Sometimes it seemed like all they ever did was march. The heat and the humidity were extremely harsh. Most of the guys had run out of water, and the ones that had water had very little. Dad remembers being very thirsty.
Finally, they came upon a small creek. Thirsty or not, they still had to check out the area to make sure the coast was clear. A couple of soldiers were "volunteered" to walk to the creek and start drinking. If there were any enemy soldiers around, they would be the first to find out. The rest of the platoon stayed back, hiding in the thick brush. They were covering the guys at the creek.
They looked. Nothing. They listened. Nothing. They listened some more. Still nothing. A few of the soldiers circled around, checking out the immediate area. It looked okay. There was no way to determine if it was 100% safe, but they did the best job they could, so the okay was given, and they cautiously walked up to the creek, all the time warily looking around. If there was a good place for an ambush by the enemy, this was it.
Once they were at the creek, however, their thirst took over. They drank to their heart's content, gulping the water down. Some splashed the water on their faces, and a few of the jokers splashed water on the unfortunate soldiers next to them. Someone--maybe the C.O.--told them to slow down, not to drink the water so fast, but his words were mostly ignored.
When they were done, they filled their canteens. Some of the soldiers sat and rested a bit. Others laid on their backs and tried to nap as best they could.
And then they had to continue patrolling, they always did. There were groans and complaints as they got up, but got up they did. They changed the direction they were heading, and followed the creek upstream..
They walked no more than forty or fifty yards, when they came across five or six dead Japanese soldiers lying in the creek, their bodies extremely bloated. What happened? Who knows? They looked like they had been dead for days, but maybe that was just the result of lying and decomposing in the water.
The skin of the dead soldiers was off-white in color, a kind of lifeless ivory. They were so bloated the only thing that seemed to keep them exploding was their uniforms.
What stood out in my dad's memory the most was how their eyes had been eaten away. By birds? By some other kind of animal? What was the point of even thinking about it? There was no way they were going to ever find out.
The dead tell no tales.
Every soldier there thought the same thing, but no one said a word. The dead Japanese soldiers were lying in the water. The same water they had just filled their bellies and canteens with. What could they do?
They continued marching.
Raising My Father
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