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After interminable days of being herded along like animals, Drake's assemblage of comrades arrived at Camp O'Donnell. This was only the first of five different camps Drake would occupy over the next forty-one months of captivity, starvation, mistreatment and torture. He spent time in Cabanatuan, the largest camp in the Philippines. During his ordeal, he would contract beriberi, and temporarily loose his eyesight. Drake would be beaten on many occasions, and for little or no reason. If a guard did not think he was working fast enough, or maybe just for spite, a beating would occur. Once, while at Nichols Field, Drake was very sick with a high fever.
He was not allowed to stay behind, and so was sent to carry water for the work detail. A particularly sadistic guard decided Drake was too slow in carrying out his duty and began beating him unmercifully. Drake was beaten unconscious. He suffered several broken ribs and was bleeding badly. Left lying in the sun all day, his friends thought he was dead. At the end of the day, two men were told to bring the body back to camp, and only then did they realize James was still alive. He was unable to work and his condition worsened. A truck was summoned to transport Drake to Bilibid, where dying prisoners were sometimes taken. Two guards took him by his wrists and ankles and tossed him up to the bed of the truck, Drake said, "like a sack of potatoes". The long bumpy ride ended inside the gate of Bilibid Prison, where the guards then unloaded him by pulling him off the back of the truck by his ankles. Drake hit the asphalt so hard he bled through the nose and ears. Miraculously, he recovered, and was sent back to a different work camp.
On another occasion, a guard attacked Drake with a pick handle. While down on the ground, the guard took another swing at him, which Drake dodged, almost! The heavy club struck a glancing blow on the outside of Drake's left calf, knocking a large flap of skin loose, nearly to the bone. Drake went back to work bleeding badly. Without stitches or medical attention the large wound became infected. The pain was severe and the odor was awful.
As time passed, the flap of skin rotted off and flies would gather on the wound. All the while, Drake was required to continue working. A friend told Drake to tear a piece of his shirt tail off and cover the wound to keep the flies away. James thought that was a good idea and did so. That was a mistake. A guard called an interpreter over to ask Drake about the "bandage". Drake tried to explain, but to no avail. The interpreter asked, "who gave permission to tear the shirt", and accused Drake of "willfully destroying the property of the Japanese Government"! The interpreter warned, "You will now suffer the consequences of your actions"! Drake was tied to a post in the middle of camp, and flogged with what he described as a "bullwhip with an eighteen inch cracker". Every lick cut the flesh on his back, and "the blood just flew". After an unbearable time, Drake mercifully passed out. Drake says he cannot understand why he did not die from gangrene, unless it was the maggots that continued to infest his leg. That injury, however, would be the cause of many years of trouble, culminating with the loss of his leg in 1983.
In late August 1944, Drake was loaded into the "Hell Ship" Noto Maru for transfer to the Home Islands. More than a thousand prisoners were "packed like sardines" in the hold with no room to sit or lay down. The days were stiflingly hot, and the nights were not much better. Of course, sanitary conditions were nonexistent. When a man died, others were forced to take the corpse topside and throw it overboard. Drake also remembers hearing the explosions when one of the ships in his convoy was torpedoed and sunk. He knew if their ship was hit, they had no chance of survival. After a harrowing trip they arrived in Japan and were put aboard a train. The windows were kept covered at all times. They traveled several days and finally arrived at a slave labor camp named Hanawa at the northern end of Honshu. The prisoners worked in a copper mine. Conditions were not much better than before, but the prisoners were given warm clothing due to the cooler climate. The work was extremely hard, twelve hours a day, seven days a week, and many died from the strain. Despair was rampant and some just gave up and died. Drake had always prayed for strength to endure and survive. He prayed even more fervently now. He knew, after enduring the winter of 1944, that he probably would not survive another one.
Drake had lost track of time, but he knew summer would be over soon. Then one day the guards did not come for them. They did not have to go to work, and everyone wondered why. Then an interpreter told them that the war was over. The guards left and many thought it was a trick. Others ventured out of the compound and into the Japanese areas. They brought back food and other supplies. Then, Allied aircraft appeared overhead, and some dropped messages telling the prisoners that the war was over and to stay put until they could be liberated. When the American authorities arrived, Drake said he thanked God he had made it. He was extremely weak, and two medical personnel came with a stretcher to carry him to the train just outside the camp. Drake refused the stretcher. He told his rescuers, "those civilians you see there, they watched me walk into this camp. I won't give them the satisfaction of watching me be carried out of here. I want to walk out". And with much difficulty and a lot of fortitude, he did just that! He defied his tormentors and walked out!
Drake was taken by train to Yokohama and received his first medical treatment in nearly four years. He distinctly remembers a nurse asking him about what he had been through. She told him not to worry because when he and the others got home, the Government promised to give each of them a new Ford automobile. He was given a new uniform and put aboard a Navy cruiser for the trip home. Drake arrived in Seattle Washington in October 1945, home at last. However, he spent nearly two years in the hospital recovering from the disease and deprivation of the past four years.
James Drake endured incomprehensible horror and mistreatment at the hands of his barbaric captors, things no human being should have survived. It is hard to believe men could treat other men that way, but they did. Asked how he managed to survive, James credits his strong faith in God. "I just knew the Good Lord wouldn't let me down. I prayed everyday for strength, and I was rewarded." And does he hate the Japanese because of his mistreatment? "No, I don't hate the Japanese people, they didn't do anything to me. As for some of those guards, well, I don't hate them either. You can't love God and keep hate in your heart. You have to let it go to have real peace."
Needless to say, these and countless other recollections not related here, are etched indelibly in his memory, and James Franklin Drake will never forget them, as long as he lives. And now, neither will we.
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Reminiscences, as told to Chip Dobson
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