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Amazing Japanese POW handwritten diary


ramram
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Brian Dentino

Perhaps the best POW story I've read on the forum...

I can only echo what D stated in the above post.....this is just an amazing treasure trove of insight into life of one of the many "Guests of the Emperor"!

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Perhaps the best POW story I've read on the forum...

Wholeheartedly agree! It should be published. "Lest We Forget". Thanks for sharing it. Bobgee

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Jack's Son

Wholeheartedly agree! It should be published. "Lest We Forget". Thanks for sharing it. Bobgee

Agree with Bob, this is the best documentation we can have to deminstrate the ordeal these men went through. Howelse can we ever know?

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Wholeheartedly agree! It should be published. "Lest We Forget". Thanks for sharing it. Bobgee

 

 

I agree with all said. This is a extremely fantastic and rare piece of POW history. To the POW collector, this would have to be the holy grail!

JD

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It needs to be both preserved and published. What an amazing step back in time. We always say "if only it could talk" with the bits we collect. This can and provides so much for people to learn.

 

Thanks for sharing it.

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It's amazing when you stop and think 1) how lucky this guy was to survive and 2) how lucky these diaries were to make it back with him. As bad as it was for him, he did have many fortunate things happen for him. First, when he was wounded, he was moved from Bataan to a hospital on Mindanao so he missed the death march. Since he was an invalid from the wound and subsequent amputation, he didn't have to go on work details which was a big detriment to their health. He also had some access to medicine since he became friends with the POW medical personnel. He was also an officer, which got him slightly better treatment from the Japanese. He was placed in two of the better camps (Davao Penal Colony and Bilibid) instead of a brutal location like Cabanatuan. He was fairly good at gambling, which got him some much needed food at times. The Hell Ship he was on only traveled for a few days from Davao to Manila instead of the weeks that some of the Hell Ships took to go to Japan. His Hell Ship wasn't attacked by US planes or subs like many of them were since they were unmarked as to having POW's on board. He was liberated from Bilibid in Manila in February of 1945, unlike those that were shipped to Japan and had to survive until August of 1945. He also had a Japanese guard that helped get him some food in exchange for some valuables and favors. Very fortunate soldier, considering the circumstances.

 

Then there is the survival of the diaries. He mentions a couple of close calls to them being found by the Japanese. He also nearly loses them during a couple of searches as well as on the Hell Ship and also at the liberation of his POW camp.

 

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121eagles

I would say this is a POW of the Japanese diary of a lifetime for all the reasons you stated above. The amount of material is astounding. Most guys came back with nothing. Outstanding example of a extremely rare item!

 

Dave

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Hinkle also took a few dozen photos of which many are captioned on the back. Most are from 1941 or early 1942 but they are pretty generic. There is also a roll of Kodak 35mm negatives of some different images that I'm going to get developed at some point (film is still in great condition) that are labeled Manila P.I. '41. Interestingly, in his diary he mentions that the Japs took his camera when he went into the POW camp. He says he just assumed it was long gone but was surprised that a Japanese officer came to him a few months later and says he would like to have the camera. It had been kept in storage by the Japanese. Hinkle, surprised that he's getting ANYTHING for it, trades him the camera for some food and cigarettes and then shows him how to use it.

 

He has been placed in charge of helping train the 63rd Infantry, Philippine Army, during this time.

 

L to R: "Getting my convoy ready to move to Lambunao, Dec. 14, 41", "Maneuvers", "Sentinel in front of HQ, Iloilo", "On rifle range at Alimodian", "I swear in some of my Bn., Banga, Capiz", "My Bn's HQ, "Mobilization of my Bn. at Banga, Capiz, Dec. '41", "Col. Thayer instructing PA (USAFFE) officers at Camp Delgado, Iloilo, '41".

 

 

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Here is his entry about trading the camera for cigarettes, medicine and food (he got that from him later when he showed him how to work the camera).

 

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This is Hinkle's "oh, crap!" moment that would change his and many other's lives forever.

 

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I just picked up the prints from the store that were processed from the two rolls of negatives that were from this grouping. Any help on these locations and possible dates would be appreciated (Kurt, your expertise would be a big help). The film cannister has "Manila" "PI" and "'41" written on it. I'm guessing the first roll is from late 1941 during maneuvers somewhere between August to mid December 1941. I will have to search through his diary to see if there is any hint as to dates/location. The second roll is apparently sometime after liberation I'm guessing. I know he went back in 1946 or 1947 for the war crimes trials. Some photos are obviously Santo Thomas. I believe the other location may be Bilibid POW camp. Sure wish I could insert more than one photo at a time - (moderators note:  merged photo posts after our software upgrade)

 

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Digging fox holes

 

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BAR

 

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Roll 2

 

 

 

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Sign says "Bow to the Sentry"

 

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Sign says "Civilians Keep Out Or Be Shot" . I'm suspecting these signs were put up with tongue in cheek.

 

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These next 4 might be from within Bilibid prison where he spent the last few months before liberation.

 

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Hinkle

 

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  • 1 month later...
HistoryNut

ramram,

 

Fantastic items! I actually own a nice grouping that belonged to this same veteran. I have his medals, trench art mess kit, canteen, cup, musette, photographs and a few other items. You can find my post with photographs on this forum. I would love to talk with you! Hope to hear from you soon.

 

Best Regards,

 

John

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  • 1 month later...
  • 1 month later...
  • 3 weeks later...

I was going through one of my other diaries from, as I recall, a radioman on a TBF Avenger flying from the USS Hornet. He writes about making attacks on Manila on October 18 and 19, 1944 just prior to the invasion at Leyte. Meanwhile, Hinkle is writing from Bilibid prison in Manilla describing these same bombing from his vantage point!

 

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Here is an entry regarding the April 4, 1943 escape from Davao prison camp. There is a pretty good book out there called "Escape From Davao: The Forgotten Story of the Most Daring Prison Break of the Pacific War" about this escape.

 

Rob M.

 

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Here is some general information about this escape/book:

 

Sports and military historian Lukacs tells the story of the only successful escape of a group of POWs from a Japanese prison camp during World War II. Lukacs effectively conveys the horrors of life for American POWs in the Philippines. The central figure of the story, Maj. William Edwin Dyess of the Army Air Forces, was an ace fighter pilot who sunk numerous Japanese boats. He was one of thousands of prisoners in the infamous Bataan Death March, in which prisoners were marched with little or no food or water in blistering heat; many were randomly bayoneted or beheaded. At the prison camps, conditions were scarcely better; the Japanese refused to follow the Geneva Convention rules for prisoner treatment. Prison-guard duty was seen as a lowly assignment in the Japanese army, given to the worst soldiers, who took out their frustrations on the Americans in the most brutal ways imaginable. Occasionally, prisoners would try unsuccessfully to escape; once, when three escapees were recaptured, the guards tied them to stakes and beat them for three days before shooting them. Nonetheless, Dyess and nine others were determined to escape, and they slipped away during a work detail, trudging through miles of marshland infested with leeches, crocodiles and stinging wasps. They met up with sympathetic Filipino guerrillas, and after many delays, ably captured by Lukacs, they eventually made it to freedom. However, in a strange twist, Dyess and the others were ordered not to discuss their brutal prison treatment. Among other concerns, higher-ups in the U.S. government were worried about Japanese retaliatory action against American prisoners still in the Philippines. The author's account of the escapees' determination to break their silence is one of the most engaging parts of the book. A fast-moving, real-life escape story, and an unexpected chronicle of a fight against censorship

 

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  • 1 month later...
All Things Polar

As a former cartoonist, I can especially appreciate the artwork. Humor is just a funny way of being serious.

 

Glenn

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