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HE BATTALION
Friday, February 16, 1973
College Station, Texas
Page 3
Bryan Man Recalls WW11 POW Experience
By TED BORISKIE
Staff Writer
The stories of POW releases
irovide more than just news to
BobBoriskie; they provide mem-
iries.
Boriskie, 4208 Maywood, Bry
an, spent BMi years in a Japanese
irisoner of war camp during
World War II.
He was captured on May 6,
1942 along with about 400 other
men on Fort Hughes, a small
aland a half mile off the coast
of Corregidor in the Philippines,
fheprisoners were sent to Bilibid
irison in Manila and later as-
ligned to work on the docks load-
ng Japanese ships.
"The Filipinos were constantly
rying to prove they were still
m our side,” he said. “Once they
iad a Japanese Appreciation Day
eaturing Tojo in a parade down
he middle of Manila. We were
[iventhe day off and had to stand
n a side street while the parade
assed. There was a Filipino band
marching behind Tojo and when
they passed us the bandleader
gave a command for ‘eyes right’
and the band broke into ‘Stars
and Stripes Forever.’ Fortunately
for the band, the Japanese never
figured out what it all meant.”
On July 6, 1944 the POWs were
transferred to camps on the Jap
anese mainland.
“Over 800 of us made the trip
in a compartment that was 60
feet by 40 feet,” he said. “Six
men died and we had to take
turns sitting down.
“The trip showed us the ef
fectiveness of the Allied sub
marine blockade of Japan. We
left the Philippines in 28 cargo
ships with seven destroyers. When
we finally reached Japan there
were seven cargo ships and two
destroyers left. None of the 13
American officers from my camp
made it. Over half the POWs
died on the trip.”
In Japan the prisoners were
split up and sent to several dif
ferent camps, Boriskie was sent
to a camp outside Kamioka, a
small mining town on the island
of Honshu. He shared the camp
with 600 other prisoners, a mix
ture of American, Dutch Java
nese and Burmese.
“We worked in lead mines
along with a number of Korean
slave laborers,” said Boriskie.
“We depended on the Koreans
for all of our war news. The
Japanese guards believed that
Japan had landed on the United
States’ west coast and the only
thing keeping them from moving
east was the Rocky Mountains.
We knew were were winning the
war, though.”
The men were working in the
mines one morning when a tre
mendous roar came barreling
through the mountains.
“We thought a munitions fac
tory had blown up but the next
day one of the Koreans told us
a single bomb had been dropped
Ten Free Courses Offered
The Memorial Student Center
louneil and Directorate is offer-
ng 10 programs in its Free Uni-
ersity series.
"Adventure In Auto Economy”
iill be presented by Dr. Robert
letcher on Thursdays at 7 and
:15 p.m. in Room 101 of the
iechanical Engineering Shops.
Pastor Hubert Beck will head
programs, “Audio-Visual
Workshop of Life” at the Uni-
ersity Lutheran Student Center
Wsdays at 7:30 p.m. and “The
ife That Changed The World”
n Mondays at 7:30 p.m. in Room
95-A of the Zachry Engineering
Center.
“English Debating Style” will
be studied by Lincoln Union Mon
days at 7:30 p.m. in Room 302
of the Library.
Dr. James H. Copp will lead
a study of “Ethnic and Race Re
lations” on Tuesdays at 8 p.m. in
Room 129 of Bolton Hall.
Gertrud Adam will teach “Gour
met Cooking” Thursday at 7:30
p.m. in the Lone Star Gas Blue
Flame Room.
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Robert Red ford In
“JEREMIAH
JOHNSON” (PG)
“Human Sociobiology” will be
taught by Dr. Johannes Vanover-
beek Wednesdays at 8 p.m. in
Room 146 of the Physics Building.
“Speech Impediments” will be
discussed by Jo Ann Reeves and
Jim Robinette on Wednesdays at
8 p.m. The group will meet at
304 Borderbrook.
Dr. J. H. Hinojosa will study
“Urban Planning.” Call 845-1046
for time and place.
on Hiroshima, destroying the city
and killing 80,000 people. We
tried to figure out what kind of
bomb it was and decided it must
have been compressed liquid
oxygen.
“After that the guards really
became brutal. Some of them had
families on Hiroshima and Naga
saki.
“We figured the Allied forces
were close to landing. The guards
had told us that when the Allies
landed, all prisoners would be
killed, but we wanted them to
come anyway.
“One day the guards told us
that it was a Japanese holiday
and we wouldn’t have to work.
We didn’t work for the next two
days and then the Japanese com
mander told us that Japan had
come to terms with the Allies and
that we were to remain under
Japanese guard until the Allies
arrived. When we awoke the next
morning, the Japanese were gone.
I guess they just went home.
“The next day an American
plane flew over and dropped a
message saying that supplies
would be dropped the next day.
“On the following day a B29
flew over and dropped supplies,
mostly clothing and C-rations.
We couldn’t believe the size of
the plane. The largest plane any
of us had seen was a B15.
“The villagers, who had previ
ously hated us, spat on us and
thrown bedpans on us, were now
terrified. They brought us all the
supplies that had undershot or
overshot us, including single
sticks of gum.
“The next day a convoy of Army
trucks came to take us home.
There was no cheering, no real
expressions of joy. We couldn’t
adjust to the thought of going
home. We just couldn’t believe it.
“We were taken to Yokohama
where they had these big pots of
stew waiting for us. We had lived
on two bowls of rice a day for
so long our s to m a c h s were
shrunken, so we couldn’t eat
much. After a rice diet, the stew
was so rich we would eat a bowl
of it, throw up, go back for an
other bowl, eat it and throw up
again.
“After starving for so long,
food was so important we would
butter pieces of bread and carry
them around in our pockets.
“The next day we left Yoko
hama for Guam where we stayed
a day for medical examinations.
I found that I had gone from the
184 pounds I had weighed when
I was captured down to 112.
“We put in at Oakland and
were taken directly to the naval
hospital there. Everyone had
some degree of beri-beri. After
a couple of weeks at Oakland we
were moved to hospitals near our
home towns.”
Boriskie was sent to the Cor
pus Christ! naval hospital where
he stayed for a month before he
was awarded 120 days leave.
“The hardest thing to adjust
to was the changes that took
place while we were gone,” said
Boriskie. “Shirley Temple and
Judy Garland had grown up, De
anna Durbin wasn’t popular and
we had a President none of us
had ever heard of.
“My mother had saved all the
wartime issues of Life Magazine
so I spent my first couple of
months home reading Life.
“When I was in the hospital at
Corpus Christi, a group of enter
tainers came to the hospital. I
walked into this room where
some guy was singing. Somebody
told me his name was Frank
Sinatra and I asked ‘Who’s he?’
They said girls were crazy about
him and I couldn’t believe it. He
was as skinny as we were.”
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