Here is the third installment of the story of Colonel Arthur Shreve, written by his granddaughter, Heather Shreve.
PART III: Prisoner to Spy
In Manila, the Filipino commander of the MIS-X is GEN DeJesus. One of their main Filipino operatives is LT Generoso Masada. In the field, he gathers information from anywhere he can to help the Americans, including taking papers from dead Japanese.
Around this time, the MIS-X gets a letter into Cabanatuan through the Resistance to COL Carl Engelhart, the interpreter on American Command. They have contact! Arthur insists they use the channel for humanitarian purposes as well as exchanging critical information. Through the Underground, Arthur gets a message back to Howard County requesting (from Julia, or through his brother L.G./aka ‘Bill’ Shreve) his Patapsco State Bank checkbook.
Arthur cashes checks in the Resistance (at a 50% commission) to buy black market food for his men. Meanwhile, an American internee named Fred Threatt has been chosen by the Japanese to drive the Supply Truck into Camp Cabanatuan, unaware he is a spy for the MIS-X. He and his carametta drivers in Manila begin to smuggle in Arthur’s (and others) extra food alongside the regular food delivery.
A slim 29-year-old West-pointer, LT COL Harold “Johnny” Johnson, oversees the commissary and stashes the extra food in plain sight and keeps records and receipts hidden. Arthur too, is keeping records in his journals on Japanese atrocities and Geneva Convention violations. He regularly protests their horrendous treatment at Japanese Command, walking a fine line between duty and offending the Japanese, at great personal risk. If he isn’t in enough hot water, Arthur hatches another plan. He instructs one of the American POWs in the Camp Powerhouse to ramp up the voltage late one night and blow out the Japanese radios knowing full well he’ll be the one the Japanese ask to fix it.
He examines the Japanese radio and asks for two of every “broken” part…and after making repairs, pockets the rest to build a crystal radio receiver in the bottom of his canteen. The top half still holds water, so the Japanese are none the wiser.
At the same time, one summer night at Our Decision, little Doug asks his mother, “Ma―when's Pop coming home?” It must have been hard to get beyond the gut-wrenching uncertainty and find the right words. In the end, the result was to gather Mason jars so the boys could catch fireflies. Despite the official word that Arthur was M.I.A., the boys placed the jars on fence posts near the entrance…just in case their dad needed light to see by.
It isn’t till the end of ’42 that the War Department confirms Arthur is a POW of the Japanese. Somewhere in early ‘43, Bill requests a transfer to the South Pacific to be near Arthur, probably leveraging one of Arthur’s biggest fans, GEN William L. Ritchie, (Air Force) now liaison officer between George C. Marshall (Army Chief of Staff) and GEN MacArthur.
Bill follows AES Mosquito Radio Network from the Solomon Islands up to Guadalcanal as General Staff Officer on the combined Army-Navy staff of Admiral “Bull” Halsey, but I suspect that was a cover.
On May 3, 1944 the Resistance network is almost discovered. The Kempe Itai are tipped-off so they arrest Fred and his operatives, search the commissary and the restaurant he uses as cover. Luckily, the receipts they find are all in code so Fred is released and no one is beheaded.
After the battle of Leyte Gulf, the Japanese know the ‘jig is up’ and they rush to evacuate all POWs to Japan in October. Before Arthur is taken from Cabanatuan with last 1,600 POWs, he writes another check for the 500 they have to leave behind (the Army Rangers rescue in early ’45). Keyed in as a spy and go-between, he never stops writing checks…
Arthur and remaining POWs are taken to Bilibid Prison in Manila and placed on the first of three Japanese prison ships (known as the ‘Hellships’)—the Oryoku Maru. Arthur is forced aboard, crammed together with 500 men in each of the 3 baggage hold areas on the first ship. With no air, food, or water, 25 die overnight of suffocation alone. When they get underway and out at sea, the US Navy, unaware there are POWs on board, bomb the ship relentlessly leaving gaping holes in the deck. Japanese Zeros pelt the ship with machine gun fire. Arthur helps COL North, senior Medic/surgeon, to separate the living from the dead and takes a bullet down the back of his shirt collar which exits by the tail, leaving him unharmed.
That night, general madness is unleashed. Men go insane from thirst and try to bite their neighbors for blood. For the first time, Arthur starts to fade and North climbs over men to give Arthur one of his last morphine shots, attempting to save his life. The next day, Arthur awakes to find 100 more are dead and COL Beecher very sick.
With the ship on fire, the Japanese are yelling “Abandon ship!”. Arthur, now senior officer, takes command of the last 1,300 men…
To be Continued…
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