Apocalypse Undone : My Survival of title: Japanese Imprisonment During World War II author: Hubbard, Preston John. publisher: Vanderbilt University Press isbn10 | asin: print isbn13: 9780826512376 ebook isbn13: 9780585101224 language: English Hubbard, Preston John,--1918- , World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American, World War, 1939-1945--Prisoners and subject prisons, Japanese, Prisoners of war--United States--Biography, Prisoners of war-- Philippines--Biography. publication date: 1990 lcc: D811.H747 1990eb ddc: 940.54/8173 Hubbard, Preston John,--1918- , World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American, World War, 1939-1945--Prisoners and subject: prisons, Japanese, Prisoners of war--United States--Biography, Prisoners of war-- Philippines--Biography. Page i Apocalypse Undone Page iii Apocalypse Undone My Survival of Japanese Imprisonment During World War II by Preston John Hubbard Vanderbilt University Press Nashville, Tennessee 1990 Page iv Acknowledgments I am deeply indebted to many people who have given me aid and comfort in the preparation of this memoir. I especially wish to express my gratitude to the following persons: John W. Poindexter and Dr. Frank Bard Young of the Vanderbilt University Press; Professors Paul K. Conkin, Dewey W. Grantham, and Douglas E. Leach of Vanderbilt University; Professors Charles Calhoun, D. Richard Covington, Don Wing Der, Richard P. Gildrie, Edward E. Irwin, Malcolm Muir, Kenneth E. Olson, and Louis C. Tatham, Jr., of Austin Peay State University. I also wish to express my appreciation to those students at Austin Peay State University who have given me encouragement in this endeavor. Thanks also go to A. B. (Bud) Feuer, Paul H. Silverstone, and Dr. Paul Ashton for providing rare photographs. I would especially like to acknowledge my debt to and appreciation of Donald Knox's Death March: The Survivors of Bataan (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1981), which is unique among all my sources for telling the story of American prisoners of war in their own voices. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Hubbard, Preston John, 1918- Apocalypse undone: my survival of Japanese imprisonment during World War II/by Preston John Hubbard. p. cm. ISBN 0-8265-1237-2: 1. Hubbard, Preston John, 1918- . 2. World War, 1939-1945Personal narratives, American. 3. World War, 1939-1945Prisoners and prisons, Japanese. 4. Prisoners of warUnited StatesBiography. 5. Prisoners of warPhillipinesBiography. I. Title. D811.H747 1990 89-28823 940.54'8173dc20 CIP Copyright © 1990 by Preston John Hubbard Published in 1990 by Vanderbilt University Press Printed in the United States of America Dedication This book is dedicated to RICHARD MURRAY of Lyndon Station, Wisconsin, via Cut Bank, Montana, who died at Cabanatuan, Philippines; and NEIL GALLAHER of Lawrenceburg, Tennessee, Navy Pharmacist's Mate, who died aboard a Japanese Hell Ship in 1944; and JACK GARCIA of Santa Maria, California, who, with the devoted assistance of the Medical Corps, United States Navy, Bilibid Prison, survived a rendezvous with death; and those magnificent Filipino women who risked life and limb along the route of the Bataan Death March to provide food and water to desperate American prisoners of war; and the children of Baclaran who provided solace for my soul during the final months before Pearl Harbor; and those Japanese civilians who risked the anger of their government to express humane concern for prisoners of war in their land and RUTH ANN PERRY HUBBARD my beloved wife. my beloved wife. Page vii Contents Preface ix 1. As We Were 1 2. Journey to the Philippines 8 3. At Ease on the Eve of the Apocalypse 23 4. The End of the Rainbow 42 5. The First Battle of Bataan 59 6. Defeat and Death on the March 75 7. O'Donnell: Camp Death 90 8. From O'Donnell to Tayabas: Journey to a Green Hell 105 9. Bilibid: A Refuge from Death 123 10. Nissyo Maru: The Hell Ship 145 11. Nagoya: Slavery, Starvation, and Death 165 12. Fire from the Skies 196 13. Liberation 212 14. Homecoming 227 15. Readjustment to Life, Dreams of Death 245 Notes 256