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WWII USMC POW DIARY Sgt. 4th MARINES - CORREGIDOR - JAPAN


KASTAUFFER
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I recently acquired these diarys, and the story they tell is amazing.

 

They were compiled by WO D. E. Baker USMC RET who served in the Marine Corps from 1929 until 1953. Throughout much of the 1930's he served with the 4th Marines in China. At the dawn of WWII he was serving with the 4th Marines in Shanghai and was transported to the Philippines in Nov 1941. Once the war started, he and the 4th Marines moved to Corregidor, where he served until the rock fell and became a POW of the Japanese.

 

He was held in camps in the Philippines until 1944, when he was transferred to Japan on a hellship. While in Japan he spent much of that time working in a coal mine until liberation.

 

His diarys center around food. That was the most important thing on his and his fellow POWs minds. There are pages and pages of lists of food items and recipies.

 

In between the pages of food are day by day entries of his life as a POW.

 

I will let his pages speak for him:

 

baker2.jpg

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This is the main diary . It is filled with much of the day to day entries. It appears to be hand made. At some point a bottle of ink was spilled on it.

 

I am not going to takes pictures of all the pages, but you can get a feel for the diarys based on what is pictured.

 

MVC-117L.JPG

 

MVC-120L.JPG

 

MVC-121L.JPG

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MVC-001L.JPG

 

MVC-002L.JPG

 

a QUAN was a group of people who grouped their food together as a " collective ". It is a Filippino word .

 

MVC-003L.JPG

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This next volume is a little Japanese notebook he must have acquired in Japan. I have seen this same notebook used by another POW as a diary before.

 

This diary is filled with nothing but food and recipes .

 

 

The 880 on the cover is his POW ID # in the POW camp.

 

MVC-116L.JPG

 

MVC-004L.JPG

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This last diary is a School notebook printed in the Philippines. He must have gotten it there and brought it with him to Japan.

 

It is mostly filled with food and names and addresses.

 

MVC-118L.JPG

 

MVC-119L.JPG

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This thread is dedicated to the Devil Dogs of the Fourth Marines and the sacrifices they made very early in the war.

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Thanks JD. I love diarys for the same reasons you do. They are not " eye candy" like a lot of other militaria, and are under appreciated by a lot of people.

 

Kurt

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Very nice diaries Kurt! Reminds me of the POW diary I traded to you with the food entries, I guess it was common for these guys to write about the things they no longer had.

 

Rob

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Very nice diaries Kurt! Reminds me of the POW diary I traded to you with the food entries, I guess it was common for these guys to write about the things they no longer had.

 

Rob

 

Hi Rob

 

Ive been trying to corner the market on POW diarys! ;)

 

They are very similar to the one I got from you. I have found with the Pacific diarys, food is always a theme in them.

 

Kurt

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Very rare documents that have survived together(in great condition)for a long time. He must have hidden them well while he was behind the wire. Every WW2 POW that I have talked to said that food was the ONLY thing on their mind. I have a Santo Tomas Internment Camp document much like this, recipies of what food they were going to eat after liberation.

 

Super find!

 

 

The Wharfmaster

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KAST., this is one of the best threads I've ever seen on the Forum.

In my opinion, the contents should be recorded/published somehow.

Thanks very much for sharing this!

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Another outstanding post, Kurt. This diary set is a magnificant record of a POWs life behind Japanese wire. Thanks for the great posts. Bob

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