust Enrichment, 123–124.

CHAPTER 55 (pp. 358 to 364)

Warship construction: Parshall, “Why Japan Really Lost the War.” “And you know, whoosh!”: John H. Wisecup, UNT interview, 112–113. Tonnage of bombs dropped on Japan, November 1944 to August 1945, and projections of September to December 1945: Frank, Downfall, 306. “Bombed Bullshit!” Luther Prunty, UNT interview, 186. “There wasn’t an engine on that railroad…”: Otto C. Schwarz, UNT interview, 143. “You know, you Americans think you’re smarter…”: Schwarz, 135–136. “Most of us stayed up to see the new year in…”: Fujita, diary entry for Jan. 1, 1945. “The Saturday morning raid was sure a rooter…”: Ibid., entry for March 9, 1945; in that attack as many as 100,000 people died; see Frank, Downfall, 16–17. U.S. prisoners at Ohasi: Jess Stanbrough, UNT interview, 152–153; Arthur L. Maher, “Jap Prison Experiences,” 24–25. “It smelled like a fireplace burning pine wood…”: Stanbrough, 155. “We more or less accepted it philosophically”: Maher, 25. “I imagine they had an air gun up there…”: Lloyd V. Willey, interview with the author. Thai humanitarians: Davies, The Man Behind the Bridge, 130–131; Kinvig, River Kwai Railway, 150–152. Kempeitai activities: Fisher, “Medical Experiences,” 34; Willey interview with the author. Siam becomes Thailand: Nathaniel P. Davis, letter to Lawrence T. McCarthy, June 29, 1940. Nighttime flights over Thailand: Pryor, UNT interview, Feb. 20, 1973, 63, 72–73. “I am your friend. I am with your friends…”: Ibid., 77–78. “If we run into Japanese, it will be bad for Japanese”: Ibid., 78.

CHAPTER 56 (pp. 365 to 368)

OSS begins Thailand operation: “The Overseas Targets,” 403; Smith, Into Siam, 17; Reynolds, “The Opening Wedge,” 329, 339. Unbeknownst to the OSS, the codebreaking coup that produced the “Magic” intercepts of diplomatic signals gave Washington access to much of the information Donovan wanted out of Thailand. “The opening wedge for postwar American economic…”: Reynolds, 329. Training of OSS field agents: Smith, Into Siam, 48. Training of Thai auxiliaries: Ibid., 22, 25. “They can throw their weight in wildcats”: Ibid., 49. The Thai agents killed by the Japanese were Karawek Srivicharn or “Cary” and Sompongse Salyabongse or “Sal.” Smith, Into Siam, 168–169, 302. Pow reaches Bangkok: Ibid., 180–183. “A lamp had been lighted in the capital of Siam”: Ibid., 183. “Ruth”: Reynolds, 330–331; “The Overseas Targets,” 408. “A double life is not an easy one,” Smith, Into Siam, 233. The OSS agents in Bangkok were Maj. John Wester, a resident of Siam for eighteen years, and Dick Greenlee from Scarsdale, New York, who once worked as a tax lawyer in General Donovan’s New York law firm. They flew by British seaplane to the waters off Thailand’s southern coast and were spirited into Bangkok on a Thai Customs Department launch. See Reynolds, 336.

CHAPTER 57 (pp. 369 to 379)

Gus Forsman at Kanburi: Melfred L. Forsman, UNT interview, 202, 207–215. “We learned, from these sources…”: Fillmore, Prisoner of War, 106. “Six years hell. We’ll be lucky…”: Forsman, 214. Outram Road jail: Daws, Prisoners of the Japanese, 254–255; Lomax, The Railway Man, 158, 163–164. “A warder’s boots would make a booming sound…”: Lomax, 161–162. “This was a place in which the living…”: Ibid., 164. Forsman at Outram Road: Forsman, 218–229. FDR’s death: Larrabee, Commander in Chief, 647. Maj. Gen. Lowell Rooks in Germany: Ziemke, The U.S. Army in the Occupation of Germany, Chapter 15. POWs at Phet Buri (Cashew Mountain Camp) and Tayang airfield: Frank King, UNT interview, 147; Sharp, “Japanese Documentary,” 27; Roy Offerle, UNT interview, 153; Luther Prunty, UNT interview, 200–201 (calling the camp White Pagoda Camp, west of Phet Buri, where an airstrip was being laid); James Huffman, interview with the author; Lanson H. Harris, speech, Long Beach Yacht Club; Lloyd V. Willey, UNT interview, 203–204. “Anything to get the hell out of camp…” and other quotes: Harris, speech. “You never tell anybody you’re gonna escape…”: Huffman, interview. “This is really stupid”: Harris, speech. “You know, it’s been three years…”: Huffman, interview. Chinese dragon lore: Ingersoll, Dragons and Dragon Lore. “All of a sudden we looked up and here comes this clown…”: Harris, speech. This was the second week of June 1945, per John C. Reas, letter to Pat Bozeman, April 26, 1988.

Part 5: Rendezvous with Freedom

CHAPTER 58 (pp. 383 to 390)

“About twenty minutes later, here come these Japs…” and other quotes from Lanson H. Harris: Harris, speech, Long Beach Yacht Club. “They would nearly kill you with the smoke…” and other quotes from James “Red” Huffman: Huffman, interview with the author. Major Bartlett “captured fifteen armed German soldiers…”: Headquarters, ETO, U.S. Army, Certificate of Merit to Maj. Eben B. Bartlett Jr. Gallaher is referred to as “Virlen” and “Virlin” in other documents; re rank, Gallaher was promoted to sgt. on July 19; see OSS Records, Opero to Pattern, Aug. 17, 1945. Bartlett airdropped into Thailand: OSS, “Pattern Operational Report” (by Maj. Eben B. Bartlett Jr.), Sept. 28, 1945; Opero to Pattern, June 6, 1945; Pattern to Opero, June 11, 1945. Operation Salad (supply drops): OSS, “Report on Operation Salad,” July 11, 1945; Smith, Into Siam, 203; Tenth Air Force, “Special Flight Intelligence Report,” by Lt. Col. Robert A. Erdin, June 22, 1945. “The way I feel about this business…”: Pattern to Opero, July 14, 1945. “If Japs come in here, shall we fight it out…”: Pattern to Opero, July 3, 1945. “Present policy is not to have any of our groups fight…”: Opero to Pattern, July 4, 1945. Reporting “lamentable”: War Report of the OSS, 412. “Things are getting hot down there…” and conversations between Smith and Pow: Smith, Into Siam, 248. “Upon their arrival, a runner came…”: OSS, “Pattern Operational Report.” “I have two prisoners of war with me…”: OSS, Pattern to Opero, July 27, 1945. “He would get us apart,” Red Huffman, interview with the author. “What particular information do you want…?”: OSS, Pattern to Opero, July 27, 1945. “Neither one of us would go”: Huffman, interview with the author. “Have told them they would be [exfiltrated] soonest…”: OSS, Pattern to Opero, July 28, 1945. USS Houston KIA/MIA list (current to March 1, 1945): OSS, Pattern to Opero, Aug. 7, 1945.

CHAPTER 59 (pp. 391 to 394)

“All our men are bang-happy…” and “Another thing the fellows are anxious to get…”: Grassi quoted in Smith, Into Siam, 258–259. “The only difficulty anticipated…”: Eben B. Bartlett Jr., untitled document, “From Pattern.” “Keep cautioning [your agents] against overt action…”: Smith, 284. “Never forget Pearl Harbor”: USS Indiana, Ship’s Log. Bombardment of Kamaishi: Cressman, The Official Chronology of the U.S. Navy in World War II. 334. Reportedly Admiral Halsey “firmly directed [the British task force] to attend to other targets, thus creating a distinct impression that the U.S. Navy regarded this operation as specific retaliation for Pearl Harbor.” See Frank, Downfall, 158. “Where were our planes…?”: Jess Stanbrough, UNT interview, 161. “There was a lot of people that had been captured…”: Ibid., 189–190. “The prodigious land, sea and air forces of the United States…”: “Proclamation Calling for the Surrender of Japan,” Potsdam, July 26, 1945. www.niraikanai.wwma.net/pages/archive/potsdam.html.

CHAPTER 60 (pp. 395 to 398)

Lloyd Willey at Tayang: Lloyd V. Willey, interview with the author. “The Japs were very touchy…”: Ibid. A mood of “impatience, frenzy and bewilderment”: Frank, Downfall, 290. The P-51 pilot captured and tortured was Lt. Marcus McDilda: Ibid. Tensions between Japan and Soviet Union: USSBS interrogation of Admiral Soemu Toyoda, 318–319. “Since this is the shape of things…”: Frank, Downfall, 295–296, quoting a re-creation of the scene by Robert Butow, with modifications. “The Imperial Army and Navy shall by no means return…”: Ibid., 326–327. “The wishes of the imperial ancestors…”: Ibid., 318. Imperial Palace coup: Ibid., 317–321. “A road to success will somehow be revealed…”: Ibid., 308–309. Surrender negotiations: Ibid., 300–301.

CHAPTER 61 (pp. 399 to 408)

“Will they drop one on Saigon?” Garth Slate, UNT interview, 214. “Present plan tentatively approved…”: Opero (Col. Amos D. Moscrip) to Bartlett, Aug. 16, 1945. OSS personnel supporting Major Bartlett: OSS, Opero (Moscrip) to Pattern, Aug. 16, 1945; OSS Headquarters to Major Max Small, “Personnel on Operations,” Sept. 5, 1945, 2. “Cover is to be maintained…”: Opero (Goodell) to Pattern, Aug. 23, 1945. “As soon as we found out in this camp…”: Charles D. Smith, “USS Houston (CA-30) and Experiences,” 23. “Hollywood couldn’t have written…”: James Gee, UNT interview, March 19, 1972, 120. “I gave them a short talk…”: OSS, “History, ‘MAINLAND, PETBURI’ Operation,” Lt. Col. Amos D. Moscrip Jr., to Strategic Services Officer, IBT, Sept. 18, 1945. “While the pictures may show the men to look fairly healthy…”: Moscrip, to Director, OSS Field Photographic Branch, “Operation Mainland,” Sept. 16, 1945, 3. Rescued Americans in Operation Mainland: OSS, “Operation Mainland, Chronology of Principal Events,” 4, 9, 11. “They circled out and dived and wig-wagged” and “Cheer up, boys…”: Reynolds, diary, 234–235. “Anyone having relatives on the crew of the Houston…”: Associated Press, “300 Houston Survivors Found in Jap Prison Camp in Thailand,” dateline Washington, DC, Aug. 28, 1945. “The appearance of the landing craft in the channel…”: Commander Task Group 30.6, “Action Report Covering Evacuation of Prisoners of War,” III(1). “With the end of the war, history started immediately to repeat…”: Ibid., VIII(1). “The hand that fills in the blank pages in the book of war…”: Associated Press, “Tragic War Mystery Clears,” dateline Washington, Aug. 29, 1945. Commander Maher’s visit with Captain Bahm: Falloon, “My Brush with History.” Maher on the USS Missouri: Maher, USS Houston (CA-30) Survivors Association reunion speech, Aug. 12, 1983, Dallas; papers of Charley L. Pryor. “In many ways these weeks have seemed the most difficult…”: Edward Miles Barrett, diary entry for Aug. 11, 1945. Forsman’s release: Melfred L. Forsman, UNT interview, 234; Barrett, diary entry for Sept. 1, 1945. “The war is over” and “That’s impossible…”: Forsman, 236. “The last time that I had seen that flag…”: Paul E. Papish, UNT interview, 171. “They learned right quick…”: Garth Slate, UNT interview, 226–227. See also Wisecup, UNT interview, 120, and Dan Buzzo, UNT interview, 223.

CHAPTER 62 (pp. 409 to 418)

“He had a piece of paper, like a government check…”: Lanson H. Harris, speech, Long Beach Yacht Club. “I put two and two together with the telegram…”: Jane Harris, interview with the author. “They treated us like real psycho cases…”: John H. Wisecup, UNT interview, 122. “What are you going to do when you get out?” Ibid., 125. “Do you know where the Houston was sunk?”: James Huffman, interview with the author. “That was bad for him…”: Jane Harris, interview with the author. “They asked me questions like, ‘Did you see this…?’ ”: Lanson Harris, speech. “You had a period of exuberance and then…”: Wisecup, UNT interview, 126. “He told us the importance of exercise…”: James Gee, UNT interview, March 19, 1972, 56. “I remembered the little amenities…”: Charles, Last Man Out, 178. “We watched these pretty-looking girls…” and “Why didn’t you let me know when I called you?…”: Jess Stanbrough, UNT interview, 208. “With the thought of finding my stepfather…”: Charles, 176. “When I first came back…” and “I couldn’t sleep…”: John Bartz, interview with the author. “I was flying for five or six years…”: Lanson Harris, interview with the author. “It came time when he was in twenty years…”: Jane Harris, interview. “I was absolutely lost, like a fish out of water…” and “I spent the next three months…”: Otto C. Schwarz, UNT interview, 156–157. The habits of a POW: hot tea (Paul Papish, UNT interview, 149), burnt-rice coffee (Houston Tom Wright, UNT interview, 198), hard floors (Lloyd V. Willey interview), heads of lettuce (Donald Brain, UNT interview, 233). “I resolved that although I might never be rich…”: Stanbrough, 213. Jess Stanbrough passed away in 1999. Charles, “determined that the war would not be the biggest thing…”: Charles, Last Man Out, 189. Encounter with Pack Rat McCone: Charles, interview with the author. “If I had my way about it, I’d find forty-nine other ex-POWs…”: Morrow, “Ex-POW Wants to Relieve Hostages,” Escondido Times-Advocate, A-1. “I don’t know why, but all of a sudden…”: Harris, speech. “I always had the philosophy…”: Schwarz, 160.

CHAPTER 63 (pp. 419 to 431)

War Graves Commission activities: Lomax, The Railway Man, 230. Hirohito’s culpability for war crimes: Bix, Hirohito, 360–367; Holmes, Unjust Enrichment, 128. “Murdering, maiming, and ill-treating prisoners of war…”: Brackman, The Other Nuremberg, 84–85. “The law of war forbids…”: Claims Committee, “Liberated Military Personnel (JAPAN), of Japan for Maltreatment of Prisoners of War,” 2–3, quoting Moore’s Digest of International Law, Vol. VII, 218. “In so far as the rules set forth in the convention…”: U.S. For. Rel., 1918, Suppl. 2, 7, quoted in Claims Committee, “Civil Responsibility,” 4. “Japan strictly observes the Geneva Convention…”: International Military Tribunal for the Far East, War Crimes Trial transcript, 49713–49714. Tojo made similar assurances regarding civilian internees, 49715. “To observers in daily attendance at the tribunal…”: Brackman, 254. Tojo ordered “all prisoners of war to engage in forced labor”: Ibid., 263–264. “The Japanese idea about prisoners is very different…”: Ibid., 267. Death Railway chain of responsibility: “General Outline of Construction Progress: Details of the Construction and State of Affairs in the Earlier State (from June 1942 to the middle of February 1943)” read into the trial record by prosecutor Sir Arthur Comyns Carr, Tokyo War Crimes Trials, Sept. 12, 1946, 5530–5536. “The confession of the Japanese Army with regard to the Burma-Siam railway”: Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal, testimony of Sept. 13, 1946, 5570. “Well, he ain’t going back to Korea…”: Garth Slate, UNT interview, 229. “I had a debriefing by a lieutenant colonel…”: There will be no citation here. The testimony of the brave individual making this confession may be found in the UNT oral history archive for those who must find it. Statistics of war crimes tribunals and convictions: NARA, Interagency Working Group, “Japanese Interim Report.” “Those words hung him”: Lloyd Willey, interview with the author. Nagatomo proceedings: Commonwealth of Australia, Department of the Army, Military Court. “Trial of Japanese War Criminals, including Lt. Col. Yoshitada Nagatomo and others,” National Archives of Australia, http://naa.gov.au. Compensation to ex-prisoners, and limitations on legal redress: Reynolds, “U.S. Prisoners of War,” 4–7. Multilateral Peace Treaty with Japan as “the cornerstone of U.S. security policy in the Pacific region”: U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on the Judiciary, Hearing before the Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security and Claims on the “Justice for United States Prisoners of War Act of 2001” (H.R. 1198), Statement of William H. Taft IV, Sept. 25, 2002. “A great nation does not repudiate its treaties,”: Ibid. Mitsui Mining POW lawsuits: Wu Gang, “Forced Labour Case Voided in Japan,” China Daily, May 24, 2004 (discussing the appeal of the Fukuoka District Court’s verdict). The Fukuoka High Court overturned the award on appeal, holding the claim to be time-barred. www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2004–05/24/content_333378.htm (June 7, 2005). Apology of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi: Ueno, Teruaki. “Japan PM Apologises over World War Two Dutch POWs,” Reuters, May 2, 2005. “If I had ever seen three or four of these guys…”: Charley L. Pryor, UNT interview, Nov. 4, 1972, 120–121. “When you harbor something like that…”: Roy Offerle, UNT interview, 129. “I wanted to volunteer to go to Japan…”: Melfred L. Forsman, interview with the author. “When the roof fell in, a great funnel of smoke…” Stephen Crane, “The Veteran,” McClure’s Magazine, June 1896, in The Red Badge of Courage and Selected Short Fiction, New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 2003, 179. River Kwai tourist culture: Loeb, “Dreck Below the Bridge on the River Kwai,” Philadelphia Inquirer, 1-A, and Andelman, “Ex-Prisoners and Captors Join in a Walk over Kwai Bridge,” New York Times, 66. Perth survivors after the war: McKie, Proud Echo, frontispiece. “The fact is, the ones that obeyed the rules…”: Seldon D. Reese, UNT interview, 55. “Well after almost 4 years our fate is to be decided…”: Fujita, diary entry for August 11, 1945.