Some photos from Owi to the Philippines (83)

    Here are a few photographs from Gene's collection.

On Owi:

Lt. Joseph Davis getting his mail from Sgt. Ahern on Owi,
Dutch New Guinea

A hut on Owi, Dutch New Guinea, at sunset

Officers' tents on Owi, Dutch New Guinea

In the Philippines:

Ruined bakery in San Fabian, the Philippines (note Gene accidentally
reversed the negative)

Turnips for sale at the market in Guimba, the Philippines

Gene's washstand (a device to hold his helmet) in Baguio, the Philippines

Cub ambulance service airplane in Baguio, the Philippines: "Goldberg's Angel of Mercy sponsored by the students of Goldberg Elementary School, Detroit, Michigan"

Bilibid Prison in Manila, the Philippines

A line of Igorot girls looking for lice in Caba, the Philippines

Granary in Caba, the Philippines

A view of Mount St. Tomas from Caba in the Philippines

Spurs of Steel (62)

     In the following letters Gene updates his report on some of his patients and goes into more detail about the cock fights.

26 Feb. '45
Beloved,
     I'm sitting in surgery waiting for work.  [Maj.? Cy] Burroughs and I are on minor so we may not be so busy.  They are bringing them in by small planes.  That is a good deal, for we have a better place in which to work and the patients can still reach us very soon.  Besides, they don't get the jolting they would in an ambulance.  One poor fellow was hit through the belly yesterday afternoon and lay out all night before he was found.  I doubt if he makes it.  Today I got rid of most of my women and children patients for which I am just as glad.  Some of the relatives would darn near drive a person crazy.  The husband of the woman with the emphysema of the chest [see post # 59] brought me a watermelon today!  It's the color you'd call "rattlesnake color".  It's almost round and about the size of a volleyball.  I have it in the reefer cooling, or should I say chilling!  Which reminds me that the day was cloudy and cool.  We may be building up for a big rain.  Last night we received a batch of patients from a field hospital some miles away who had a big rainstorm and most of their tents went down!
     Later - Well, he died on the table.  Too bad, but he just didn't have a chance.  At one place the Japs made one of their banzai charges and our men mowed down 300 of them.  Ordinarily, the infantry likes nothing better than for the Japs to come out in the open.  Then they can really clean them up.  It is when the devils are so well dug in that it breaks their [the infantry's] hearts and they get discouraged.  The F. [Filipino] fellow I did the supra-pubic cystectomy [see post # 57] on a week ago began to bleed.  It came from the path of a bullet!  He was wounded over a month ago.  I finally got it stopped and decided it was from some veins.  I sewed them up and thought all O.K. then after supper about an hour later darn if it didn't bleed a little more, but pressure had stopped it before I came back to see.  So it goes.  They say one of the soldiers had one of his hands cut off by a saber - completely off!  This morning I took care of a little Chinese girl who had a bad wound of the knee and fractured tibia [upper leg bone] two weeks ago and no care for it.  Her mother was quite slant-eyed and rather pretty.  Poor kid will have a short leg for it hit the growing part of the bone.
     All my love, Eugene

March 1, 1945  Still getting a few casualties from the 6th Division.

March 3, 1945  We bought (Officers' club) 2 bottles of good Manila rum for P5.00 [$2.50] a bottle.  I sold one to [Maj.] Hiram [Armstrong].

4 March '45
Dear Folks [Beth's sister and brother-in-law, Mary X and John],
     Believe it or not, but your package came last evening!  The tin cans were a bit bashed in, but everything was O.K.  The knife and case is really a dandy [Gene had lost his knife some time earlier].  It certainly looks like excellent steel, and that is the most important thing.  I have a copy of the S.E. Asian map, so I put this one up on the wall in surgery for everyone to see.  The towel is just [the] right size.  Thanks so much for everything.
     Speaking of the knife reminds me of something I've been meaning to tell you, John.  I think you would like to use a machete, such as we have, on camping trips or around the yard.  I find it superior to an ax or hatchet in everything except chopping trees or driving stakes. It is really the handiest item for chopping brush or grass, leveling off the ground, cutting poles, stripping bark, etc., etc. ad infinitum. [After the war, Gene used his machete extensively in gardening, mainly for chopping up plants to put in the compost.] With an army belt, the sheath hangs at your hip, though usually we carry it on the side of our pack.  I had an Australian machete first, but it soon broke.  The U.S. True Temper [steel one] is fine.
     Your letter of Feb. 8 came 2 days ago.  It is a coincidence that you sent a picture of a cockfight, for I'd seen one last Sunday.  But I rather doubt that picture as being the real stuff.  The roosters pictured are not the real fighting games [gamecocks] which have a very small comb [actually, according to Wikipedia, the comb and wattle are often cut off].  But I didn't enjoy the spectacle.  3 jumps and the one cock was on his back, kicking his last!  But it was no wonder, the weapons used!  Why the single spur each wore is fully 3 inches long, slightly curved and about like a darning needle [the natural spur on the cock's left leg is partially removed and a metal knife or gaff is fastened on to that leg].  

Filipinos in Guimba waiting for the cock fight to begin

The fights go on all day Sunday, so I plan to go back today for some pictures.  It wasn't what you'd call colorful.  They are held in an arena, surrounded by bleachers, and there is a roof over it so the light isn't strong.  When I was there, at least 200 Filipinos and S.I.'s were present and excitement ran high, with lots of betting.  You could see that the cocks were accustomed to the ritual - sticking out their necks and ruffling their feathers at each other when placed on the ground, though retrained by the tail.  Their spurs had a large guard on each, until they were put down for combat.  When first put on the ground, they walked slowly around looking at the noisy crowd.  Their handlers gently shooed them a bit, then they took their stance "en guarde" and then bingo, up they went, flapping and kicking.  Down to the ground and up again.  The next time down the one cock staggered, but was game for another jump, but then he stayed down for good.  At least there is no arguing about the decision!  The actual fight didn't last 30 seconds.  I certainly wouldn't care for it as a regular thing!
     Later - I went to church then to the cockfights.  Our chaplain is Catholic, but if he is unable to obtain a protestant minister, he gives us the service himself.  He did a very fine job today.  At first he was very hesitant about doing it, but he was told that in the Army he was first of all a chaplain!
     There were no cockfights going on, so we left.  But I did ask to see the spurs [gaffs].  What weapons!  The blade is 3 1/2 inches long and about 3/8 inches wide, hollow ground and sharp as a razor along one edge and the tip.  They cost P10.00 [$5.00] apiece!
     Tuesday a few of us plan to go sightseeing in a large city [Manila, but the censors won't let him write that].  Our C.O. is allowing us to go, a few at a time.  We plan to stay overnight with some hospital outfit, and return the next day.
     I'm pleased that you thought my pictures O.K.  By the time I get to see them, I'll feel as though I had never seen the spot, I suppose!  They would be better, I believe, if I had more time to spend taking them.  for example, the other day I had a free spell, so I walked about 1/2 mile or less from town and took a roll in about 20 minutes.  I had reconnoitered the area once, kept watching for a time when the mountains would be clear to make a background.  And a certain number of pictures I take are of the very ordinary things, and very drab therefore as to color, but it gives an idea of the average sights.  So far I've seen only a very few flowers - small vines of bougainvilleas, and a few others. 

Yard of a thatched house in Guimba

People in this area use their yards (in town, too) as a parking place for carts, bed down their carabao, run the pigs, chickens and children, etc.!  There is little greenery at this time of year.  The rice fields are losing their yellow-gold tint, for one of gray as the straw ages.  Even the bamboo trees are losing part of their color.  I hope I get to go to some of the mountain valleys some time.  They say it is about like Colorado.  I'm getting a lot more people in the pictures here, for it is easy.  People are everywhere yo go - fields or towns!  I never saw such crowded spots!
     No doubt your Spring weather is close at hand.  It often is in the 90's around noontime, here!
     Again, thanks very much for the gifts!
     Love, Eugene

Dinner with a Filipino Family (61)

Gene's letter from February 25, 1945, to Beth continues:

     What a time I'm having with my civilians!  They don't want to be moved to the civilian hospital and to be taken care of by the Filipino doctors.  That is flattering to us, but hardly possible to grant.  Most of them will be moved tomorrow except my two sickest ones - the thyrotoxic woman [her thyroid is producing too much hormone due to a tumor, Graves disease, or something else] and the little girl with osteo [osteolysis or degeneration of the bone due to bone cancer, TB, or something else].  The woman is so much better this evening that I'm encouraged.  The little girl is some better.  Then I also received a woman with tetanus [also called "lockjaw", it is an infection by a type of bacteria that often enters through puncture wounds and causes prolonged muscle contractions, usually starting with the jaw, and often without treatment ends in death ].  She had her foot amputated somewhere else.  After the antitoxin yesterday and today she is practically over the tetanus.  Amazing!  This evening after supper, I was surprised when the one nurse, Mrs. Vigilian who gave me the fan, invited me to supper at her house - and to see her mother!  Her brother in the guerrillas is coming home today and they are having a roast pig.  Darn if I know if I'll be able to eat very much.  Anyway, it's an opportunity I don't want to miss.  Her mother has ulcers but since she's 51 and this started in 1941 with vomiting of blood, I'm afraid it may be a malignancy.  But I'll be glad to "sing for my supper" [and examine her].


Street in Guimba, with a thatch-roofed, bamboo house (and pigs!)

     This will be the first time I've "dressed up" for a long time.  When I went to the fancy tea, I had no other clothes to which to change.  Dress up will consist of putting on clean pants and shirt and my other pair of shoes! 
     Later - Well, that was very interesting.  They called for me at 6 instead of 7 in a guerrilla command car.  Her husband is a fine clean cut chap.  He had finished two years of Law Prep School when the war started.  Since then he's been a Sgt. in the guerrillas.  He saluted me before he shook hands!  They live only a few blocks from the hospital.  It is a typical F. [Filipino] house - bamboo and thatch, bare floor but plenty of chairs and seats.  There must have been a couple of dozen there, not counting children, about half GI's.  They said that before they invited me they hadn't known there would be so many!  I met her father, mother, uncle (who is head of the local high school), brother-in-law who commands a guerrilla squadron and some others.  It was quite noisy, but I talked to the husband about various items. 
     Pretty soon they asked me to come into the next room and eat.  There was a long bare table set with large platters of rice and other food.  They said most of the others had eaten, so there were only about 6 eating.  I was placed at the head of the table!  They asked if I cared for wine so I said certainly.  But by golly I'd call it brandy!  It is made from sugar cane juice and distilled.  I was the only one to get some and they said it was pre-war.  I felt the honored guest.  The main dish was plates of barbecued pig!  He explained how they split it and put rice in the body cavity and roasted it over a fire.  It was quite good.  Sure was a good sauce, not too hot - of what, I don't know.  Then there was some stewed goat meat.  There was hard rice and soft rice.  They eat with a fork in the left hand and a large spoon in the right and no knife.      
     Then she brought up her mother and we went into another room to talk.  All I can determine is that she has an atonic type of constipation [atonic constipation occurs when the muscles of the large intestine become weakened, but the muscles don't spasm].  She was quite dark in color.  I told them to bring her to the hospital tomorrow for further examination. 
     The nurse and her husband are Methodists!  We talked a while longer and they gave me some "turnips" to eat raw.  But they are a lot better than ours, being quite sweet and succulent [it was probably jicama, which is called a turnip in the Philippines].  They gave me some to bring back and brought me home about 8 o'clock so it was an interesting experience.  Their law, medical and nursing courses are quite comparable to ours in length of time, etc.  Among themselves they habitually speak the local dialect.  They have quite an accent when they speak English.  The girls all seemed rather shy around the soldiers and were rather quiet.  Maybe that is just when their elders are around.  It is easy to see that the people are quite poor, but everything seemed to be very clean.  For lamps, they had small bottles of kerosene and a round wick up through the cap and no chimney.  I had no qualms about eating their food.  But golly, that shot they poured for me was a stiff one.
     ...  All my love, Eugene

Brave Little Boy (59)

     When things are calm, Gene doesn't write much in his diary, but he keeps up writing to the folks at home.

22 Feb. '45
Beloved,
     What another haul of mail!  23 cards and letters.  Christmas certainly extends itself this year, but the way the letters and tier dates [when they were mailed] jump back and forth sort of make me dizzy.  There is no explaining the mail.
     Today was rather quiet.  I'm getting rid of some of my F.'s [Filipino patients].  One way to get them home is to tell them their family can see them only on visiting hours [American hospitals at the time had specified visiting hours, but evidently the Filipino hospitals did not]!  I have a girl of about 18 on whom I wanted to do a skin graft, and darn it, she wants to go home!  She has an area on the buttock about 4 x 6 inches that is just an ideal shape for a split-thickness graft [taking just the top layer of skin from one part of the body and putting it over a wounded area to help it heal].  I'm disappointed!  But I can understand the rule [about treating civilians and visiting hours] - we'd be snowed under doing elective surgery and have no room for soldiers.  Besides civilian hospitals are being organized.  It is a joy to see how the lady with emphysema of the chest (old shell fragment wound) is getting along.  I aspirate the pus every other day and inject penicillin.  I'll certainly be ahead of the home docs on penicillin!  But my poor little 11 year old girl with the osteo [osteolysis or resorption of the bone], T.B. [tuberculosis, which, although more common in the lungs, can attack the bones] or malignancy of the bone of the right leg, we can't determine which, is in very bad shape.  There are some cute youngsters.  One a boy of about 6 [see photo] who has a chest wound and a 1 1/2 inch long piece of fragment still just under the skin of the chest (which I'll remove later), is such a brave one and his parents were both killed.  It certainly reminds me of private practice. 

Two Filipino ward men and a brave little orphan boy who is
Gene's patient

The young fellow on whom I did an appendectomy asked me today what he could give me.  I laughed and told him it was on Uncle Sam.  My officers [who are patients in Gene's ward] are an interesting lot.  One left this A.M. and left the cleverest cartoon.  It showed my ward man (caricatured) in one corner of the room - book shelves and all in the background - with a bed pan in his hand from which a fish is jumping.  "All right, who's the guy that's passing guppies?"  It's a lulu and the officers are always good for the news from their outfits on what goes on in the war.  I have a Capt. Brown, a Methodist Chaplain.  I'll keep him over Sunday!
     [Beth must have asked a question about the kamikaze pilots that struck the convoy Gene was in when the 92nd Evac. came to the Philippines in her letter to Gene:] What was I doing when the Jap suicide planes were about?  Why trying to watch the show and still be ready to duck!  When one of the ships to our port side began shooting too low over us, I ducked.  Then when I stuck my head back out again they were shooting still lower, so I ducked again!  Oh you can bet your last peso, Sugar, I'm taking good care of this "precious" hide of mine.  Sure there are ladders on Liberty [ships] - they aren't luxury liners!  Of course there are only about two of them [ladders], but they were handiest.  I even got so I could go down facing out!  And come up carrying [a cup of] coffee!  And they are between the deck and the boat deck, forward.
     This fellow who was wounded when we had out little fracas [January 19, 1945 when the hospital was attacked, mentioned in a previous post] had a darn sight worse time after he left us than before.  The place [hospital he was moved to] he was at was shelled by a 16" Jap gun in the hills and the fellow in the third bed from him was hit.  Then some Japs sniped at the place.   And a Jap plane strafed them.  And some MP's and guerrillas had a battle with 8 Negroes in a cemetery next to them!  But he took it all as matter of fact as could be.
23 Feb. '45
     This evening I received a big 5 lb. can of Guthrie's candy [from the Guthrie Candy Shop in Trinidad, Colorado] from Margie [Bersano, the daughter of Gene's office nurse].  It is in perfect condition.  I wanted to attend the market this morning but was too busy.  I took a piece of fragment about 1 1/2 inches by 1/2 inch from that little boy's chest wall.  It was just under the pectoral muscle [chest muscle] and not hard to reach.  When we put him on the table he asked if I was going to  ---- and he drew his finger along his skin.  I said yes, we had to take it out.  He looked scared but didn't cry a bit.  [Capt.?] Donovan gave him an anesthetic.  When I got back to the ward, the nurse told me they'd used [just] a local on him before at another place.  No wonder he was a bit apprehensive.  This P.M. I got rid of the two women with the fractured femurs, and the draining wounds.  [Maj. John] Mihalick and I took them to the local civilian hospital where they had made up bamboo beds with a framework for traction on the legs, as is needed.  The hospital had only about 25 patients.  There are two civilian doctors and some nurses.  The beds are all just bamboo frames with bamboo slats close together, on which a single blanket is placed.  There is an army doc in charge of an area of such hospitals.  I think that many of the doctors in these small towns are not so hot.
     The moon is beautiful tonight.  It's like a balmy June night here.  Did I tell you we had a beer ration yesterday?  Six cans for 1 peso [about $.50].  But we have trouble getting it chilled.  Now we can try beer and cheese [see post 58 to find out about the cheese]!  Later - The colonel just called up the office and said he had some chop suey.  I was to get a few of the officers and come over, so I did.  It was cold and not very good.  In fact, not chop suey that I could see!  Besides, it contained green onions and you know me [this was lucky for Gene, as you will later see]!  Roger [Farquhar, a Medical Army Corps officer attached to the 92nd Evac] brought in a bottle of pre-war wine he got while sight seeing in the city the other day.  It was turning to vinegar!  Well, I guess I'll have to go make my rounds of the wards!
     All my love, Eugene

23 Feb. '45
Dear Folks [Beth's sister and brother-in-law, Mary X and John]
     Tonight I'm O.D. [officer of the day, so he has to stay on the wards] so it is a good night for letters!  A real hero just left the office - a Filipino who won the Congressional Medal of Honor [the highest award that can be given to military personnel].  He is a quiet, short, homely fellow!  What a man! 
     Christmas packages are slowly trickling in.  They'll all get here some day!  Yesterday I received your V mail of Dec. 16, Jan. 26 and letter of the 30th.  The time-range confuses me!
     I'm glad to hear the picture of Beth turned out well.  Most of the pictures I've taken here are of the ordinary things and the way people live, but I think that will make them interesting.  All my shots have to be taken just as spare moments permit.  We've been quite busy though not many battle casualties lately.  I have a ward of women and children - almost like civilian days.  Most of these were wounded quite a while ago, and never had proper care.
     The moon is nearly full.  It always brought Jap bombers before.  Here we don't have them.  But the Japs pester us in other ways!
    I'm doing fine.
     Love, Eugene

23 Feb. '45
Dear Jack [the teenage son of Mary X and John],
     I've just been laughing at one of the men poring over a sheet of comics he received from home.  A lot of these soldiers are still just boys.  At least the war doesn't make them morbid.
     Here's the Australian currency: 12 pence = 1 shilling = 16¢.  12 shillings = £1 (one pound).  In Dutch New Guinea, 100 pfennig = G1.00 (one guilder or gulden) = $0.53.  Here it is easy P1.00 (one peso) = $0.50.  But I've found nothing to buy here except bananas, and a bit of "abaca" cloth [see post #55]!  A haircut is 50 centavos.  They give you a dandy neck trim, but aren't so good on the top.
     Many of the women smoke cigars or cigarettes, and some place the lighted end in their mouth and draw on it that way!  Few men smoke pipes.  The guerrillas guarding us are a picturesque lot - rifle either an old English Enfield, a Jap rifle, or one of our make, lots of cartridges slung around their waist or over their shoulder - sometimes a bunch of grenades hanging to their belts - a straw hat or Jap cap or GI cap, and often barefoot.  Blue jean pants, very ragged, sometimes white shirts and pants.  But they can fight!
     Love, Eugene

Up next: cock fights!

Homesick (58)

Mail is the lifeline for many soldiers, a reminder that home is only an envelope away.


21 Feb. '45
Beloved,
     Today was the day - three packages!  One in a coffee can and one in a square tin from you and [one] the cheese!  But what cheese!  It smelled distinctly loud and moldy.  The four round balls of it were almost examples of Einsteins relativity theory in arrested form!  I read one time of that theory that if a cannon ball would travel with the speed of light, it would be a disk instead of a sphere.  Well, these cheeses were almost flat.  I pulled away the damp moldy package and peeled away the paper and put them in cellophane.  One I cut in half and tried.  It was a bit on the sharp side but O.K. though I suspect the flavor was not originally that intended by the manufacturer.  [Maj.?] Hi [Armstrong] and [Maj.? Ed] Niemeyer tried some too but not [Maj. Francis] Sparky [Adams]!  He shied away and practically brayed at it.  Tonight Hi plans to hide the parings under someones bed.  No doubt I'll be credited with the prank.  Your tin boxes were rusted and the paper moldy in spots but things inside were in good shape.  Golly, I almost cried when I opened the small box of pine needles, the tiny cones and kinnikinnik [a ground cover plant that grows wild in the mountains of Colorado; it has shiny green leaves with red berries during the winter and was always used by Gene and Beth for Christmas decorations].  They are still so fragrant.  It reminded me about the poem about a bit of ground where a soldier was buried in some forgotten corner of the world that "Is forever England"

["The Soldier" by Rupert Brooke, written in 1914:

                                                       If I should die, think only this of me:
                                                            That there's some corner of a foreign field
                                                       That is forever England.  There shall be
                                                            In that rich earth a richer dust concealed;
                                                       A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,
                                                            Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam,
                                                       A body of England's, breathing English air,
                                                            Washed by the rivers, blest by the suns of home.

                                                       And think, this heart, all evil shed away,
                                                            A pulse in the eternal mind, no less
                                                       Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given;
                                                            Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day;
                                                       And laughter learnt of friends; and gentleness,
                                                            In hearts at peace, under an English heaven.]

Not a bit of the shaving lotion leaked out.  The shrimp and ice cream mix will be swell.  Please thank Mrs. Jamieson for me.  The pipe tobacco is O.K. and now I have enough Kleenex to have another cold!  Which I don't expect to contract for a long time.


Closeup of a carabao

     This evening I took a half hour stroll (carrying my helmet and trusty .45 as per regulations) out across the little creek and up to the rice fields on the other side.  I passed quite a few F.'s [Filipinos] on their way to town.  Some were riding in with a few carabao in tow.  One youngster passed on his horse - an 8 year old pony not quite so thin as most.  All the ponies are a sort of dun color and are branded on the near hip.  I saw one branded with what appeared to be APO!  The sunset was rather pretty.  There appeared to be quite a lot of smoke in the air.  Probably from burning straw stacks.  However we saw two batches of Liberators [heavy bombers] on their way today to make trouble for the Nips.  Maybe they have something to do with it.

Rice stacks near Guimba

     My day was as usual, except that I performed the first vaginal examination I've done since I've joined the army.  This 47 year old lady is the aunt of a very cute and rather shy nurse on my ward.  I found a fair sized fibroid tumor [a benign tumor of the uterus].  She needs to be operated upon, but I don't know if we can do it here or not.  She and her niece both want it done.  The nurse (whose name I admit I haven't asked) says menopause is usually from 45 to 50 over here.  Nurses before the war received P8 to P10 [$4 to $8] a day for private duty, 12 hours, and P6 for 8 hour general duty.  Hospital rooms run about the same as ours.  She worked at the Lying In [maternity] hospital in a large city.  Under the Japs their pay was P25 but what money [Japanese Invasion Money, sometimes called "Mickey Mouse Money" by the Filipinos].

Old Wounds (57)

18 Feb. '45
Beloved,
     ...My patients kept me busy all day.  They may be transferred to another hospital for civilians and I hope to heck they are.  I opened an abscess of a cheek and took out a chunk of bomb fragment on a young girl.  It had gone in just below into the side of the nose, cut off four upper teeth, went through the pallet [roof of the mouth] and maxillary sinus [just behind the cheek bone] and stopped next to the angle of the jaw.  Some more have osteo [osteolysis, or degeneration of the bone] of the femur and foul discharging wounds.  Poor people!  And tonight I opened a fellow's bladder about the pubis [the forward part of the hip bone] and put in a catheter.  He (a civilian) had been shot by a sniper six weeks ago and urine drained out a hole at the side of his thigh.  I must say I prefer caring for fresh wounds!  All outfits held a Thanksgiving Service for the liberation of the Philippines today, at MacArthur's order.  But I was operating and couldn't attend.  I missed church too, and the cockfights I wanted to see.  Another time!

Capt. Eugene Pfile in the Philippines

     Well, we've been ashore over a month and quite a few events have happened, both to us and elsewhere.  One of our men who was wounded that night [January 19, 1945, the night the 92nd Evac was attacked by Japanese snipers and 5 men were killed] returned.  He had a grenade fragment in his thigh.  I don't believe I wrote that we've had a shower in operation for about a week.  There is lots of water and lots of shower heads.  My but it is wonderful!  The water is from a surface well in the rice paddy and is very soft.  A shower is much more satisfactory than a helmet bath!  I hope I don't get lousy!  It seems that some of our F. [Filipino] patients brought a few colonies of pedicullii [lice] with them!  That is something new for us.
     There is one subject I've neglected in my photography and that is the guerrillas.  They are somewhat colorful!  Several soldiers have told me that they are fine on scattered fighting, but can't be relied upon when there is concentrated shellfire by the Japs.  Then they remember business elsewhere!

Gene's scrapbook label: "Filipino guerrilla detachment eating breakfast
after doing night guard duty on our perimeter"

19 Feb. '45
     ...  I now have on my women's and children's ward a graduate F. nurse and a nurse's aid.  Both seem quite capable so order is coming to chaos.  This morning when I reached the ward (after seeing my other patients) they had already started in to do dressings.  The nurse (what her name is, I haven't the faintest idea) wears a white nurse's uniform and can interpret.  She wears a wedding ring.  I haven't gone into her private life!  Then there is the regular ward man and his F. assistant.  Also a self-appointed F. assistant.  Also the various relatives of the patients.  So it is a tent full!  Some of the people bring food, such as rice in a polished coconut shell, chicken and I don't know what all.  One little girl with the osteo and the pneumonia wants rice to eat.  She doesn't like our food.  I've had others tell me the same.  I inquired at the kitchen and we have practically no rice.  Now to get rice, I'm certain it would have to come from the States, when we are in the rice center of the island!  The rest of the people with the phosphorus burns are doing O.K.  Speaking of coconut shells reminds me that there are no coconut palms around here.  There are some of the "palm leaf fan" palms, if I make myself clear!  Their leaves are about 3 or 4 feet across the fan part.  It is funny how I once thought that was the shape of all palm leaves!  Someone brought bouquets of flowers to the hospital today!  I recognize several of the various kinds.
     I appropriated some [second class] magazines and papers that came in for departed members [92nd Evac doctors that had been sent to other units] today.  [Maj.?] George [Christie, his former tent mate and good friend] "contributed" Colliers, [Capt.?] Ed Powers some Los Angeles Times, [Lt. Col.? Albert] Tipple a November's Readers Digest and one of the nurses a Montgomery Ward Christmas catalogue!
     All my love, Eugene

Civilian Casualties (56)

February 17, 1945
     What a wild night!  I went to bed about 10:15 after working on the youngsters with white phosphorus burns ... At 10:30 the SE corner guards opened up with a few shots and a grenade went off.  We hit the dirt and stayed there for 3 hours while the darnedest small arms barrage went on - all sorts of weapons.  After the first 20 min. we began to figure that most of it was random firing, for no bullets came over us.  I saw some tracers even going up at a 45º angle.  The guerrillas and some of our men just laid down a fire, all night long.  I heard several loud explosions and saw large flashes and thought it might be the Japs using mortar on us.  It tuned out to be some bazooka rockets the men got.  All we heard go over us was one grenade fragment and maybe one bullet.  I'll bet 3000 rounds were fired - M1 [Garand semi-automatic rifle], carbine and tommy gun [Thompson submachine gun].
     Results - 2 dead Japs!  One was lying by the RR tracks.  He had lots of bullet holes in him, but he'd held a grenade against his head, and blown off the hand.  The other was out in the woods.  The guerrillas claimed to have shot another next morning along a little creek about 200 yards off.  They claim they saw 3 more, but I doubt it.  Anyway, the guerrillas combed the area like a pack of dogs.  The Japs may have been escaping from Manila or the Zambales Mtn.

Modified Rand McNally map showing locations mentioned

17 Feb. '45
Beloved,
     This is probably the right date.  I have the darnedest time keeping track of the days!  We take atabrine [a medication used to protect from malaria and some parasites] daily so I can't count for that.  I was rather busy today doing this and that.  We received quite a slug of civilian casualties from another place.  Most have been taken care of but it is something to get a ward full of new patients.  It's a good thing I'm a general practitioner for the bunch I have are all women, girls, and small fry.  Many of them were injured last month and went practically uncared for, for some time.  So you can imagine there are some odoriferous items.  One woman had a large sarcoma of the jaw - very unsightly - and the worst of it is that nothing can be done for her.  It is much too far gone.  Another is a youngster who hammered a 50 caliber cartridge on a rock and all he received from it was a crease across his leg.  Several are in casts.  I've seen several cases of tetanus among the civilians, but they come out of it O.K. with lots of antitoxin.  One poor soul is seven months pregnant and has a compound fracture (shell fragment) of the thigh that was untreated and now she has an osteo [osteolysis or degeneration of the bone] with it.  I just heard that we'll have some casualties.  One of our patrols out in the hills somewhere ran into an ambush.  That patrolling is bad work!  Three of the four youngsters with [the worst] phosphorus burns died.  The two on which I worked seem to be doing O.K.  Later - Well that fellow sure had his Achilles heel [vulnerable spot]!  A Jap machine gun bullet went through his heel bone from side to side and really pulverized the bone.  But he'll get a good result, no doubt.  He was also creased about the left buttock.  I heard that the two Japs that came by the other day were killed by F.'s [Filipinos].  How they go for the Japs!

Some of Gene's civilian patients in Guimba

     The F. people here certainly have Spanish names and use the Spanish pronunciation even though they don't speak it.  The names almost make me think I'm home in Trinidad [Colorado]!  They have black straight hair, black eyes and some have Spanish features.  And the young gals can roll their eyes the same way!  Apparently these "country" ones are not on the loose side in morals.  Some of the men seem to think it "muy malo" to fool around for the family takes them seriously if they do!  There is an F. nurse on one woman's ward looking very crisp in her white unitorm.  We certainly use the nurses now!

Escape to the Ordinary (55)

Children are the hope of the future.  Children are also major victims of war.

16 Feb. '45
Beloved,
     I've just spent a bad three hours.  We received nine children and four adults who had white phosphorus burns [White phosphorus is a compound that burns fiercely and can set cloth, fuel, ammunition and other combustibles on fire.  Phosphorus burns carry a greater risk of mortality than other forms of burns because the  phosphorus is absorbed into the body through the burned area, resulting in liver, heart and kidney damage, and in some cases multi-organ failure.  White phosphorus continues to burn on the body until it is deprived of oxygen or until it is consumed, often burning right down to the bone.]  It seems that the kids found a phosphorus grenade and lugged it home and under the house.  Some time later it went off.  They ranged in age from about three and up.  It had happened some hours before they came in and they'd been given initial treatment.  Some of the kids' faces and eyes were really puffed up and blistered also arms and legs.  I had a boy of about eight and a girl of about four.  I've no idea how they will turn out.  On only one place did I find phosphorus active (it gives out white fumes until it has burned out).  This P.M. they brought in a wasted little girl of six with a huge abdomen.  It is probably a tumor of the ovary with fluid formation.  She is too sick to undergo surgery and the fluid is too extensive.

One of Gene's photos depicting ordinary life in Guimba

     [Gene feels such compassion for his patients, particularly the young ones, but dwelling on the tragedies does not help him in the fight to save others, so he continues his letter about happier, more ordinary things in his daily life.]

Photo of the interior of a church in Guimba

     Last evening I forgot to tell you of the color pictures I took that noon.  I fear I ruined several.  The outside of the church is very unprepossessing but the inside rather picturesque.  A bunch of nuns (black hood, white habit) were kneeling in the front.  So from the balcony I tried a seven or eight second exposure.  Probably it won't show a thing!  Then I went up to the belfry to take a picture of the town.  Darn if I didn't leave the [long] exposure time on [the] bulb and so moved the camera before the shutter closed!  Then I got in a hurry to catch some kids in front of some carabao carts and didn't change the focus properly!  I took others about the streets.  I tried to get typical town scenes, usually with people and not pictorial masterpieces.  I think it is well to show the ordinary scenes a "tourist" sees. [Looking for the ordinary is one way Gene copes with the horrors of war.]
     This morning I took a little time off and went to market.  It was held in a vacant lot along the street.  The food was limited to vegetables.  There were some unglazed pots.  I had to laugh at the F. [Filipino].  I asked how much and he had a queer look on his face and said 30 centavos.  I'm certain they were usually about 15!  I could fine no straw matting, wooden shoes or baskets.  A lady told me that in usual times they wore leather shoes, though I suppose the poor always wore wooden clogs or went barefoot.  But I did make a purchase - 6 meters of abaca cloth [the abaca plant fibers were used to make twine and the original Manila envelopes, and now are used to make paper tea bags and other paper products] at 50 centavos a meter [about 25¢].  Of course it's only twenty-two inches wide.  It looks like loosely woven linen.  It is dyed of blue green which no doubt will fade.  It is made from a fiber of a plant resembling a banana.  It is a regular cloth and is treated as such.  Washed in soap and water, cut and sewn and etc.  It is used for shirts, dresses, and such.  I may get some more later on.  A fellow gave [Maj.] Hi [Armstrong] two pairs of wooden shoes and he gave me one.  They are not so fancy.  I saw a shirt of a very fine variety.  It is made from pineapple fiber with very tiny threads.  It is almost transparent but with a glossy finish.  There was a lot of embroidery on it.  I've no idea how much it cost.  That type of cloth is said to be used in the National Costume and is worn by the well-to-do in all big occasions.
     The dogs here are the darnedest looking curs.  They always slink around in a very furtive and sullen manner [dogs were occasionally eaten in the Philippines, so maybe they had reason to slink!].  And how they bark at night.  This morning about 4 our guerrilla guards challenged someone walking along the track.  When they received no answer they shot a few times but hit nothing.  Probably it was a couple of hungry Japs heading for the hills that got away from the fight in the big city.  How I like those guerrillas!  They know how to use [American] Indian tactics too!  We feel perfectly safe with them on our perimeter.

Letters Home (54)

14 Feb. '45
Beloved,
     Oh boy - mail!  At last it seems we've established contact.  ...  Sparky [Maj. Francis Adams] just read this joke and darn if I don't believe it.  Two GI's captured a Jap and spent three hours coaching him in English.  When the intelligence officer came to question him, he asked, "Do you speak English?" to which the Jap in great eagerness said "Where do I stand on the rotation plan?" [In an effort to shore up morale, a system was set up in March1944, so that one percent per month of the troops in hardship areas could be allowed to go home for a visit at the discretion of the theater commanders; the use of a lottery system was suggested, but it didn't work to the satisfaction of most of the troops.]  ...

Japanese dual purpose gun (27 mm anti aircraft gun) in Guimba

     This morning I took a picture of a Jap dual purpose gun that commanded the road near us and of the Jap ammo car on the track that had been blown up.  I looked in at the rice mill where rice is polished and put in bags.  I can see why brown rice isn't popular.  The stuff is just like barley with the hull on!  And I located where they hold cock fights Sunday mornings.  It is a large shed with a galvanized iron roof, with bleacher seats!  Of course it may be used for other things as well.
     The soldier whose arm I amputated is doing much better and is much more cheerful.  [Capt. John] Mihalick just came in with a tale.  He took care of two civilian women who had fractured femurs [upper leg bones] and had just been put in casts today.  They were injured about three weeks ago.  One said she hadn't urinated since morning.  The woman staying with them tried to catheterize her and couldn't so John did.  Then the other one decided she hadn't urinated either!  John told her to try some more!
  Today I had a haircut.  These F.'s [Filipinos] are certainly strong on the neck line!  There is no use arguing in making the man unhappy (or rather, there is just no use arguing!) so I let him go ahead, only making sure he'd take some off the top.  They don't use lather on the neck just wet it and shave!  He used no clips but did a good quick job.
     All my love, Eugene

February 15, 1945  I have a ward of women and children - mostly transferred from the 98th Evac at Tarlac.

Some of the patients on Gene's ward in Guimba who had been wounded by American bombs

15 Feb. '45
Beloved,
     It's good I saved two letters to answer for none came today and other outfits keep getting packages, but small matter.  Say, I just realized that yesterday was Valentine's Day!  Honey, are you still my Valentine?  (Says I out of the corner of my mouth "If you aren't I'll tan you good when I get my hands on you!")  You know (coy look with downcast eyes!) I'm still your Valentine!  I just finished an appendectomy on an F. young man.  It was plenty hot [infected]!  But it was easy to do.  I had some new patients on my officers' ward - FUO [fever of unknown origin] and possible kidney stones.  So it goes.  An F. came in this evening who tried to move a dud artillery shell.  That was one thing the N.G. [New Guinea] natives learned in a hurry - to stay strictly away from anything that looked like a bomb or a shell!  [Gene tells about a tragedy that wouldn't have happened if children had learned that lesson in my next post]  These confounded F.'s are getting worse than the Aussies ever were [about price gouging].  Some of the fellows said one charged him P4 [about a dollar] for 4 eggs and two small pieces of pork!  P6 for cooked chicken.  There is no excuse for it.  An hour and a half later.  [Capt.? Herb] Nigg and I worked on the F.  He had the darnedest set of holes in his hide.  There must have been 50 in all - most of them very tiny.  But I've seen some soldiers who had as many as 200!
     What a snow you're having!  Honey, can't you get someone to shovel it for you?  It's too bad I can't mail you an F. to do the work for you.  One or two pesos a day and some food is all he'd ask. ... But maybe he'd want to plow using carabao and that would scare all the kids and dogs in town!
     All my love, Eugene

Sunday in the Philippines (51)

     Roman Catholicism arrived in the Philippines with the Spanish in the sixteenth century, and various Protestant religions came with the Americans at the turn of the twentieth century.  In 1945, the country was overwhelmingly Catholic, but there were various other Christian churches around.

Church (Catholic?) in Guimba

11 Feb. '45
Beloved,
     No mail today, but I've had so much lately I can't complain!  This morning McDaniels and I went to church in town - a Methodist Church.  I was amazed to learn that almost every village and town has its protestant church - mission supported, of course. It was scheduled for 8:40.  When we arrived there were about 12 soldiers, and only 4 F.'s [Filipinos]. It didn't start until about 8:50.  After that the F.'s kept coming in until the place was crowded.  There were lots of entire families. Sunday School was to follow.  The piano was sadly out of tune.  They hymns were sung very slowly and with some surprising accents, but with a great deal of enthusiasm.  Just before the benediction the minister asked if anyone wished to give thanksgiving.  Two young fellows and a girl went forward to the altar and knelt during the singing of the last hymn, prayer and benediction.  The one young man was dressed in a spotless white something-finer-than-dinner pants and blouse shirt.  He carefully took out a white handkerchief on which to kneel.  The other one was dressed [in] a similar outfit of a delicate purple-red.  They must have been real dandies!  I enjoyed the service very much.  There must have been 20 GI's in all.  We walked back to the hospital with a very Americanized youth who works on one of the wards, and whose home was in a large city [note that he couldn't name the city because of censoring] where he attended the Baptist Church.

Filipino patient (father behind?) and nurse, with Gene on the left, and
Reese (a ward man?) on the right

     Sunday afternoon you'd think you were back in the States on a visiting day.  There are dozens of F. men, women and children who come to visit the civilian and guerrilla patients.  It adds color!
     At long last I obtained a .45.  Now I hope I can keep it.  An officer patient gave it to me as he was being transferred.  What firepower I'll have!  We still have to pack guns with us wherever we go.  It does seem peculiar to carry a gun to church - pilgrim father style!  But the F.'s probably wouldn't like it if we snagged a pig or chicken on the way home.  We are having ice to put in our battery acid drinking mixture [presumably he means the powdered drink they get with rations].  It makes it more palatable (besides being good, as Hi [Armstrong] would say).

February 12, 1945  [Maj. Cy] Burroughs [not a favorite!] and I work together.  Maj. Nigg joined us.  There goes my majority [chance for advancement to major]!

12 Feb. '45
Beloved,
     ...  I amputated the arm of a poor boy.  It had become gangrenous.  He was wounded a week ago.  He's not in good shape, despite maximum doses of penicillin and five blood transfusions.  We didn't even tell him what we were going to do for he was in low spirits anyway and doesn't realize any too well what is going on.  These war casualties are pathetic, but they are usually cheerful and uncomplaining.  What brave lads.  Maybe I'm a bit depressed tonight.  We had a notice today that no one will be considered for rotation [for leave home] until after 30 months continuous overseas service.  [Gene and most of the other original 92nd Evac. docs had only been there 20 months.] That means not until next year for us, and then we probably won't send [but] one officer in more than 2 or 3 months.  So I guess we may as well pray for an early peace!  There is some kind of deal afoot tonight.  There is going to be an opening of a "nightclub" with a cover charge of P 10 [about $4.60]!  That's a lot of dinero for a chicken dinner and some drinks!  It seems to me there must be some added attraction, though no one seems to know what to expect.  Quite a few of the officers are going.  Now if it was a chicken for a P 2 [about $1] and maybe some drinks I'd be tempted to go.  Hi [Armstrong], Sparky [Adams], and I will hang back and see what comes of it. [As you will see in my next post, that was sensible!]

Barber shop set up in a tent in Guimba for the GI's and guerrillas

     Neeb has been over here 36 months.  He's been with us since Mac [Maj. Richard McIlroy] and [Capt.] Roy [Swanson?] left, but we still haven't had a quota that will allow him to go home - he's really in a mood tonight!  He's engaged but not married.  I know what these hills look like - more like some of the groups of hills out on the California desert!  Now if they were clear of Japs I'd be tempted to do some mountain climbing.  But don't worry I shan't.  Some of the fellows (4 to a tent) hire a F. a peso a day [46¢] to clean up their tent, shine their shoes and so forth.  How they keep them busy I don't know.  But I'll be darned if I like the idea!  The F. promptly considers you and all your things his property!  He lies on your bed, looks thru your stuff, etc.  I saw one of them drinking from Varley's water bag today.  It reminds me of Rochester and Jack Benny!  Which makes me think - usually we've had movies long before this on our invasions.  No doubt there are too many base section commandos [rear echelon, who usually don't have to face the enemy] already in.  But those fellows also had a taste of Jap infiltration tactics in some spots.  An officer on my ward today asked where I lived.  He's from Enid, Oklahoma and has been to Monument Lake [Colorado] fishing a number of times.  Imagine that!  He certainly admires out country!

Letter from Guimba (50)

     The fighting was fierce for Munõz and the operating rooms in the school were busy for the 92nd Evacuation Hospital, but now the hostilities have moved elsewhere.  The doctors and ward men can breathe easier for a time and just care for their patients, and Gene can write letters home.

The officers' ward set up in the Guimba school

10 Feb. '45
Beloved,
     Here I sit at some school marm's desk - a fancy hardwood job with drawers and everything (the desk I mean, not the school marm).  I'm O.D. (officer of the day).  I hope it will be quiet.  Our casualties have fallen off.  They cleared the town [Munõz, but Gene can't mention it in a letter or the censor's will cut it out] at last.  The radio said our patch of fighting was the fiercest so far.  Wouldn't we get the spot!  But thank goodness, they haven't bothered us yet.  Our working hours have been without disturbance by Jap planes, air alerts, artillery shelling or anything!  Certainly not like out other affairs.


Guimba carabao grazing



Guimba women washing clothes

Guimba man "dunking" carabao and cart

    This morning about 10 I took a look at the sky and mountains and loaded some color film and tore out.  The sun was bright, but with a bank of clouds rising.  I'd been watching for days for the conditions to be right to photograph some rice stacks with the mountains clear enough to show.  Well, in about 20 minutes I'd taken a whole roll.  One was of a carabao grazing near us (I leaned over the fence).  Then some F.'s [Filipinos] coming up a path.  Then some women washing clothes at a little stream a few hundred yards away.  Then a man "dunking" his carabao in the stream, still yoked to the cart and his little boy sitting in the cart, then two of the rice stacks.  Then one toward the hospital.  Then one of a lady and her possessions with some cute girls in a carabao cart.  I talked to her a while.  She is the wife of a physician who is with some guerrilla outfit.  Her home at ------- [censored] had been burned by shellfire.  She had things done up in straw bags.  But she was happy - the Americans are back!  "We can build another house!"  Her husband's father and brother are both doctors.  The father was in another cart.  He was a nice-looking elderly gentleman but spoke no English.  He spoke Spanish!  The daughters were about 7 and 8, very cute and bright-eyed.  They each wore small gold earrings.  Later - I was just over to Cohen's ward to see a patient.  He's a ward man now..  Back to the (this will be interrupted frequently!) photography.  I have hopes that it will be a very good roll - the sky was quite blue. Usually there is a good deal of haze in the sky.


Physician's wife in Guimba

     It's interesting to have the officers' ward.  I find out lots of things that are going on that I wouldn't otherwise.  Did you notice on the rim of the [artillery] shell ashtray the indentation?  That was where a shell fragment hit the shell.  I had to smooth it down with a file so it wouldn't dig into the table.  You've no idea the number of days we sat on that blank blank boat!  But golly I was tired of it.  Remember Harper?  He came around today and we found he was on the boat ahead of us.  It was the one we had trouble with at night!  It was always dropping back and we'd be just a short distance from them and it made their skipper jittery and mad.  The men at the bridges [of the two boats] would hurl insults at each other in great style.  It was funny!  Harper looks the same though much grayer.  He's with a malaria control unit.
     Yes, that's right about the Jap planes being practically non-existent here and I'm glad!  I was a darn sight more scared to have to be in a tent operating and not able to see the - - planes than I was the night the Nips visited us!  This afternoon we had a 10-piece orchestra (F.) playing for the patients.  One guitarist had a very nice voice and sang some Spanish and American songs.  The men especially liked one song that had "Pom Pom" in it [in WWII, pom poms were bombs and also slang for women's breasts].  I'm certain it didn't mean the same as it does among the N.G.'s [Pom Pom Valley is in New Guinea]!
     We had a wounded Jap in one of the wards.  A GI patient saw him, grabbed a stick and began to beat him!  He's apt to be court marshaled for such an act and he should be.  The poor devil [the prisoner] (rather a big one - he's a whopper!) hid out for 4 or 5 days waiting for an American Patrol.  He knew better than to try to surrender to the guerrillas.  When he did find one and came out with his hands up, they thought he was a decoy so dumped a bunch of mortar shells behind him to clean out any lurkers.  The Jap flopped but had a piece of fragment in his leg.  They got a lot of information out of him.
     I laughed at Mary X's remark re the pictures of coral, "What a lot of handsome table centerpiece material goes to waste in the Pacific!"  I'll never forget the odds and ends she picked up in the woods one day and made the cleverest item.
     All my love, Eugene