The San Fernando Train Ride

The San Fernando Train Station - April 2000 -- Alf and his fellow prisoners were herded into the boxcars of their train several blocks to the left of this station. The tracks ran right by this building. They are visible today. -- Photo Courtesy of Rick Peterson

We arrived in San Fernando, got on a train, and headed for Camp O'Donnell.

The train consisted of six or seven World War I era boxcars, 'forty- by-eight's, I guess they called them. They packed us in the cars like sardines, so tight you couldn't sit down. Then they shut the door. If you passed out, you couldn't fall down. If someone had to go to the toilet, you went right there where you were. It was close to summer and the weather was hot and humid, hotter than Billy blazes! We were on the train from early morning until late afternoon without getting out. People died in the railroad cars. I don't know why, but the train stopped at a little town outside Clark Field. They opened the boxcar doors and the Filipinos tried to feed us. The Japanese beat them off with clubs and shut the boxcar doors. The Filipinos tried to throw the food since they couldn't get close to the train. We never got the food. After about an hour, the train started up. Later on, we arrived at the small town of Capas.

WRITER'S NOTE: The little town outside Clark Field was Angeles.