20. Bataan Peninsula, somewhere in the hills above Lubao, midday April 17, 1942.
Hiroko and Shirley had left Kubo lying where he had fallen, with half his head blown away after taking a bullet there fired at point blank range. Together they trekked on into the back-country hills above Lubao, proceeding for a considerable time in silence, he ahead and she following doggedly in his wake.
Hiroko’s mind was spinning as he tried to make sense of what had happened that morning. He had shot Sergeant Kubo! That was an unspeakable breach of military discipline and Bushido honor, for which he rightly should have immediately taken his own life. But he hadn’t! Instead he had fled, and taken an escaped American POW with him. And not just any POW, but an American army nurse for whom he had developed an improbable amorous affection.
He, Hiroko, had actually made love to her! True, she was bound to a tree at the time, and had been stripped naked by his own hand, but there was no denying that he had made love to her, and planted his seed in her. Which is why protecting her had become his sole obsession. But why? Perhaps, it was the surprise knock on the head from behind that he had received from a partisan in the lead up to the breakout. He didn’t know. But what was done was done. He, Hiroko, would escort her to safety.
But progress was slow. She was struggling to keep up, which was concerning, because he imagined pursuit could not be far behind. Every so often he would stop to wait for her, urging her on with encouraging gestures while admiring her beauty. Her bobbed light hair and green eyes were a source of fascination to him, as was her body. While it was true that he had chivalrously covered her nakedness, more or less, by giving her the shirt off his back, it fit her only loosely and revealingly. And there was nothing to cover her legs.
This time, however, the pause for her to catch up was turning out differently. He could see that she was done in, and it had begun to rain ... one of those unseasonable, drenching rains that occurred suddenly at that time of year on the Peninsula.
But not far from where Hiroko stood was something that offered the prospect of temporary shelter ... a downed airplane. He recognized it as a Japanese Aichi Type 99 dive bomber.
It was partially intact. The engine housing was crumpled, the propeller blades were bent and broken propeller, and one wing had sheared completely away. A bed of broken and knocked over trees supported the fuselage. Eerily, the dead pilot was still in the cockpit, seated bolt upright under a smashed canopy, his face grotesquely covered with maggots.
But beneath the intact wing, Hiroko could see that there was space large enough for two to lie down and find shelter from the pouring rain. So he reached for her hand, and with a few words of encouragement that she couldn’t fully comprehend, but appeared to trust, he led her to shelter.
***********
Tanaka finally decided he needed to do something. For well over an hour the two American nurses on the rear decking of the lorry had been subjected to a grueling non-stop succession of brutal rapes. Tanaka felt there was simply no way for him to continue to maintain his indifference to what was happening. The lorry had already stopped three times along the narrow dirt track, and at each stop he had watched from where he sat in the cab, grim-faced, as a bunch of gang-raping soldiers would hop off only to be replaced by new ones eager to have their turn. It had been going on for long enough.
In his many years in the military, Tanaka had witnessed a good many atrocities, especially against civilians in China, but this wanton degradation of female flesh was shocking even to him. These nurses were no longer regarded as human beings, but as meat to be devoured. And worse yet it was he, Tanaka, who had placed these hapless women on the back of the lorry with all those soldiers, and then ignored what was happening until now. Enough! He, Tanaka, would have to put an end to it.
Jumping from the cab the next time the lorry stopped, he used his authority as an officer to prevent anyone from climbing on board in addition to ordering those already there to get off.
Clambering up onto the vacated space himself, he looked down on Barb and Natalie’s naked forms. Sprawled on the decking, arms trussed behind their backs, they were a pitiful sight to behold. Their hair was matted and plastered to their heads and faces. Their genitalia and their bodies were liberally covered with long thick tendrils and fat gooey gobs of ejaculated sperm. The body of the one Tanaka knew as Lieutenant Moore lay twisted slightly to one side, and showed every sign of having been sodomized by her most recent assailant. Her companion lay stretched out, flat on her back, her legs spread wide, knees slightly raised. Both regarded him as he approached through haunted hollow eyes, their contorted facial expressions expressing something akin to animal pain and terror.
Tanaka put on a sympathetic face and motioned for them to sit up. There was no response at first, just blank stares. And when there finally was a response, it came only guardedly as they struggled to raise themselves into a sitting position.
He took a step forward, and immediately they pulled back, moving their legs to propel themselves away from him while eying him warily. And each time he took another step, they slid themselves a little farther away, until they backed up against the wall of the cab and could retreat no further.
Despite the fact that he had saved them from further desecration, neither of them showed him the slightest sign of relief, no willingness to extend to him the slightest trust. They were petrified, robbed of any spirit. Only fear remained.
And then it began to pour rain ... a typical tropical meteorological event ... one minute hot and humid, clouded over, then a downpour the next.
Moving swiftly, and without concern for what they might think or feel, if anything at all, Tanaka reached out to seize each of them by an arm to pull them to their feet. And then, half dragging them, he moved them to the edge of the lorry’s flat bed, where he leaped ahead to the ground before turning about to pull them down beside him. From there it was but a few steps to the cab door, which he shouted at the driver to open. And when the driver did, Tanaka shoved them inside, Barb first, followed by Natalie.
Running around to the driver’s side, Tanaka ordered the man out and climbed in behind the wheel himself. The engine was already running. He slammed the transmission into gear, revved the engine, and let out the clutch ... upon which the lorry lurched forward. Shifting gears, he pulled forward, scattering several soldiers who had taken shelter from the rain alongside.
Careening down the heavily rutted track, the lorry picked up speed. He was on his way, passing knots of Japanese soldiers positioned to intercept escapees. He felt Barb falling against his shoulder as the vehicle lurched violently to one side. She appeared to have lost consciousness, as had her companion, who had slumped against the door on the far side of the cab, eyes closed, chin resting on her chest.
Steering with his right,Tanaka released the grip of his left hand from the wheel ... freeing and raising his arm enough to allow him to wrap it around Barb's far shoulder and to rest his hand on her bare hip. There was no response,
Peering out through the rain spattered wind screen, Tanaka drove grimly on, his mind engaged in solving the problem of what to do next. It was indeed a thorny problem.
He reckoned that no more than an hour down the track was the main road into Lubao. One option would be to take the main road, drive to Lubao and turn his two escapees in. Doing that would technically be acting in due accordance to his duty as an officer. It was, of course, the proper thing to do. If he did that, though, Lieutenant Moore and her young companion would most certainly be summarily executed.
Glancing down on her, his gaze lingered briefly on the mesmerizing way her tits jiggled with each and every bump in the road. No, he thought, surely there must be an alternative to consider.
He could, he thought, just set them free somewhere up ahead, and simply claim they had escaped. But that might not stand up to scrutiny if he were to be questioned. What had he been doing transporting prisoners alone, without any backup, and how was it that two naked American nurses got the best of an imperial Army staff officer? There were witnesses, after all, who saw him drive off alone with the two of them beside him in the cab of the lorry.
No, Tanaka realized he definitely had a dilemma on his hands. And, to add to his troubles, the sudden squall was getting worse. Torrential sheets of rain were making it almost impossible to see through the windscreen in addition to transforming the dirt track into a treacherously slick quagmire. Maintaining control of the lorry had become a struggle that demanded his full attention.
***************
Shirley lay next to Hiroko beneath the shelter of the downed plane’s wing. Overhead, torrential rain beat against its surface, and poured down in cascading sheets over its edges. She was grateful for the shelter and for the opportunity to rest, for she desperately needed time to think, time to digest the recent string of improbable events that led her to find herself huddled under the wing of a downed plane alongside a Japanese soldier who had both raped her and saved her life.
She knew nothing about him, other than that he was one of Kubo’s men who seemed to have taken a liking to her ... the recognition of which had lain behind the previous night’s desperate plan to lure him to the compound wire so that he could be overpowered and the wire breached.
It had all gone awry, and although a few of them had managed to escape, Kubo had managed to track her and Nora down and had ordered them stripped and raped, prior to being executed.
Hiroko had been ordered by Kubo to assault her, which he did. But then when Kubo was about to bayonet her, this man she now sheltered with ... her admirer and her rapist ... had shot Kubo in the head, given her the shirt off his back, and led her away from the pursuing Japanese.
So now what? The rain would eventually stop, and they might then move on ... but to where? What would happen should they stumble upon Japanese soldiers? Or what if they met up with partisans? And what are they to do with one another?
**************
Minutes before the rain began to fall, Alejandro led his party into the rendezvous base camp he had set up high in the foothills leading to the peninsula’s mountainous spine. Much to his relief, most of his men were already there, accompanied by what appeared to be the majority, although not all, of the escaped POWs.
To get there had meant slipping through a line of Japanese blocking positions strung out along a dirt track, but getting past them and the lorries that had brought them there had presented no major problem, especially under the cover of pouring rain.
Alejandro, however, could not account for the two nurses he had left behind at the aid station hidden in that ravine or the partisan he assigned to get them out if necessary. He had to assume, with regret, that the Japanese had either captured or killed them. Also, he himself, had been forced to leave two nurses and a badly injured male POW behind. They too were presumably recaptured or dead.
The immediate problem before Alejandro, however, was what to do next. In addition to his own partisan band, he now had a sizable number of American POWs, and he was finding one among them, who identified himself as First Lieutenant Bradley Whitaker, to be a rather headstrong character, who wanted a place at the table when it came to any decision making. Alejandro wasn’t used to sharing decisions, but was beginning to realize that he was going to have to find a way to at least appear to accommodate this American while maintaining his customary control over operations.
His experiences fighting with the Americans during the battle for Bataan ... and one reason why he had deserted rather than surrendering ... was that while he admired their bravery, he deeply resented their condescending and racist attitudes towards their Filipino allies.
And, he was keenly aware of their naïveté ... now that continuing the fight meant guerrilla warfare ... about how to outmaneuver, surprise and fight the Japanese using small highly mobile units that knew how to advantage the complex rugged terrain of the peninsula. The Americans, in his mind, were simply too conventional in their approach.
Hiroko and Shirley had left Kubo lying where he had fallen, with half his head blown away after taking a bullet there fired at point blank range. Together they trekked on into the back-country hills above Lubao, proceeding for a considerable time in silence, he ahead and she following doggedly in his wake.
Hiroko’s mind was spinning as he tried to make sense of what had happened that morning. He had shot Sergeant Kubo! That was an unspeakable breach of military discipline and Bushido honor, for which he rightly should have immediately taken his own life. But he hadn’t! Instead he had fled, and taken an escaped American POW with him. And not just any POW, but an American army nurse for whom he had developed an improbable amorous affection.
He, Hiroko, had actually made love to her! True, she was bound to a tree at the time, and had been stripped naked by his own hand, but there was no denying that he had made love to her, and planted his seed in her. Which is why protecting her had become his sole obsession. But why? Perhaps, it was the surprise knock on the head from behind that he had received from a partisan in the lead up to the breakout. He didn’t know. But what was done was done. He, Hiroko, would escort her to safety.
But progress was slow. She was struggling to keep up, which was concerning, because he imagined pursuit could not be far behind. Every so often he would stop to wait for her, urging her on with encouraging gestures while admiring her beauty. Her bobbed light hair and green eyes were a source of fascination to him, as was her body. While it was true that he had chivalrously covered her nakedness, more or less, by giving her the shirt off his back, it fit her only loosely and revealingly. And there was nothing to cover her legs.
This time, however, the pause for her to catch up was turning out differently. He could see that she was done in, and it had begun to rain ... one of those unseasonable, drenching rains that occurred suddenly at that time of year on the Peninsula.
But not far from where Hiroko stood was something that offered the prospect of temporary shelter ... a downed airplane. He recognized it as a Japanese Aichi Type 99 dive bomber.
It was partially intact. The engine housing was crumpled, the propeller blades were bent and broken propeller, and one wing had sheared completely away. A bed of broken and knocked over trees supported the fuselage. Eerily, the dead pilot was still in the cockpit, seated bolt upright under a smashed canopy, his face grotesquely covered with maggots.
But beneath the intact wing, Hiroko could see that there was space large enough for two to lie down and find shelter from the pouring rain. So he reached for her hand, and with a few words of encouragement that she couldn’t fully comprehend, but appeared to trust, he led her to shelter.
***********
Tanaka finally decided he needed to do something. For well over an hour the two American nurses on the rear decking of the lorry had been subjected to a grueling non-stop succession of brutal rapes. Tanaka felt there was simply no way for him to continue to maintain his indifference to what was happening. The lorry had already stopped three times along the narrow dirt track, and at each stop he had watched from where he sat in the cab, grim-faced, as a bunch of gang-raping soldiers would hop off only to be replaced by new ones eager to have their turn. It had been going on for long enough.
In his many years in the military, Tanaka had witnessed a good many atrocities, especially against civilians in China, but this wanton degradation of female flesh was shocking even to him. These nurses were no longer regarded as human beings, but as meat to be devoured. And worse yet it was he, Tanaka, who had placed these hapless women on the back of the lorry with all those soldiers, and then ignored what was happening until now. Enough! He, Tanaka, would have to put an end to it.
Jumping from the cab the next time the lorry stopped, he used his authority as an officer to prevent anyone from climbing on board in addition to ordering those already there to get off.
Clambering up onto the vacated space himself, he looked down on Barb and Natalie’s naked forms. Sprawled on the decking, arms trussed behind their backs, they were a pitiful sight to behold. Their hair was matted and plastered to their heads and faces. Their genitalia and their bodies were liberally covered with long thick tendrils and fat gooey gobs of ejaculated sperm. The body of the one Tanaka knew as Lieutenant Moore lay twisted slightly to one side, and showed every sign of having been sodomized by her most recent assailant. Her companion lay stretched out, flat on her back, her legs spread wide, knees slightly raised. Both regarded him as he approached through haunted hollow eyes, their contorted facial expressions expressing something akin to animal pain and terror.
Tanaka put on a sympathetic face and motioned for them to sit up. There was no response at first, just blank stares. And when there finally was a response, it came only guardedly as they struggled to raise themselves into a sitting position.
He took a step forward, and immediately they pulled back, moving their legs to propel themselves away from him while eying him warily. And each time he took another step, they slid themselves a little farther away, until they backed up against the wall of the cab and could retreat no further.
Despite the fact that he had saved them from further desecration, neither of them showed him the slightest sign of relief, no willingness to extend to him the slightest trust. They were petrified, robbed of any spirit. Only fear remained.
And then it began to pour rain ... a typical tropical meteorological event ... one minute hot and humid, clouded over, then a downpour the next.
Moving swiftly, and without concern for what they might think or feel, if anything at all, Tanaka reached out to seize each of them by an arm to pull them to their feet. And then, half dragging them, he moved them to the edge of the lorry’s flat bed, where he leaped ahead to the ground before turning about to pull them down beside him. From there it was but a few steps to the cab door, which he shouted at the driver to open. And when the driver did, Tanaka shoved them inside, Barb first, followed by Natalie.
Running around to the driver’s side, Tanaka ordered the man out and climbed in behind the wheel himself. The engine was already running. He slammed the transmission into gear, revved the engine, and let out the clutch ... upon which the lorry lurched forward. Shifting gears, he pulled forward, scattering several soldiers who had taken shelter from the rain alongside.
Careening down the heavily rutted track, the lorry picked up speed. He was on his way, passing knots of Japanese soldiers positioned to intercept escapees. He felt Barb falling against his shoulder as the vehicle lurched violently to one side. She appeared to have lost consciousness, as had her companion, who had slumped against the door on the far side of the cab, eyes closed, chin resting on her chest.
Steering with his right,Tanaka released the grip of his left hand from the wheel ... freeing and raising his arm enough to allow him to wrap it around Barb's far shoulder and to rest his hand on her bare hip. There was no response,
Peering out through the rain spattered wind screen, Tanaka drove grimly on, his mind engaged in solving the problem of what to do next. It was indeed a thorny problem.
He reckoned that no more than an hour down the track was the main road into Lubao. One option would be to take the main road, drive to Lubao and turn his two escapees in. Doing that would technically be acting in due accordance to his duty as an officer. It was, of course, the proper thing to do. If he did that, though, Lieutenant Moore and her young companion would most certainly be summarily executed.
Glancing down on her, his gaze lingered briefly on the mesmerizing way her tits jiggled with each and every bump in the road. No, he thought, surely there must be an alternative to consider.
He could, he thought, just set them free somewhere up ahead, and simply claim they had escaped. But that might not stand up to scrutiny if he were to be questioned. What had he been doing transporting prisoners alone, without any backup, and how was it that two naked American nurses got the best of an imperial Army staff officer? There were witnesses, after all, who saw him drive off alone with the two of them beside him in the cab of the lorry.
No, Tanaka realized he definitely had a dilemma on his hands. And, to add to his troubles, the sudden squall was getting worse. Torrential sheets of rain were making it almost impossible to see through the windscreen in addition to transforming the dirt track into a treacherously slick quagmire. Maintaining control of the lorry had become a struggle that demanded his full attention.
***************
Shirley lay next to Hiroko beneath the shelter of the downed plane’s wing. Overhead, torrential rain beat against its surface, and poured down in cascading sheets over its edges. She was grateful for the shelter and for the opportunity to rest, for she desperately needed time to think, time to digest the recent string of improbable events that led her to find herself huddled under the wing of a downed plane alongside a Japanese soldier who had both raped her and saved her life.
She knew nothing about him, other than that he was one of Kubo’s men who seemed to have taken a liking to her ... the recognition of which had lain behind the previous night’s desperate plan to lure him to the compound wire so that he could be overpowered and the wire breached.
It had all gone awry, and although a few of them had managed to escape, Kubo had managed to track her and Nora down and had ordered them stripped and raped, prior to being executed.
Hiroko had been ordered by Kubo to assault her, which he did. But then when Kubo was about to bayonet her, this man she now sheltered with ... her admirer and her rapist ... had shot Kubo in the head, given her the shirt off his back, and led her away from the pursuing Japanese.
So now what? The rain would eventually stop, and they might then move on ... but to where? What would happen should they stumble upon Japanese soldiers? Or what if they met up with partisans? And what are they to do with one another?
**************
Minutes before the rain began to fall, Alejandro led his party into the rendezvous base camp he had set up high in the foothills leading to the peninsula’s mountainous spine. Much to his relief, most of his men were already there, accompanied by what appeared to be the majority, although not all, of the escaped POWs.
To get there had meant slipping through a line of Japanese blocking positions strung out along a dirt track, but getting past them and the lorries that had brought them there had presented no major problem, especially under the cover of pouring rain.
Alejandro, however, could not account for the two nurses he had left behind at the aid station hidden in that ravine or the partisan he assigned to get them out if necessary. He had to assume, with regret, that the Japanese had either captured or killed them. Also, he himself, had been forced to leave two nurses and a badly injured male POW behind. They too were presumably recaptured or dead.
The immediate problem before Alejandro, however, was what to do next. In addition to his own partisan band, he now had a sizable number of American POWs, and he was finding one among them, who identified himself as First Lieutenant Bradley Whitaker, to be a rather headstrong character, who wanted a place at the table when it came to any decision making. Alejandro wasn’t used to sharing decisions, but was beginning to realize that he was going to have to find a way to at least appear to accommodate this American while maintaining his customary control over operations.
His experiences fighting with the Americans during the battle for Bataan ... and one reason why he had deserted rather than surrendering ... was that while he admired their bravery, he deeply resented their condescending and racist attitudes towards their Filipino allies.
And, he was keenly aware of their naïveté ... now that continuing the fight meant guerrilla warfare ... about how to outmaneuver, surprise and fight the Japanese using small highly mobile units that knew how to advantage the complex rugged terrain of the peninsula. The Americans, in his mind, were simply too conventional in their approach.
Last edited:
