WEBVTT

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My name is Chuck Jones . I am ,

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uh I'm going on 80 years old now . I

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was a prisoner of war , of the Japanese

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and the Philippines . From 1941 through

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around February of 1945 . My father was

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an executor with Standard Oil of New

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Jersey , which is now mobile oil , or

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yeah , with a flying red horse . Andi .

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He was assigned to the Far East . And

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so all of his career was spent in the

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Far East in Hong Kong , Singapore and

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the Philippines . And so that's where

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he met my mother . The Japanese

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attacked Pearl on December 7th , 41 .

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On December 8th , they landed in Davao .

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Well , we knew they were coming . So my

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mother , who was pregnant with my

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sister and myself , took off up into

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the hills with the guerrilla fighters

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and lived in the jungles to stay away

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from the , uh , opposing forces . We

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were way back in on a Del Monte

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pineapple plantation , and she had my

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sister way back in the jungles there .

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The Japanese issued an ultimatum saying

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that yet if we did not surrender when

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we're caught , we would be summarily

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executed on the spot . So we came down

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out of the jungles and surrendered to

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the Japanese , and it was July or

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August of 42 . Um , so

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we were up in the jungles for 68 months .

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I don't know how long it was , but we

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were united with my father in Davao and

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we were put into the Happy Life Blues

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Cabaret , which is a temporary POW camp

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We stayed in in the happy Life Booze

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Cabaret until Christmas of 43 .

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Um , at that time , the Japanese wanted

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to consolidate all the P . O . W's up

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in Manila . They put us on what they

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called hell ships , uh , and

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transported us from Davao up to Manila .

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That was a nine day trip . Got so hot

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in there . Some of the guys died in

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there . So right around January of

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43 we arrived in Manila

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on that hell ship on , uh ,

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were then , uh , placed into the

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main concentration camp , which was

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Senate Thomas Senate . Thomas held

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about 5000 prisoners of war . Food

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was the big problem . I don't

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remember too much about the food ,

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except I remember being hungry a lot ,

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and hunger was something that you woke

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up with and you went to bed with you

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cried yourself to sleep or what not the

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end of the war is coming . The Japanese

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had a new order to execute all of the

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prisoners and they were going to do

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that . And MacArthur got word of this

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and he sent a flying battalion

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of only 700 men and five

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tanks . So we've gone from being

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liberated to a defensive position where

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700 gs and and some tanks . We're now

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holding off 30,000 Japanese that were

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surrounding in the city of Manila . Um ,

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at that point in time , the Japanese

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started shelling in mortar and

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artillery as the joys came in and

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secured the area spontaneously .

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Somebody started singing God Bless

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America and

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and there wasn't a dry eye in the

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house . Even the judges were crying .

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The song switched from God Bless

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America to America , the Beautiful to

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the national anthem .

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February 3rd was two days before my

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birthday is my I was on my dad's

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shoulders when the tanks were coming in

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there . He said , Charlie , Charlie ,

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they're here for your birthday . And ,

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uh , that was just such a wonderful

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birthday present . So this flag to , uh

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was my birthday present , and it's

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probably the most treasured thing that

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I have