Oral History Interview with O. H. King, September 28, 2002 Page: 22

                                
guys were Christian and expected some kind of rebellious act on their
part so they would get an excuse to beat up on them. Well, they
weren't aware of the American ingenuity. This one guy made a very
reverent bow, came up with his hands in front of him in prayer-like
position and said, "May 50,000 more of you sons-of-bitches come
back in little white boxes." Some of the other guys took it up,
begging for guidance in steeling and robbing. The Japs didn't know
what to make of it. These guys were Christian. They were supposed
to rebel at doing this. That didn't last but two or three days before
they gave up on that one. Another instance is when an earthquake hit
Osaka. There was a group of prisoners in a building on the main
floor, and there is a pretty good tremor going on. This one sailor put
his palm up in supplication and said, "That's it, Pal give it to them."
Just about that time a very heavy tremor came along, and he said,
"That's enough, that's enough." Everybody broke out laughing. The
Japanese guard in the room with them dove under a table when that
heavy tremor hit. The officer outside heard all of this laughter going
on. He came in to find out what was going on, why these guys were
laughing. He saw that guard underneath the table, yanked him out
from underneath there, and literally beat him to death. I mean he was
unconscious when the officer got through with him for showing
cowardice in front of the prisoners. Again, the humorous part is there
and there are a couple of stories that I won't recount here because
they are in the book, about what Navy nurses were like pre-war. Very
interesting. I think that is one of the reasons that a number of us
survived prison camp - our faith in the Lord and our ingenuity and
humor. It gave us the feeling that we had to live in order to survive,
to fight the Japanese on their own turf and from behind the barbed-
wire type thing. One Navy Chief told me how he had stuck some two

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