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Don Locke: Looking Through Bifocals

Greg Boyington (Col. Gregory Boyington, USMC, ret. . . deceased), said he was never mistreated badly by the Japanese guards who could speak English. It was the illiterate and the ignorant who were brutal. That's interesting but not surprising. Eric Hoffer once wrote, "The unintelligent are often frustrated with their own shallowness, therefore they lash out at others."

Boyington, famous for the Marine Black Sheep squadron he commanded in the Pacific in World War Two, was shot down and taken prisoner by the Japanese near the island of New Britain in the South Pacific.

To be sure, there was brutality at the hands of the Japanese on occasion, but there were also amusing moments too. "This many times helped salve some of our stress and hard times," Boyington noted. He said, "Some of the boys would still do anything for a joke."

"One ragged prisoner found something tht looked like a piece of shingle. He bored a hole in it with a piece of glass and stuck a stick in the hole, drew a circle on the slate and made a clock face on it. He fixed marks around the clock face from twelve to twelve." Boyington went on to say that when the prisoners were together busy doing something, a guard would always come up and say "nunda." "In our language this meant 'what are you up to . . . what the heck's going on?'"

"You took all our watches away," the boy told the guard, "so I'm making a sundial. You see, at particular times of the day the shadow of the stick will fall on a particular time mark on the clock dial." The guard watched with interest and showed that he sort of understood the watch-sundial set-up. Boyington said, "You could almost hear the machinery ticking in his head." Then the guard showed more savvy than he was thought to have: "But what about when the sun does not shine?" he asked. This was a surprise the boy didn't expect.

"I'm happy you brought that up," the boy responded, "you hold a 'matchee' over the sundial . . . even in the dark you can still tell time."

Boyington recalled that you could read the guard's expression; he knew he'd been had. To 'save face,' he made no sort of retribution then; he just turned and walked away. He later jumped the kid and punished him for something the boy had not done.

Oddly enough, Greg Boyington said he did not hat the Japanese. "Sad to say," he lamented, "this was probably the most pleasant three years I had ever spent in my life; I had no access to alcohol. I had been an alcoholic for several years . . . never on the job. But after a mission, if I wasn't to fly the next day, I'd flat tie one on. I flew lots with terrible headaches.

"One of my fondest memories in captivity was of 'Mommason,' the cook at the Japanese officer's mess. I was assigned to help her in the kitchen. She allowed me to eat leftovers from officer's plates. And at night after supper and we had finished washing the dishes, Mommason would allow me to get into the large vessel of left-over dishwater and take a hot bath. Afterward I slept warmly the rest of the night. While we worked in the kitchen, if any of the brass came around, sweet-ole-Mommason would jump on me and bawl me out soundly for some fake infraction. When the brass left, she would look at me and smile, and wink. I loved her. She will always have a special place in my heart."

After the war, Boyington was given the Congressional Medal of Honor for shooting down 28 enemy planes. The old problem of alcohol came back, once to the point that the only job he could keep was refereeing wrestling matches, although he had a degree in engineering.

Sidebar: The youngest person awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor in WWII was a 14 year-old Marine. He lied about his age and forged his parents signature. He came back home and re-entered the ninth grade.

Lest we forget those, and the many others . . .

Kindest regards . . .

Comments

DON,I HAD TO LOOK IT UP,I WAS NOT SURE. (Lest we forget those) It means:That we will never forget. ~ TELL US READERS ABOUT THE DEVEL DOGS AND MAYBE "CHESTY PULLER" ~ Thank you and Semper Fi MY FRIEND.


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