[trimom]

My husband’s uncle was among those surrendered on Correigidor. At over 6 foot tall and red headed, he was very short to survive at Cabanatuan. The cause of death was listed as dysentery. Reading over time has convinced us that might not be accurate. Who knows? All I am sure of is that he was one more life ended far too young.

[VR-21]

Dysentary was a common cause of death amoung prisoners of the Japanese. Prisoners were transported in very crowded conditions and what little water that was given was often not clean. It was actually rare for prisoners not to get dysentary. What made it so serious was the poor nutrition and debilitated condition of the prisoners when they got it. Wet beri-beri and hepatitis were also responsible for many deaths. My father survived wet beri-beri, and lost all of his teeth from malnutrition. Health problems caused more prisoner deaths than anything else.

The men of Corregidor generally had a higher rate of survival than the men of Bataan. The received the same brutal treatment by the Japanese when they fell into captivity, but they were not as starved and sick as were the men of Bataan, who in such debilitated condition endured the "Death March" and the hellish Camp O'Donnel.