Manuscript, "Carry On!", by 1st Lt. James Milton Robb which he kept during imprisonment at Japanese prisoner-of-war camp in the Philippines, 1941-1944.

Manuscript, "Carry On!", by 1st Lt. James Milton Robb, in typescript form. [Includes an 11 page summary of 20 chapters which does not correspond entirely with contents of chapters.] [Photocopies] Chapter 1. Background to Manila and Philippines. 8 December 1941, Japanese nationals picked up; Camp John Hay, Iba Field, Clark Field, Nicholls Field bombed; Japanese wipe out air force, landed troops; defence troops both American and Filipino; Manila attacked; F.D. Roosevelt, "Your independence will be redeemed."; fear; President Quezon, U.S. High Commander Sayre left Manila for Corregidor; Gen. MacArthur declared Manila an "open city". Chapter 2. - "Canacao Hospital". Background to the hospital; details other medical facilities on Philippines: U.S. Navy Dispensary, Manila and U.S. Naval Medical Supply Depot, Canacao. Details of location of Naval Yard on island of Cavite in Canacao Bay; at outbreak of war plans to move Canacao Hospital (and patients) to Manila; air raids; war preparations made. Chapter 3. - "Baptism of Fire". Evacuation of patients; Navy Yard destroyed; damage to fleet; Ammunitions Depot untouched; details of casualties; 81 planes in raid dropped around 200 tons of bombs, "They work". Chapter 4. - "Evacuation". Transfer of Canacao Hospital equipment to Manila; mentions many officers and medical staff in detail; moving of Medical Supply Depot under heavy air raid attack; list of Dispensary staff; once move completed, news that Japanese poised to enter Manila and orders to abandon new Medical Supply Depot; transfer what they could to Santa Scholastica College; footnote about Dr Hjalmar A. Erickson; list of pharmacist's mates who moved the Medical Supply Depot. Chapter 5. - "Manila". Medical Centre set up in Manila, public buildings taken over; 27 December 1941, Manila attacked by air raid-Manila an "open city" and so no defence was made; civilian casualties; Dr Brokenshire; move out of Manila (Japanese advancing) to Bataan Peninsula; Manila occupied by 1 January 1942. Chapter 6. - "Santa Scholastica". College in Manila (a girls' school run by German nuns); Japanese internees in Manila orderly; confusion in Manila as Japanese advance, "scorched earth" policy; looting; New Year's Eve, 1941; by 2 January 1942 Japanese have complete control of city; fear of Japanese occupation in Santa Scholastica, 7 January, looted, inspections and breach of Geneva Convention 1929 [cited]; resistance to looting organised; details about diet; some prisoners taken away to temporary prison camp, no POW facilities; another smaller group taken to Santo Tomas and were well looked after; others left for Pasay; end of Santa Scholastica; Chinese cooks; records of Canacao Hospital seized. Chapter 7. Conditions at Pasay Elementary School ('Pasay Accommodation Place'); details of diet and rations; discipline; beatings; intention to degrade white Americans in eyes of Filipinos and to boost Japanese ego; sanitation and overcrowding appalling; Japanese media; Japanese treated by U.S. doctors; Lt. Kusomoto (in charge of all war prisoners in Manila) treated for dengue-led to 'friendship' with U.S. medics which led to better conditions for POWs; April 1942 (as Bataan fell) Pasay busier; strict rations; Hospital corps prisoners kept to purely medical work; beriberi; Navy medics moved to Bilibid, others to Cabanatuan. [No Chapter 8] Chapter 9. - "The Problems of Malaria and Dysentery". Malaria: Detail about the nature and treatment of the disease which was rife at Bilibid; lack of quinine; deaths; breach of Geneva Convention 1929 [cited]; malaria under control from July 1942 but still deaths; specific detail about type of malaria suffered and spread of; details about dosage of quinine. Dysentery: Detail about the nature and treatment of the disease; excerpt from the diary of Shearer detailing diet for June 1942. Excerpt from Brokenshire's notes detailing situation in June 1942. Chapter 10. - "Food and the Diseases of Starvation". Deliberate policy of starvation; "garbage soup"; list of food deliveries for June 1942 [as in Chapter 9]; beriberi; 2 letters from Sarkin to Kusomoto about diet; nutrition details; pellagra, xeropthalmia, nutritional amblyopia, beriberi, painful foot syndrome, blindness, superficial corneal ulceration, epiphoria, periorbital edema, photophobia, avitaminosis. [No Chapter 11] Chapter 12.-"The Fight for Food". New galley built; 2 letters from Sarkin to Kusomoto about inadequate food supply; Chinese cooks; rain and floods; new commander, Dr Nogi; improved diet led to clinical improvements but still malnutrition diseases. 2 open top ranges built enabling bread baking; "Special Diet Kitchens"; Japanese begin to pay all Navy and Army Commissioned Officers, Chief Warrant Officers and Army and Navy hospital corpsmen; list of ranks and pays; amended list of ranks and pays less "subsistence" charge and "savings"; "Cuan cooking"; yeast; Red Cross supplies of food, clothing, and medicine; detail of individual Japanese officers' attitudes to U.S. prisoners; day to day aspects of life; switch in 1943 to dried fish and meat from fresh; financial cost to Japanese of Bilibid. Chapter 12. [wrongly numbered in manuscript]-"The Fight for Medicine and Supplies". Medical supplies inadequate; lists of most needed supplies and equipment; lack of beds and mattresses-risk of pneumonia; lack of toilet paper, soap; prisoners' clothing; maintenance supplies; Article 15 of Geneva Convention 1929 breached [cited]. [No Chapter 13-note in Chapter 12 of 4 missing pages] Chapter 14. - "The Surgical Service and Special Activities". Surgical equipment from July 1942; detail about Commander Hayes; laboratory; pharmacy; X-Ray; dental clinic. Chapter 15. The Bilibid Store augmented diet and medical supplies; detail about Alexander Hanson. Chapter 16. Structure of Japanese authority; "Philippines Islands Prisoners of War Administration"; memorandum for Dr Sarkin from Dr Nogi regarding critical patient; Detail about Mr Earl Schweizer, Mr Haase; problems of language; Japanese "squeeze". Chapter 17. - "Incidental Activities/Morale". "Bilibid Follies" (weekly show); propaganda used; religion; detail about Chaplains Wilcox, Cumming, Duffy; athletics, volleyball, basketball, libraries, movies; Bilibid College and list of courses taught. Chapter 18. Structure of Japanese authority, list of grades [very similar to Chapter 17 but not identical]; lists of reports made daily and monthly; copy of "Warning" by 1st Lt. Nogi; Front Office men; detail about Earl Schweizer and pharmacist Haase; radio; copy of "Awarding" to inmates Schweizer, Haase and Gomes for being "constantly willing" in their services with the Japanese. Chapter 19. - "The Pasay and Tayabas Labor Camps". Nationality make up of prisoners at Pasay and Bilibid; work of prisoners; Tayabas Labor Project compared to Pasay; long march south of Manila [Death March?]-personal account; conditions in labour camps; burial procedure for U.S. prisoners; estimates of numbers of deaths.

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Description compiled by Mareike Platt

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