Sergeant Bernard O. Ketner later recalled: ‘I was severely beaten by Isiehara [sic]. He struck me four times…with a saber….Later…the sentry held a bayonet against my abdomen [while] they beat me with their fists….I was kicked in the testicles twice. Isiehara spit in my face and called me a white American son of a bitch. I was then thrown into the brig…for four days, two of which I was given no food.’

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When the former British governor general of Hong Kong, Sir Mark Young, refused to salute him, Isihara tried to behead Young with his sword. Finally Japanese military officers took the sword away. Instead, Isihara resorted to a leather riding crop with a leaded handle that could be used as a blackjack.

Commanding the Woosung prison camp was Colonel Goici Yuse, notorious for his violent and unpredictable temper. He organized the prisoners into 10-man’shooting squads,’ explaining that if ‘one man escapes, the other nine die.’

Yuse, whom the Marines called ‘Useless,’ died in March 1942, and was replaced by Colonel Satoshi Otera, dubbed ‘Handlebar Hank’ by the Marines for his moustache. Otera, more concerned with his personal comforts than with his duties, could also be very harsh. In one instance he discovered a hole in a 100-pound bag of sugar and in retaliation denied all of his prisoners food for 72 hours.

The Japanese captors’ attitude toward their prisoners was based on Bushido, the code of the samurai warrior. Bushido taught blind loyalty to the emperor and a disregard for death. A soldier should die before surrendering. Those who surrendered to the enemy surrendered everything, even their lives. Thus, the prisoner became the slave of his captor, to be spared or killed as the captor wished. As an interrogator explained to the prisoners, ‘You gave up everything when you surrendered. You do not even own the air that is in your bodies….You are the slaves of the Japanese.’

At Woosung life became a war of wills. Devereux recalled: ‘The main objective of the Japanese…was to break our spirit, and on our side was a stubborn determination to keep our self-respect whatever else they took from us….[That] struggle was almost as much a part of the war as was the battle we fought on Wake Island.’

Colonel William H. Ashurst, commander of the Marine detachment captured at the U.S. Legation at Tientsin; his executive officer, Major Luther A. Brown, and Devereux ensured that their fellow Marines would never succumb to their captors. Ashurst and Brown, using Brown’s battered copy of the Army field manual, The Rules for Land Warfare, repeatedly confronted Japanese officers with their violations of the Geneva Convention of 1929, prescribing proper treatment of prisoners of war.

Devereux insisted on the same military discipline found at a stateside Marine base. He also insisted that the Marines exercise every day, despite their weakening bodies. Some hated him for maintaining such practices, but later, when they saw that they were winning the mental battle with their captors, most respected him for leading the way.

Despite the terrible conditions inflicted on them, American prisoners saluted their officers, maintained their chain of command, and walked with pride and dignity. They held their own religious services and, using fellow prisoners as instructors, began a series of classes–including history, English, photography, beekeeping and navigation. They leveled a field for softball and soccer and began a vegetable garden.

Occasionally they scored small victories against their captors that encouraged them to fight on. Put to work repairing roads, the prisoners instead widened or deepened potholes or loose-packed the dirt so the holes would soon get worse. Assigned to clean weapons, they polished the metal until it was too thin to be safely fired, lost parts, hid bearings, loosened bolts or substituted incorrect parts.

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