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Home  Foreword Introduction The Road to Bataan The Bataan Death March The San Fernando Train Ride Camp O'Donnell Clark Field Concentration Camp Bilibid Prison The Hell Ships Japan The Nomachi Express Camp Nomachi Surrender, Liberation, and Repatriation The Homecoming Epilogue In Memoriam Extra: Bataan Death March Route Map Extra: Philippine Department of Tourism Extra: Star Tribune: March of Time ("Article of Interest" for 4-6 Grade Basic Skills Reading Test Prep) Extra: Footprints in Courage (A Book About Alf Larson and the Bataan Death March) Extra: Alf's Letter to God Post/View Comments |
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Bilibid Prison
We got to Bilibid around the middle of June 1944. It was a big prison. Actually, Bilibid was the main prison in the Philippines. The real hard-core prisoners, murders, rapists, etc. were sent down to the penal colony at Davao, which is on the island on Mindanao.What did you do at Bilibid? Nothing. We just survived. It was the most boring place you ever saw. There were no facilities and no work because we were going to ship out. They couldn't send us out on details. We weren't restricted to a cell. As soon as we woke up in the morning, the guards mustered us outside. There was a common bathroom for everyone to use. Most everybody just wandered around the compound, which was one big open courtyard. Everyone slept in the adjacent buildings. There were no bunks so we had to sleep on concrete floors. We just sat around the whole time. 
What time did you get up in the morning?I don't know. Time really didn't mean anything. I'm not even sure even what time they fed us. I just lived from day to day and didn't project myself any further. If anyone had stayed there very long, they would have gone stark raving nuts! Did you want to stay together with the Clark Field group? Could you pick whom you wanted to be with? No. At Bilibid, everyone was assigned to a particular company. They didn't take into consideration your preference. I was lucky because quite a few people from Clark Field were assigned to my company. Of the 1162 people there, three hundred or so were from Clark Field. We left Bilibid Prison for the last time on August 13, 1944.  |
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