New Bataan Hike Horrors
Originally published May 17, 1945
Major Hans G. Hornbostel
The Lord’s Prayer in German

Grim details of the Bataan “death march,” hitherto unpublished, were revealed here today by Major Hans G. Hornbostel, Philippine mining engineer, who turned soldier anew when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.

Hornbostel — a sensationally successful recruiting sergeant of Marines here during World War I — still was rail-thin from the ravages of beri-beri, malaria, dysentery and jaundice suffered during three years of cruelty, malnutrition and inadequate medical care in Japanese prison camps.

With his wife, Gertrude and his daughter, Johanna, 21, also prisoners of the Japanese, Hornbostel was here, newly debarked from the Philippines, en route to New York for medical care and reunion with friends.

Recounts Horrors

“All the stories of horror you have read about the Bataan march are true… and more,” Hornbostel said.

“I was in a unit that had been kept in a prison camp directly under the fire of our own 12-inch mortarson Corregidor, staying there until eight days after the surrender.

“As we marched along, we would stop at camps used by Americans and Filipinos, and we would be forced by armed guards to bury the dead to prevent the putrefying bodies from menacing the health of the Japanese.

“The Japanese even forced the burial of some who were not yet dead, but dying.

“In one camp we were too exhausted to handle picks and shovels, and the sadistic enemy forced our marchers to bury the dead in the filth of latrine pits used by all the previous marchers.”
Christian Ritual

Once a Japanese guard kicked Hornbostel, made the sign of the cross, and indicated that he wanted some Christian burial ritual said over the dead. Hornbostel, not remembering any prayer in English, said the Lord’s Prayer in German, and was kicked again.

“I made an impromptu address under the Jap’s gun,” Hornbostel said, “ This time it was in English, based on Sidney Carton’s farewell on the gallows, in ‘The Tale of Two Cities,’ beginning ‘It is a far, far better thing I do.’ That satisfied him.”

A mining engineer in the Philippines after service in the Marines and as an archeologist for Bishop Museam in Honolulu — when he visited hundreds of Japanese and barely escaped poisoning and death a dozen times — Hornbostel became a combat engineer after Pearl Harbor.
Bataan Veteran

During the Bataan campaign he blew up bridges and highways in the way of Japanese advance, and constructed dummy guns that drew heavy enemy fire to areas not occupied by installations.

After three years in prison camps, Hornbostel’s weight had Dropped from 180 pounds to 90. Reunion with his wife and daughter, his grandson and his son, Earl, who was recued after having been condemned to be shot, was celebrated at Santo Tomas prison camp by “eating good American grub.”

After hospitalization in New York, Hornbostel intends to return “home,” in the Philippines, and return to his pre-Pearl Harbor job as mill superintendent of the Coco Grove Mining Company, rich Luzon Property owned by the Marsman interest of San Franciso.

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~ Hubby has his Father’s Day present early. It’s a new kettle barbecue. But guess what? Guess what? Guess what? It’s charcoal. I’ve waited years for this day! Tonight: flank steak with amazing marinade. It will be good, whether it wants to be or not.

~ The puppeh doesn’t like smoke, she tries to hide from it. She’s never seen it before.

~ My youngest, in spite of congestion, has been a really chipper guy. It’s also possible he’s a pyro.

~ My oldest has been such a great guy to be around all week. So sweet! He’s been a huge help with everything. And he has a healthy respect for fire.

~ NM and I went to a pool last night with a few other families from church. I am so blessed to know and fellowship with them.

~ Tomorrow, we have a potluck and my house for the women’s ministry. I love these: it’s an excuse to deep-clean *some* of the house. I gave up on some rooms for now. Good thing they have doors.

~ The boys are going to have some bonding time during the potluck. I’m sure they won’t call it that. They’ll call it “Going to see the movie UP with Abba and getting to eat out afterwards.”

~ Hubby wants us all to go swimming in the afternoon. I sure hope there will be time for a nap first. Hehe. I mean, hint, hint.

~ In just over a week: my MIL comes to visit. We’re trying to think of things to do. I’m hoping Hamilton Pool is on the list; NM wants to go to Houston so we can see NASA again.

~ Speaking of stuff to do: I have no way of recording it all. No, the camera is fine but the charger is missing. I would appreciate prayers; I hate missing the chance to photograph the boys at least once a week. It’s been over a week.

~ Opted out of a digital piano for now. Since both hubby and I were hemming and hawing over it, we decided to wait until the next sale. Maybe I’ll learn how to play guitar in the mean time. I bet it builds knitting muscles.

~ I haven’t knitted in almost a week! That’s sad, isn’t it?

If brevity is the soul of wit, then my soul is an empty pit. You can quote me on that.

Since the last post, this is what happened that is shareable:

- J and NM played their last soccer games of the season. J actually played for about 30 seconds. There was an award ceremony afterwards and his coach said “I hope you play next season!” He absolutely loves his trophy. NM got a medal and is looking forward to spring season already.

- I ended and we (hubby and I) finished painting NM’s room. It looks so amazing. I don’t say that because it’s a smashing job (it’s pretty good) but the change from the color “burnt almond” to “lava blue” on the bottom and “horseradish” (a warm white) everywhere else is amazing. The other color sucked up all the light and now it’s bounced all over the place. The room looks so much nicer now! I’d have photos posted but Flickr is still misbehaving for me.

- Sprocket learned to play volleyball with a balloon. I’m considering passing on the video to America’s Funniest. Do they still do that? She’s so cute in it. But it might not win because of my annoying giggle.

- My SIL, her hubby and kids drove with my MIL all the way from CA to TX to visit us for Thanksgiving week. They arrived the Saturday before. Next day, we got them up and went to church for first service. We headed home afterwards to prepare and enjoy NM’s 10th birthday party. I’m still getting over that. The boys scrimmaged in the back yard and NM scored a lot of Lego sets. I think there were only two presents that weren’t Legos (one of which was FIFA 2009 for Xbox that we got him). Besides the presents, he had so much fun with his friends and we even got to see two friends of his from last year’s team. One of the neighbors brought over his BB gun and after I tried to shoot it twice, I threw up my hands and told my hubby he has to be there if the gun was being used. I didn’t have to worry. But that thing was the subject of many conversations when the kids left to go home (I chatted with the parents).

- Monday after, we all took a walk around Town Lake/Lake Lady Bird trail. The kids—and Sprocket—walked for three miles and no one really complained until we were close to the end of the trail. The fall colors are so bright this year compared to last. I have no idea why that is, but it’s amazingly gorgeous and such a blessing to see. We went home to have lunch and drop off the very tired dog then went to see the state’s capitol building (see pics on Flickr). My BIL enjoyed the many monuments scattered thoughout the grounds. Quite a few of them are related to the Confederacy and their loss in a major conflict. Again, I failed to make it up to the 4th floor of the rotunda, only up to 2nd this time. There was a service going on for a recently deceased attorney general inside of the House chambers, but I did get to see the Senate chambers. Their walls had photos of each of the different sets of senators as well as kids. I never did get who the kids were and why they got to be a part of the senate year book photo.

- Next day, we headed to Zilker Botanical Gardens because the kids wanted to. “What’s Dinoland?” they asked when we passed many signs the day before. It was a collection of life-sized sculptures of what dinos may have looked like, all strewn about the Gardens. Also, they had many different t-rex cut outs that they sent to area elementary schools to decorate. The one you see here had to be the most unusual one. The kids got such a kick out of the whole thing, it was worth it. Sprocket got to come, too She was most pleased.

- Wednesday, we didn’t do much at all. The kids just hung out and were having so much fun that it was hard to tear them away from it all and have, well, more fun. But we did! We decided to go and enjoy the Texas winter sport of tobogganing. Eh? you wonder. Well, we have hills that have a lot of dead, brown grass and a convenient 45 degree angle. In our garage, we have a long, narrow box of about 2′x2′x6′ and a matching cover (the toboggans) plus miscellaneous empty packing boxes. Have you added two and two? Hehehehe. Suffice it to say, we *all* had a blast. The kids and adults piled into and onto boxes and slid down the hill. Over and over and over. No injuries, saved the emotional security of the dog who was subjected to at least two rides. It would have been more but she learned how to bail in mid-slide which isn’t very safe. The kids will forever remember that as The Best Most Fun Day ever and the hill will be two times as high and as fast in their memory as it actually was. It was that fun (videos on Flickr to prove it).

- Thursday – Thanksgiving. That was nice. In spite of the turkey being five hours late, the stuffing being too soupy and the cranberry jello having too much, well, jello, we had a great (late) meal. I have no photos, my MIL took one of the bird though. The kids just hung out and the adults did, too, helping me and hubby with meal prep and all that. I enjoyed it. Now and again, between checking the temp, crumbling the breadcrumbs, mashing yams, etc., I did take the time to make a mental inventory of what I had to be thankful for and, praise God, I did lose count. He is so good to me. I did my level best (and succeeded) to avoid reading my SIL’s thanksgiving card. Her remark when she wrote it was something like “working in a hospital, I know lots of things to be thankful for.” and so I worried about crying when I read it. It was ok, though, I didn’t cry when I read it the next day, she was kind By the way, we used Alton Brown’s turkey brine and it came out good (and looked good, too). I would probably only add a little more salt and use less canola than we did.

Ok…not so speedy of an update, is it? You’ll just have to forgive me…after all, I was away from blogging for just about a month. I have lots of blogging to make up for it!

Knitting mojo has disappeared. I tried to bring it back with another project but I left the needle hanging off my desk and puppeh chewed it into many little pieces. And then the mojo left me again.

Speaking of puppeh, the dog is firmly mama’s girl. I’ve said it before. I started watching Cesar Milan: the Dog Whisperer today. I wonder how much of what he says works. I do his “tsk” and tap at the dog but she bites back. I guess I have to do it more? Do it differently?

And what of a herding dog’s instincts? I remember from training our other dog that you walk and ignore the dog and make them pay attention to you by virtue of the length of the leash and your stride. But if a herding dog is kicked, the instict is to bite back the herded. Maybe the issue is still one of dominance and alpha position.

I caught hubby’s flu but I’m fighting it.

J caught it, I think, but he has tummy troubles. NM had tummy troubles today and he’s had a runny nose for a while. The nose thing could be because of going to bed with wet hair two nights in a row.

I won’t be going to bible study tomorrow night. It’s too easy to catch this bug.

The house ought to be decorated for Fall but I’m at a loss where to start. At our California house, we were decorated in Late Toddler style. Now we have slowly but surely adopted a “Who is the Lazy Librarian?” motif what with all the books piled all over. However:

Any book that helps a child to form a habit of reading,
to make reading one of his deep and continuing needs,
is good for him. ~ Richard McKenna

Books do furnish a room. ~ Anthony Powell

Did I mention that J is reading? Yup! He’s reading three letter words with “a” and “i” in the middle. We’ll be working on the other three vowels soon, and he’s starting to catch on to Dolch words. “No” seems to be his favorite.

NM is back to spelling. We put it on hiatus for a good, long while and then he began to ask for it a while ago. We were working at writing a bit here and there and he really learned to miss it. I am going to try and figure out a way to remind him of spelling rules to be applied to phonetics because he still has trouble distinguishing between vowel sounds. It’s frustrating because as soon as he sees it on paper, he knows what he wrote is wrong. It’s hard but the Lord is going to use it to better him (or I).

Last Friday, during the homeschool group’s park day, they held a clothing/books/toys swap. I did get rid of quite a few clothes of mine and J’s that were no longer worn or were too small but still servicable. I found a denim button down shirt that I will cut up for fabric. I also got J a few books at NM a Star Wars book.

In spite of colds bothering them, the boys are so good about their studies lately. We’ve re-started our habit of daily writing down our prayer requests. Perhaps making them concrete like that helps. They have two consistent requests: that they finish quickly and that they have good attitudes. I ask that for myself, too, and make sure they know I do.

Last night, we let the boys stay up and watch the Olympics opening ceremonies until the US team took their part in the parade of nations. It was pretty late for them (almost 10 pm) and even though NM wanted to keep watching, they had to get to bed. I’m sure that, in many respects, it was a disappointment to both of them: the Olympics are about sports, what’s up with the long, long, long, long parade? J gave up and played with his Hotwheels but NM started reading the country names with me and paying attention to the voice over. I was looking forward to the clothes and wondering what they would look like because of Project Runway.* I have to say, while many were smartly dressed I much preferred the native costumes that were worn by the countries with the smaller groups of delegations.

My favorite comments from Bob Costas (I assume it was him) went something like this: “For the first time, the UAE sends two women athletes. They are the president’s daughters but I’m sure that has nothing to do with why they’re here.”

Good: George and Laura were there and so were so many other leaders as a result. Most of those athletes put in a lot of work to make it there and it was a great thing that they were so honored.

Bad: We didn’t put on our hats and take pictures. SO SORRY, LOLA! We didn’t know where J’s was and didn’t want to have to worry about his response. We’ll look for it and then take photos when they’re watching actual sporting events (J thinks the only interesting one is water polo). So eventually we’ll send Lola the photo so she can see us in the hats that she brought back from Beijing when she went over Easter vacation.

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The Day After
That is, of course, today. More photos here.

St. Mary's Catholic Church, Fredricksburg, TX

We got up a lot earlier than you would think when you consider the loss of two hours of sleep. Well, when the tummy needs to be filled it can be that way. We went to one of our favorite places to eat, Kerbey Lane Cafe. For the most part, as long as it isn’t fried, NM can eat there since they take care to use only natural ingredients (their oil unfortunately has preservatives). Their food is so yummy. How can you go wrong with strawberry chocolate chip pancakes? J and I can testify that they were goooood and so worth the wait.

Afterwards, we went home and packed a few things: snacks, water, swim gear (just in case) and–whee!–the puppy and her stuff. We figure she’s getting her second set of shots this week so it’s ok to take her. She was so excited to go, too, it was cute. Sprocket had a hard time waiting to get in the truck. Not bad considering her last ride in the truck was pretty boring for her. She just enjoys the company. Oh…dogs get car sick. I won’t elaborate.

We headed out to F’burg and got out and walked for a very little bit. I wanted to see the window of the shop that sold antler art. Hey, I was curious. I almost went inside but there was no one else save the person behind the counter. We went further on to a really neat shop called Red. I love, love, love the stuff in that shop! That was just about the highlight of my day. And their walls? My favorite shade of robin’s egg blue. I’m thinking I want my bedroom in that. It would go perfectly with my red sheets and (one day) linen duvet. NM said walking around in that shop was one of the highlights of his day, I kid you not. He’s too cool.

The puppy is still a hater about the leash. She still has to get dragged, the poor thing. Ok, we did carry her across the street so she wouldn’t have to be dragged across hot asphalt. That is her preferred method of transportation.

After F’burg, we drove back out and looked for peaches to buy. Hubby tried some at the first place we stopped (not many stands are open anymore) and bought a bag of them because they were really good. Right next door was a place we stopped at during our last trip out there that was selling peach cobblers. This time, we actually did get one instead of walking away empty-handed. I have no idea how it tastes yet but I’ll let you know soon because I plan to get myself a slice once I get this post completed.

We would have done more exploring however my hubby is still trying to fight the bug he has that is making him feel bad. But I think because our walk in town was so short, it didn’t get anyone too bored so we did have a nice time. So did Sprocket, who slept on the way home.

*Project Runway is my guilty pleasure. I love the premise of a challenge and then watching the different approaches that people take to solve it (reminds me of art school days). This season, their second challenge was to design an outfit for the US women athletes to possibly wear at the Parade of Nations ceremony. Unfortunately, the winning design wasn’t used.