WW II Nurses Turned Prisoners of War | A Taste of Freedom | 4

0:00Audible subscribers can listen to all episodes of Against the Odds ad-free right now. Join Audible today by downloading the Audible app. A listener note. Against the Odds uses dramatizations that are based on true events. Some elements, including dialogue, may be invented, but everything is based on research. This episode contains depictions of violence against animals and may not be suitable for everyone.

0:33Army Major Henry Muller strides into a cramped interrogation room, careful not to spill the mug of tea he's carrying. The room is chilly and goosebumps form on his skin, but he ignores the discomfort. He sizes up the Japanese soldier sitting at a metal table. His prisoner of war uniform is torn, his face bruised. His eyes dart nervously toward Mueller, then at the other American in the room, a Japanese interpreter. Mueller places the mug on the table and sets his bag down. Then he and the interpreter both pull out chairs and sit. Mueller gestures toward the mug. It's awfully cold in here. I brought you some tea, then I hope we can chat.

1:19After the interpreter relays the message, the prisoner looks suspiciously at the tea. Muller takes a sip himself to show it's not drugged. The soldier hesitates, but picks it up and drinks. It's a good sign for Muller. He's building trust. It's August 1944 at the Allied Force's Southwest Pacific Area Headquarters in Brisbane, Australia. Muller trained as a paratrooper, then became his unit's intelligence officer. After this Japanese soldier was captured in the Philippines and transferred here, Mueller seized on the opportunity to interrogate him. It's been almost three years since the U.S. evacuated the Philippines, abandoning it to the Japanese.

2:07But finally, the tide of the war has begun to turn. At some point soon, the American military will launch a huge assault to take back the Philippines. Mueller's paratroopers will play a key role in the battle. So for the past two weeks, Mueller has been gorging on information about the Philippines, studying maps and reconnaissance photos, even old issues of National Geographic. Today's interrogation could be pivotal to the Allies' intelligence efforts. Mueller starts by asking for the soldier's name and rank. Then he asks about his work for the Japanese Army. But the man refuses to talk. Mueller reaches into his bag and pulls out a thick book.

2:53It was discovered a few months ago in an abandoned Japanese lifeboat. He thumps it down on the table. This book lists every officer in the Japanese army. I know your birthday, where you were born, every job you've ever had. Now, we can do this the hard way. Or you can give me the information I'm asking for, and you can go back to your nice, warm cell. The captive crosses his arms and looks away. But after a moment, he mumbles that he worked for a prisoner of war camp. Mueller leans forward. He's heard reports of thousands of U.S. military personnel and civilians in prison camps scattered all over the island nation.

3:35He pushes the Japanese soldier about conditions at the camp where he worked. Were the prisoners beaten? Starved? The man swears that his camp was run humanely, but he admits he heard rumors about abuse at other camps. Muller presses him for more details. The man insists he doesn't know anything else. Muller suspects that's not true. Look, I'm the best friend you have in this detention center. I brought you tea, didn't I? Maybe next time I'll have some food. But if you're not going to help me, I have no reason to help you. Mueller grabs the mug of tea and stands abruptly to leave. A flash of panic crosses a soldier's face.

4:20Good, Mueller thinks. Let him stew overnight. He'll question him again tomorrow and again the day after, and so on. The more he learns about these prison camps, the sooner his paratroopers can liberate them.

4:39I heard a rumour that the CIA poisoned my grandad. Gordon Banks, the world's number one goalkeeper. It happened in Mexico, supposedly, at the World Cup in 1970. Sounds crazy? I'm an investigative journalist on the hunt for evidence. We needed to do some extraordinary things to counter the Soviets. This is Foul Play, an unbelievable tale of sports, spies and family secrets. Listen now wherever you get your podcasts, or early and ad-free on Audible.

5:14From Audible Originals, I'm Cassie DePeckel, and this is Against the Odds.

5:23In 1944, the momentum of World War II finally began to shift toward the Allies. As their military losses deepened, the Japanese guards took out their frustrations on captives in POW camps. And at Los Baños' POW camp, the 12 captured Navy nurses had to care for their fellow prisoners, even as they themselves endured disease, injuries, and malnutrition. But word about the captives' brutal treatment trickled out to American intelligence officers. The stories of starvation, abuse, and torture horrified them, and they began piecing together plans to liberate those camps, no matter the risk. This is Episode 4, A Taste of Freedom.

6:17U.S. paratrooper Terry Santos nudges aside a dangling vine and steps lightly through the thick jungle. Dry twigs cover the path ahead. Silently, he points them out to the five soldiers behind him so they can avoid stepping on them. Then Santos picks his way forward, ears cocked for any sign of the enemy. It's early September 1944. Santos and his crew of army scouts are in northern New Guinea, a South Pacific island that the United States recently invaded. But the territory they're crossing today is still under Japanese control. Santos is 22. He was born into a mixed white and Filipino family in Hawaii, but lost both parents to a fire in a sugarcane field when he was a baby.

7:08A Filipino uncle in San Francisco raised him. Santos was working as a busboy when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, and he enlisted a week later. Liberating the Philippines feels personal to him. After qualifying as a paratrooper, he spent a year in intelligence before being assigned to a special program called the Alamo Scouts. It trains troops to infiltrate enemy territory and disrupt operations there. That's why Santos is currently in the jungle. He and his five crewmates aren't on any particular mission. They're actually taking their final exam for the Alamo Scouts. They have to spend a full day trekking through enemy territory, If they get captured, they fail.

7:53They'll also probably die. Santos' team has pushed about 10 miles inland so far, with no sign of the enemy. But the deeper they press, the more nervous Santos gets. They finally stop for water at a stream. As he's sipping from his canteen, Santos scans the other side of the brook. What he sees on the muddy riverbank makes his eyes go wide. Boot prints. He and another scout wade across the water and dropped to their knees to examine the prints. Santos points. The noise of the stream masks their voices enough for them to speak. Look at those soles. Those aren't American boots. A moment later, a sound rings out.

8:42Santos is so startled, he jumps. He realizes it's the sound of someone chopping wood, and they can't be more than 100 yards away. All six soldiers in his crew raise their submachine guns. Santos signals for them to creep forward. They need to assess the threat. A minute later, they approach a clearing. Santos peers through the foliage and sees 20 Japanese soldiers. Some are chopping wood with machetes, while others build a fire. It looks like they're preparing lunch. Santos withdraws a few steps and huddles his team. What do we think? Should we attack? Another scout shakes his head no. We're outnumbered, and there might be a whole garrison nearby for all we know.

9:29No, if there was a garrison, they'd have a proper mess tent. They're on patrol, roughing it. And we have the element of surprise. A few other scouts nod. That settles it. Santos directs them to spread out along the near edge of the clearing They're to fire only after he shoots first When everyone is in place, Santos takes a deep breath He knows this is risky But he remembers the mantra of the Alamo scouts Whoever strikes first, strikes hardest He raises his gun and fires Santos shoots with the gun held sideways That way, the recoil won't kick the barrel up and send the bullets over his targets.

10:17Panicked Japanese soldiers scream and run. Santos rakes his guns side to side as his fellow scouts open fire. They take down all the Japanese soldiers. Once all the enemy soldiers are on the ground, Santos creeps out and nudges each body with his boot to make sure they're dead. Within a minute, he and his men have dissolved back into the jungle. Adrenaline pumps through Santos' veins. He supposes they passed their final exam. And now, they can get on to their real work of liberating the Philippines.

10:58Navy nurse Dorothy Still chews a fingernail as she crosses the grounds of the Los Baños prisoner of war camp. It's a nervous tick of hers, and she has reason to be nervous today. She has a health checkup, and she's been experiencing a scary symptom. It's 7 a.m. on October 1st, 1944, 40 miles southeast of Manila in the Philippines. Dorothy and her fellow Navy nurses have been prisoners of war for close to three years now. Half that time has been spent here at Los Baños. Dorothy's route takes her past the camp's guards, who are halfway through their daily calisthenics. Rain or shine, every morning, they strip down to their underwear and go through routines that involve shadowboxing and a comical amount of grunting.

11:50The exercises are meant to intimidate the prisoners, but Dorothy just rolls her eyes. They look silly. She could do the drills herself if the camp fed them anything close to square meals. But camp commandant Sadaki Kanishi has cut their daily ration to under 1 ,000 calories. In just two months, Dorothy has lost 30 pounds. Her uniform hangs on her like a sack. It's especially torturous because the area around Los Baños is farmland. The prisoners can see coconut and banana trees beyond the camp fences, and they can smell meat being cooked in the guard's mess hall. but none of that food ever reaches the prisoners.

12:33Dorothy continues past the guards. She sees Hugh Williams, Lorikov's boyfriend. He doffs an imaginary hat, which makes Dorothy smile. He's always great about lifting people's spirits. A minute later, Dorothy reaches the infirmary for her checkup. Inside the infirmary, fellow nurse Bertha Evans waves to Dorothy and walks over. Are you ready? Let's get this over with. They disappear behind a curtain, and Dorothy strips off her denim uniform. Evans palpates her torso and listens to her heart. Beyond the weight loss, she says Dorothy seems fine. Dorothy then braces herself and admits what's been bothering her.

13:18I've lost my period. It's been three months now. I know it's crazy, but I keep worrying that I might have the same condition you did. While at Santo Tomas, Evans was diagnosed with tumors in her uterus and had to have the organ removed at a nearby hospital. Dorothy recalls that one of Evans' symptoms was not menstruating. The thought of having tumors has been gnawing at Dorothy. She's not so sure she's strong enough to withstand a surgery. She bites her lip and studies Evans' face. But to her surprise, Evans raises a skeptical eyebrow. Do you really not know why your period stopped? What do you mean?

14:00It's because of malnourishment. None of the nurses are getting their periods. Here are the last one. Dorothy feels silly. Her brain has been so fogged from hunger that she missed the obvious explanation. Evans pats her shoulder. Look on the bright side. No more hassle finding clean rags for sanitary pads. Dorothy nods. That is a silver lining. But as the examination ends and she dresses for her shift, she still feels disturbed. However convenient, the loss of her period means her body is starting to break down. If they don't get more food soon, it will break down even further. She could lose her hair, her bones could become brittle, and she could become even more confused.

14:48That's what dying from starvation looks like.

14:54Filipina nurse Basilia Torres Steward leans down and presses her fingers against the neck of a young woman on a cot in the Los Baños infirmary. There's no pulse. Steward shifts her fingers around, trying to find other spots. Then, she holds an ear over the woman's mouth. There's no breath. Stewart sighs, but she's not surprised. The woman was little more than skin and bones when she was brought in a few days ago. Now she's dead, another victim of starvation. Stewart bows her head for a short prayer. It's just before Thanksgiving in 1944, and the food situation at Los Baños is dire. Camp Commandant Sadaki Kanishi has cut rations to 800 calories per day.

15:45Prisoners are desperate, eating slugs off the ground and banana skins out of the trash. After the silent prayer, Stewart pulls a sheet over the dead woman's face. Then she hears Dr. Dana Nance enter the infirmary. He curses when he sees this latest fatality. The doctor takes every death hard. A moment later, a dog barks. Stewart recognizes it as Poochie, an old shepherd dog. One family here keeps it alive by feeding it part of their daily rations. Nance hears the barking too, and Stewart watches his face twist in rage. Oh, I hate that stupid mutt. It gets fed every day. That's 40 pounds of protein that could have saved that young woman.

16:35Stewart nods sympathetically. She figures Nance just needs to blow off some steam. But the more he rants, the angrier he gets. You know what the worst part is? Every time I beg Commandant Kenishi to increase rations, he smiles and says if there's enough food for a dog, then people can't be that needy. This ends now. Stuart watches Nance sort through his surgical tools and grab a scalpel. Then he storms out of the infirmary. Stuart stands there, stunned. But a moment later, she rushes out herself and calls over to the barracks 100 yards away. The family that owns Poochie lives there. Sunny! Benjamin!

17:20Dr. Nance is going after Poochie! Two teenagers' faces appear at the barracks window, then vanish. Seconds later, they fly out the door. Stuart runs in the direction Nance went, with the boys sprinting after. Stuart darts around the corner of a classroom building and gasps to see a pool of blood. She's too late. The dog is dead. Its throat is cut. Nance crouches over his body. Sunny and Benjamin arrive. The boys take one look at Poochie's dead body and rush at Nance. tackling him. They strike the doctor over and over. Stuart screams for help. Get off him! Seconds later, other prisoners run over and tear the boys off.

18:10He killed Poochie! Stuart hurries to tend to Nance, who has a split lip and an ugly knot beneath his eye, but he brushes Stuart off, insisting he's fine. He limps back toward the infirmary. Once he's gone, the prisoners restraining Sunny and Benjamin let them go. They rush over to Poochie and fall to the ground. When they start sobbing, Stuart feels her own eyes well up and has to turn away. She doesn't know how much more of this hell she can endure.

18:45Henry Muller flips through an intelligence report at his desk, then rubs his eyes. He's exhausted. But he still has two more reports to get through tonight, plus an important meeting. Since his promotion to lieutenant colonel a few months ago, he's been busier than ever. It's 9 p.m. on December 31st, 1944. But Mueller has no plans to celebrate New Year's Eve. He doesn't have time. He's working at an American military base on the liberated island of Leyte in the southern Philippines. It's a staging area. for the all-important invasion of Lusanne, the nation's largest island and home to Manila, the capital.

19:27The paratroopers are expecting to see action. As the unit's intelligence officer, Mueller has to make sure his men know what's on the ground, or they could get killed. But the reports are dry and hard to parse. He has high hopes for the upcoming meeting. Mueller looks up as Lieutenant Knox. Sir, the informant is here. Show him in. A middle-aged Filipino man enters the room. His name is Angelo, and he's a plantation owner. He recently traveled to Manila to get medication for his wife. He took different routes up and back, so he could observe as much about the Japanese presence on Lusan as possible.

20:10Muller jots some notes as Angelo details what he saw on his way up. The more Angelo talks, the more excited Mueller gets. He's a sharp observer. He can tell the ranks of different officers, and even made an excuse to swing by a few train stations to watch them load cars with weapons and supplies. This is far better than flat intelligence reports. Then they go over Angelo's trip back home. He mentions heading south on Highway 17, right past the big POW camp near the lake. Mueller's head snaps up from his notes. There's a POW camp near the lake? Sure, a big one. At Los Baños Agricultural College.

20:55How many prisoners? A hundred? Two hundred? Oh no, probably 2 ,000. Mueller is floored. 2 ,000? He grabs a map and has Angelo point out the camp's location. Then he barrages him with questions about conditions there. Angelo wrinkles his nose. He's heard it's brutal. There are beatings. People are starving. Muller spends the next half hour wringing every detail he can out of Angelo. Then he thanks him, shows him out, and plops down at his desk to digest what he just heard. Muller's first thought is that his paratroopers could liberate the camp. It's deep in the jungle, a perfect place for them to infiltrate, and it would win a lot of good publicity.

21:46But it'll be a tricky mission to convince his higher-ups to take on. Mobilizing the paratroopers will require the permission of Mueller's superior officer, General Joseph Swing. Unfortunately, Swing is an ardent military man who focuses entirely on strategic objectives. And based on what Angelo said, Los Baños doesn't lie near any military targets. Mueller can already hear Swing shutting down the idea, telling him to forget about the camp and focus on army objectives. But to Mueller's mind, the whole point of the American invasion is to help people. And if conditions are as bad as Angelo says, then no one needs help more than the prisoners at Los Baños.

22:33So Mueller makes a decision. He will start gathering intelligence on the sly about the camp. Muller won't neglect the main invasion, of course, but when the opportunity presents itself, he'll propose they strike at Los Baños, with all the details worked out, making it harder for Swing to object. He just hopes that opportunity arises soon. If conditions are as bad as Angelo indicated, the prisoners at Los Baños might not have much time.

23:18Dorothy Still leans back on a bench under the moonlight, a small smile on her lips. She looks down at the treasure in her hands and hugs it to her chest, a whole roll of toilet paper, all to herself. It's January 1st, 1945, and Dorothy spent a lovely evening under the stars with Thomas Terrell, her boyfriend here at Los Baños. He just headed back to the barracks, but she wanted to savor this moment a little longer. Thomas gave her the toilet paper as a belated Christmas gift. Dorothy shakes her head at how much it means to her. Prisoners no longer receive rations of toilet paper, so they use pages ripped from books.

24:06An entire roll of toilet paper is the peak of luxury. What makes it even more meaningful to Dorothy is how Thomas obtained it. He traded a fancy fountain pen that his wife had sent him in a Christmas care package. Dorothy knows she shouldn't read too much into this, but it's hard not to. He gave away a present from his wife so he could give Dorothy a gift. She's been trying to deny it, but the truth is, she loves Thomas. And who knows, maybe this roll of toilet paper is a sign that he loves her, too. Eventually, Dorothy gets up and makes her way home. A few months ago, the nurses sacrificed their dorm on campus in order to convert it into a medical ward.

24:55With so many new prisoners arriving, and so many of them sick, there simply wasn't room for them all in the infirmary. Some of the nurses now live in the infirmary basement, while Dorothy and a few others moved into one of the shabby, dirt-floored barracks. And as she approaches the building, Dorothy hears something that drags her back to Earth. Someone is sobbing. This isn't uncommon these days. Between the cuts to rations and the overwhelming number of patients, the nurses are being run ragged. They work 12-hour shifts, and more patients die each day. It's exhausting in every way. But as Dorothy nears the weeping figure, she's shocked to find that it's chief nurse Laura Cobb.

25:45Cobb always puts on a brave face for her nurses. Dorothy has never seen her shed a single tear. Cobb sees her at the same moment and looks embarrassed. Dorothy stops a yard away. What's the matter? Cobb's lips tremble. It's Hugh. He died an hour ago. Dorothy's mouth drops open. Hugh Williams was Cobb's boyfriend here. He was a gem of a man, always playing games with children and pretending he was a pirate. Oh my god, what happened? and he'd been giving away his rations to children, and eating roots he dug up instead. One lodged in his intestines. Dr. Nance operated but couldn't save him. And now I'm all alone.

26:34At this, Cobb breaks down again. Dorothy hurries forward and hugs her. It feels awkward, given how she and Cobb have clashed at times. But Dorothy whispers to Cobb that she's not alone here. The nurses have each other.

26:54Nurse Mary Rose Harrington blinks awake in the basement of the Los Baños Infirmary. She can hear a commotion outside. Harrington pulls her pillow over her head and tries to block out the noise. She has another 12-hour shift today, and she wants to sleep. It's January 7th, 1945, and the last few weeks have been wretched. There are now 2 ,100 prisoners here, and even the overflow ward is jammed with patients. Food rations are lower than ever, and Commandant Sadaki Kanishi is pushing prisoners to the brink, seemingly for fun. One day, Harrington watched him order a dozen prisoners to carry 50-pound sacks of rice from one shed to another.

27:45Then he had them move the sacks right back afterward. He stood by and laughed. The low food and the sadistic cruelty had led to a new sense of desperation amongst the captives. Prisoners attack each other for food. One man tried to eat his belt. Harrington feels crazed herself. Sleep is her only refuge. But with the noise this morning, it's just no use. She finally throws the covers off and drags herself upstairs to see what's going on. She finds several other nurses gathered by the door, pointing outside. They seem scared, which puts Harrington on edge. What's happening out there? They step aside to let her look.