Following the Hippocratic Oath (31)

Isn't life ironic?  Today's post tells the story of the rescue by the Americans of some Germans from the Japanese.  In swearing the Hippocratic oath, a physician vows "I will remember that I remain a member of society with special obligations to all my fellow human beings, those of sound mind and body as well as the infirm."  This means the Japanese as well as the Germans.

German missionary released from 
Japanese prisoner of war camp

April 25, 1944 Tuesday
     Last night I helped Niemeyer amputate a Jap's leg above the knee.  He was a mess.  He'd been dressed by his own medics and left behind on a stretcher.  His leg was gangrenous - smelled like gas.  He had several other large holes in both legs - all infected and 3 or 4 days old.  I went to sleep on the floor about 12.  Was it ever hard!  Today I amputated a leg below the knee.  The fellow had 6 other wounds, several large and into both knee joints.  His condition was extremely poor, even after 2 units of plasma [a unit is one pint].  He was unconscious from a small head wound, probably penetrating the brain.  There were quite a few other wounded.

April 26, 1944 Wednesday

     Slept on a litter - better.  No more raids.  Quite a lot of wounded and injured today.

someone said the souvenir hunters got ahead of patrols the other day.  I went to a beach to wash clothes and bathe.  I now have on Jap underwear and pants.  we are using Jap soap, tooth brushes, towels, socks without heels, bandages, creosol, tr. green soap [?soup?], etc. 

     We have a mess line.  The K rations were tiresome.  It rained yesterday and the mud was bad.  The 2nd echelon came in yesterday after being anchored a day until the beach quit exploding.  Jap planes dropped flares looking for their convoy the night before.

April 27, 1944 Thursday

     Big barrage this AM from the guns on the hill.  Things are more quiet today.  I sewed up a stab wound of the back with hemisection of the cord done by one of his buddies in the dark!  Also a bad cut of the foot.

     We have a big bunch of German missionary prisoners.

Lt. Glautauer escaped from Austria ahead of the Nazis,
and was a physician with the 92nd Evac

The following undated article was in an unidentified newspaper, but Gene, who spoke some German, had written next to it "He [Beuers] first told this story to me and I sent him to HQ with it."

PRIEST HEARD JAPS BEHEADED YANKEES: German Missionary Tells of Sending Biblical Phrases Thru Nip soldier to Two Captured Airmen About to Be Executed by Robert Eunson
     Somewhere in Australia (Delayed) - (AP) - A Japanese soldier carried a final Christian message from the German catholic priest to two captured American airmen awaiting their fate near Madang, New Guinea, last July.
     This story was told to me by August Beuers, mission brother from Muenster, Germany who was among the 100 missionaries liberated when the Americans seized Hollandia from the Japanese last month. 
     Beuers said he was bound hand and foot and was lying on the floor of a native hut when the Japanese brought in two Americans.  The Japanese untied Beuers and used the ropes to bind the Americans.  Beuers described them as tall, one red-haired and the other dark complexioned.  The Americans were weary after a long walk thru the jungle before their capture.
     Thru an interpreter, Maj. Arnold M. Maahs of Tilleda, Wis., Beuers related that the Americans were kept bound on the floor with no food and very little water for several days.
     "One day a native brought us some bananas but mean Japanese guards took them from him and ate them in front of us," said Beuers.
     "Finally, they took the Americans away.  A few days later a Japanese soldier named Torino came in and said Major Natehara, our captor, has ordered the Americans executed.  We didn't know whether he was speaking the truth.  He told us the Americans had asked for a Bible but Natehara had refused.
     'I can't cut their heads off without giving them a Christian message or they will come back and haunt me,' Torino told us, " Beuers said.
     The German then related how Father Luttmer, a German missionary who later died in captivity, gave Torino the Biblical phrase: "Let not your heart be troubled.  Ye believe in God, believe also in me.  In my Father's house are many mansions.  I go to prepare a place for you.  I will come again and receive you unto myself that where I am ye may be also."
     Beures said Torino spoke English well and memorized the message.
     "Several days later the natives told us Torino had cut off the Americans' heads," Beuers said.  "But we don't really know what happened."