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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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Surrender, Liberation, and Repatriation
What did you do there? We didn't have to do anything. We just stayed there for about one week. Hospital staff gave us a lot of physical tests. The spare time we had was our own. Those of us who were all right or in reasonably good shape could head for town in the evenings. One time a friend and I went to a restaurant. We got there about 7:00 PM, and closed it down at 1:00 am. We just kept eating the whole time! 
What did you feel walking around San Francisco?I was very glad to be there! Of course, we were always looking for something to eat. Food was always the prime topic! You would be surprised at the food concoctions prisoners had dreamed they would eat when they got home. Do you remember some of them? Chocolate pie was one of the most popular ones. In the Philippines, there was a weed, which we called pigweed. I don't know what its real name was. It was good when you cooked it. It was kind of oily so it went well with rice. Everybody said that when they got home, they were going to find some pigweed, cook it up, and eat it! People would plan out for a month what they were going to eat! After you were finished at the hospital in San Francisco, what happened? We were put on board a hospital train bound for Clinton, Iowa. We stayed at Shick General Hospital in Clinton, Iowa for three weeks. What happened at this hospital? I was medically checked out. A special detail of military police came and escorted us to the Paymaster to receive our back pay in cash. Mine was over six thousand dollars. The IRS wanted me to pay back taxes on it! They finally did work it out so no prisoners of war had to pay any back taxes! Oh, for goodness sakes! (Jane) We used it to buy a house in Louisiana. I deposited my back pay at the hospital. Before I was discharged from that medical facility, I was able to go home to Duluth on three different weekends.
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