Comments on: World War II: Liberating Los Baños Internment Camp

By: John Palmer

John Palmer — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 00:50:32 +0000

Hello, especially to Catherine and Doris from John Palmer. It's good to read all these memories and accounts of the three-and-a-half years in Santa Tomas and Los Banos. A few of my memories: the rice mush that we were given was called loogow. To me me it was absolutely delicious. My mother used to save a little in a small bowl for later in the day. She hid the bowl way up high on a shelf. Once, when I was by myself, I was so hungry that I climbed on a chair, got down the bowl and ran my finger around the inside of the plate and licked the loogow off my finger. I thought I was so clever because no-one would discover my theft. I did not realise that the loogow level had gone down and I was caught out. My mother scolded me severely for eating the food that was for my younger brother and her as well. There are lots of other incidents like this. I persuaded my mother (since deceased) to write a diary about her experiences and it will be epublished this year by Really Blue Books, an epublisher in Melbourne, Australia.

By: Doris Hill

Doris Hill — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 22:45:09 +0000

John McLain Hill was my husband, and the father of Catherine H, above, as well as my two other daughters, Martha Hill Bledsoe and Lucinda McLain Fries.
My husband seldom talked of the prisoner of war experience – and then only with friends. Starvation was most difficult to overcome for the prisoners. Red Cross packages were not passed out, even though they were supposedly sent. The only food was a cauldron of rice cooked to a paste, once daily, which the starving internees were required to carry to the dispensing area. The internees bravely organized themselves to create help among themselves to lessen the torture from the guards which sometimes occurred otherwise. During our entire marriage, John always kept an abundance of food on hand in our home, due to memories of starving.
In every way, he lived his life as bravely as he had in the prisoner of war camp under t he Japanese. God bless the memory of his sweet heart.

By: Catherine H

Catherine H — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 16:03:42 +0000

Hi — My dad was interned with his whole family at Los Banos. His name was John M. Hill. He was 15 years old. His older brother, Jay and his younger brother, Sam, his father, Alva Jay (AJ), his mother Martha (a nurse and teacher), his sister Jo Crabbe, and brother-in-law Ken Crabbe. (To the other family searching for a John Hill, perhaps knowing of this John M. Hill, who is my dad, will help you identify yours, too.)

My father passed away in 1986. All the family are gone now. Sam passed away year before last.

My father worked as an agricultural economist, helping underdeveloped countries grow more food and become self-sufficient. He also spent time in Viet Nam in the last year of the war there, helping identify the location of American POWs so they could be freed. It distressed him that some were not and he told me that he knew there were POW's who never got out of Viet Nam. I believe some had been kept in underwater bunkers.

He never spoke or felt badly towards the Japanese. He told us the guards were just ordinary men doing their jobs. My mother said he told her he was sorry to see them killed, never to go home again. When he talked about the camp with us kids, he kept it light — how he and his brothers (the Hill boys) got to do garbage duty, and it was amazing what people would throw away even in prison camp. He also said how they would find maggots in the 'cereal' and they were great protein so they ate them, so we'd better eat our cereal all up. My dad's philosophy was that you remember the good things and forget the bad. He was a very innovative problem solver, which he attributed to being in camp.

My grandfather traded cigarettes from the Red Cross packet everyone got at the start of the internment for vitamins. My grandmother talked about how, in the women's camp, they formed a choir. The hymns the women sang together kept them going.

To John Palmer, I bet you knew my father John Hill and his two brothers. And I bet my grandmother Martha knew your mother, too.

God bless you all, especially the rescuers. You can bet my dad is there to greet them as they cross the rainbow to the other side.

By: John Palmer

John Palmer — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 04:08:53 +0000

Does anybody remember Lucy Palmer and her two boys?

By: John Palmer

John Palmer — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 04:06:27 +0000

To get the record straight, I was a just under eight years old and in Los Banos with my younger brother, Ronnie and our mother, Lucy Palmer (one of the few British there and originally on our way to Sydney Australia when we interned in Manila).

My mother was friends with the two Filipino office assistants who worked in the Commandant's. The evening before the rescue the two girls begged my mother not to go to roll call the next morning. They had overheard Konishi, the Japanese second-in-command organising the machine-gunning of the every civilian at 7 AM as soon as we were lined up. We were all just seven minutes from death.

By: Brian O

Brian O — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 05:20:56 +0000

I have a friend that goes to my church who was in the 11th Airborne. His name is John Martin. He is in his 80's by now. I have a lot of respect for him and all the troops in our military. I really want to know about what it was like for him, but I don't want to press him about his military service. If you would, pray with me about this. He is a very kind man and I don't want to invade his privacy or to hurt or offend him in any way. I personally have never had the privilege to serve our country. I very much regret that and if I could go back 35 yrs, I would do things differently. Still I love to pray for our military and their families, and try to send care packages to them. They are so appreciative. If you have the opportunity, write them a letter or send them some good tasting trail mix bars or some disposable razors. Anything they get helps them to feel more human and lets them know that we love and appreciate them. God bless.

By: Loretta Alty Murphy

Loretta Alty Murphy — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 22:37:20 +0000

thank you for sharing. My Father Alberto(Al) Altobelli(Alty) was also part of the 11th Airborne. He never spoke of the horror's. Just now with documentaries we are seeing truth's. He passed in 1991 at 75 years old.

By: Sal Herera

Sal Herera — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 05:06:44 +0000

My Dad was also in the 11th airborne and was one who helped. He didnt realy like talking about his time in ww2 but I do know He missed all those that did not come back. I thank God for the men and woman who served and are still serving in the U.S. military. God bless u all.

By: Loretta Alty Murphy

Loretta Alty Murphy — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 13:35:51 +0000

My Father Albert Alty was in the 11th airborne division and was part of this awesome rescue. An Italian man,born Alberto Altobelli Nov. 1st 1915.

By: Bill Gindhart (Jr.)

Bill Gindhart (Jr.) — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 22:45:06 +0000

Julie,
My dad passed away in Nov. 2005 and was on the jump to rescue the internees at Los Banos. I called Col. Ringler when he died and he remembered my dad as a platoon Sgt with B Company 511 PIR.
The only reason B Co. was chosen to jump was they had just gotten12 more replacements than the other companies.
B Company is the only outfit during WWII that made 3 combat jumps.
They were; Tagytagy Ridge, Los Banos abd Appari, all in Luzon, RPI.
There are several more books available on the jump at Amazon.com
The jump on Los Banos is also studied at the Military War College.
Let me know if this helps.
Bill