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Bataan Barb

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20. Bataan Peninsula, somewhere in the hills above Lubao, midday April 17, 1942.

Hiroko and Shirley had left Kubo lying where he had fallen, with half his head blown away after taking a bullet there fired at point blank range. Together they trekked on into the back-country hills above Lubao, proceeding for a considerable time in silence, he ahead and she following doggedly in his wake.

Hiroko’s mind was spinning as he tried to make sense of what had happened that morning. He had shot Sergeant Kubo! That was an unspeakable breach of military discipline and Bushido honor, for which he rightly should have immediately taken his own life. But he hadn’t! Instead he had fled, and taken an escaped American POW with him. And not just any POW, but an American army nurse for whom he had developed an improbable amorous affection.

He, Hiroko, had actually made love to her! True, she was bound to a tree at the time, and had been stripped naked by his own hand, but there was no denying that he had made love to her, and planted his seed in her. Which is why protecting her had become his sole obsession. But why? Perhaps, it was the surprise knock on the head from behind that he had received from a partisan in the lead up to the breakout. He didn’t know. But what was done was done. He, Hiroko, would escort her to safety.

But progress was slow. She was struggling to keep up, which was concerning, because he imagined pursuit could not be far behind. Every so often he would stop to wait for her, urging her on with encouraging gestures while admiring her beauty. Her bobbed light hair and green eyes were a source of fascination to him, as was her body. While it was true that he had chivalrously covered her nakedness, more or less, by giving her the shirt off his back, it fit her only loosely and revealingly. And there was nothing to cover her legs.

This time, however, the pause for her to catch up was turning out differently. He could see that she was done in, and it had begun to rain ... one of those unseasonable, drenching rains that occurred suddenly at that time of year on the Peninsula.

But not far from where Hiroko stood was something that offered the prospect of temporary shelter ... a downed airplane. He recognized it as a Japanese Aichi Type 99 dive bomber.

It was partially intact. The engine housing was crumpled, the propeller blades were bent and broken propeller, and one wing had sheared completely away. A bed of broken and knocked over trees supported the fuselage. Eerily, the dead pilot was still in the cockpit, seated bolt upright under a smashed canopy, his face grotesquely covered with maggots.

But beneath the intact wing, Hiroko could see that there was space large enough for two to lie down and find shelter from the pouring rain. So he reached for her hand, and with a few words of encouragement that she couldn’t fully comprehend, but appeared to trust, he led her to shelter.

***********

Tanaka finally decided he needed to do something. For well over an hour the two American nurses on the rear decking of the lorry had been subjected to a grueling non-stop succession of brutal rapes. Tanaka felt there was simply no way for him to continue to maintain his indifference to what was happening. The lorry had already stopped three times along the narrow dirt track, and at each stop he had watched from where he sat in the cab, grim-faced, as a bunch of gang-raping soldiers would hop off only to be replaced by new ones eager to have their turn. It had been going on for long enough.

In his many years in the military, Tanaka had witnessed a good many atrocities, especially against civilians in China, but this wanton degradation of female flesh was shocking even to him. These nurses were no longer regarded as human beings, but as meat to be devoured. And worse yet it was he, Tanaka, who had placed these hapless women on the back of the lorry with all those soldiers, and then ignored what was happening until now. Enough! He, Tanaka, would have to put an end to it.

Jumping from the cab the next time the lorry stopped, he used his authority as an officer to prevent anyone from climbing on board in addition to ordering those already there to get off.

Clambering up onto the vacated space himself, he looked down on Barb and Natalie’s naked forms. Sprawled on the decking, arms trussed behind their backs, they were a pitiful sight to behold. Their hair was matted and plastered to their heads and faces. Their genitalia and their bodies were liberally covered with long thick tendrils and fat gooey gobs of ejaculated sperm. The body of the one Tanaka knew as Lieutenant Moore lay twisted slightly to one side, and showed every sign of having been sodomized by her most recent assailant. Her companion lay stretched out, flat on her back, her legs spread wide, knees slightly raised. Both regarded him as he approached through haunted hollow eyes, their contorted facial expressions expressing something akin to animal pain and terror.


68FDABD3-880C-407A-95E8-7014373C39E8.jpeg

Tanaka put on a sympathetic face and motioned for them to sit up. There was no response at first, just blank stares. And when there finally was a response, it came only guardedly as they struggled to raise themselves into a sitting position.

He took a step forward, and immediately they pulled back, moving their legs to propel themselves away from him while eying him warily. And each time he took another step, they slid themselves a little farther away, until they backed up against the wall of the cab and could retreat no further.

Despite the fact that he had saved them from further desecration, neither of them showed him the slightest sign of relief, no willingness to extend to him the slightest trust. They were petrified, robbed of any spirit. Only fear remained.

And then it began to pour rain ... a typical tropical meteorological event ... one minute hot and humid, clouded over, then a downpour the next.

Moving swiftly, and without concern for what they might think or feel, if anything at all, Tanaka reached out to seize each of them by an arm to pull them to their feet. And then, half dragging them, he moved them to the edge of the lorry’s flat bed, where he leaped ahead to the ground before turning about to pull them down beside him. From there it was but a few steps to the cab door, which he shouted at the driver to open. And when the driver did, Tanaka shoved them inside, Barb first, followed by Natalie.

Running around to the driver’s side, Tanaka ordered the man out and climbed in behind the wheel himself. The engine was already running. He slammed the transmission into gear, revved the engine, and let out the clutch ... upon which the lorry lurched forward. Shifting gears, he pulled forward, scattering several soldiers who had taken shelter from the rain alongside.

Careening down the heavily rutted track, the lorry picked up speed. He was on his way, passing knots of Japanese soldiers positioned to intercept escapees. He felt Barb falling against his shoulder as the vehicle lurched violently to one side. She appeared to have lost consciousness, as had her companion, who had slumped against the door on the far side of the cab, eyes closed, chin resting on her chest.

Steering with his right,Tanaka released the grip of his left hand from the wheel ... freeing and raising his arm enough to allow him to wrap it around Barb's far shoulder and to rest his hand on her bare hip. There was no response,

Peering out through the rain spattered wind screen, Tanaka drove grimly on, his mind engaged in solving the problem of what to do next. It was indeed a thorny problem.

He reckoned that no more than an hour down the track was the main road into Lubao. One option would be to take the main road, drive to Lubao and turn his two escapees in. Doing that would technically be acting in due accordance to his duty as an officer. It was, of course, the proper thing to do. If he did that, though, Lieutenant Moore and her young companion would most certainly be summarily executed.

Glancing down on her, his gaze lingered briefly on the mesmerizing way her tits jiggled with each and every bump in the road. No, he thought, surely there must be an alternative to consider.

He could, he thought, just set them free somewhere up ahead, and simply claim they had escaped. But that might not stand up to scrutiny if he were to be questioned. What had he been doing transporting prisoners alone, without any backup, and how was it that two naked American nurses got the best of an imperial Army staff officer? There were witnesses, after all, who saw him drive off alone with the two of them beside him in the cab of the lorry.

No, Tanaka realized he definitely had a dilemma on his hands. And, to add to his troubles, the sudden squall was getting worse. Torrential sheets of rain were making it almost impossible to see through the windscreen in addition to transforming the dirt track into a treacherously slick quagmire. Maintaining control of the lorry had become a struggle that demanded his full attention.

***************

Shirley lay next to Hiroko beneath the shelter of the downed plane’s wing. Overhead, torrential rain beat against its surface, and poured down in cascading sheets over its edges. She was grateful for the shelter and for the opportunity to rest, for she desperately needed time to think, time to digest the recent string of improbable events that led her to find herself huddled under the wing of a downed plane alongside a Japanese soldier who had both raped her and saved her life.

She knew nothing about him, other than that he was one of Kubo’s men who seemed to have taken a liking to her ... the recognition of which had lain behind the previous night’s desperate plan to lure him to the compound wire so that he could be overpowered and the wire breached.

It had all gone awry, and although a few of them had managed to escape, Kubo had managed to track her and Nora down and had ordered them stripped and raped, prior to being executed.

Hiroko had been ordered by Kubo to assault her, which he did. But then when Kubo was about to bayonet her, this man she now sheltered with ... her admirer and her rapist ... had shot Kubo in the head, given her the shirt off his back, and led her away from the pursuing Japanese.

So now what? The rain would eventually stop, and they might then move on ... but to where? What would happen should they stumble upon Japanese soldiers? Or what if they met up with partisans? And what are they to do with one another?

**************

Minutes before the rain began to fall, Alejandro led his party into the rendezvous base camp he had set up high in the foothills leading to the peninsula’s mountainous spine. Much to his relief, most of his men were already there, accompanied by what appeared to be the majority, although not all, of the escaped POWs.

To get there had meant slipping through a line of Japanese blocking positions strung out along a dirt track, but getting past them and the lorries that had brought them there had presented no major problem, especially under the cover of pouring rain.

Alejandro, however, could not account for the two nurses he had left behind at the aid station hidden in that ravine or the partisan he assigned to get them out if necessary. He had to assume, with regret, that the Japanese had either captured or killed them. Also, he himself, had been forced to leave two nurses and a badly injured male POW behind. They too were presumably recaptured or dead.

The immediate problem before Alejandro, however, was what to do next. In addition to his own partisan band, he now had a sizable number of American POWs, and he was finding one among them, who identified himself as First Lieutenant Bradley Whitaker, to be a rather headstrong character, who wanted a place at the table when it came to any decision making. Alejandro wasn’t used to sharing decisions, but was beginning to realize that he was going to have to find a way to at least appear to accommodate this American while maintaining his customary control over operations.

His experiences fighting with the Americans during the battle for Bataan ... and one reason why he had deserted rather than surrendering ... was that while he admired their bravery, he deeply resented their condescending and racist attitudes towards their Filipino allies.


And, he was keenly aware of their naïveté ... now that continuing the fight meant guerrilla warfare ... about how to outmaneuver, surprise and fight the Japanese using small highly mobile units that knew how to advantage the complex rugged terrain of the peninsula. The Americans, in his mind, were simply too conventional in their approach.
 
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But unbeknownst to him, that was the moment that Whitaker, who along with his men had been sneaking ever closer, ready to rush forward and grab him, chose to act.

It was also the moment that to everyone’s surprise ... save for Alejandro who looked on helplessly ... that a flare suddenly shot into the sky to burst above the compound’s northern perimeter fence, followed by the noisy chatter of small arms fire.
This is getiing altogether too busy for my liking!

:couch:
Indeed. Is there a program? It's getting hard to tell who all the protagonists are here. I suppose it will all sort itself out.

Sergeant Kubo was sitting on the ground in front of the compound’s field kitchen ... ‘han-gou’ or mess tin in hand ... relishing a hot cup of rice and barley, when the shooting broke out along the north perimeter wire. Springing to his feet, he gathered together the half dozen off-duty soldiers relaxing nearby, and trusting his instincts and combat experience, which told him the firefight could well be a diversionary action, he led his followers away from the sounds of gunfire ... towards the southern edge of the compound.
He's more clever than I gave him credit for. Nasty and horrible, certainly, but clever.

Hiroko fell heavily to the ground, sprawled on his backside. He was about to get up when a man appeared over him ... a partisan ... and he had a knife.
Let himself get distracted by enemy prisoners. Never a good move for a guard.

Parked broadside to them in a blocking position on the edge of the rutted trail that ran perpendicular to the ravine was a Japanese lorry, and kneeling before it was a squad of Japanese soldiers, sighting down the barrels of rifles aimed straight at the two startled nurses.

“Shit!” moaned Barb, as she and Natalie slowly raised their hands in surrender.
Well, now we're on more familiar territory again. Things going badly for Barb. One takes a certain comfort in the normality of the situation. :eek: :eek::confused::rolleyes:

Hiroko appeared visibly shaken. But he obeyed orders. He felt he had no choice. Avoiding direct eye contact, he took reluctant charge of his distantly-beloved Shirley, leaving Nora to the other soldier. Picking out a suitable nearby tree, he began forcing her, at bayonet point, to back herself up against it.
Hiroko trying to make up for his failure as a guard, I see. Heroically tying helpless women to trees. It's a man's life in the Imperial Army.

Alejandro was emphatic in declaring any such notion foolhardy, adding that the best thing Whitaker and his buddies could do at that point was to join the partisans and work to avenge the loss of their comrades through future attacks and raids on their common Japanese foes.
I think we're all in for a bit of avenging by this point. :mad::mad::mad::mad::smoking:
Hiroko had just put a bullet through Kubo’s head.
SO, SERGEANT KUBO, WE MEET AT LAST. THEY SAY WAR IS HELL. THAT IS NOT STRICTLY TRUE, AS YOU ARE ABOUT TO FIND OUT. :smilie-devil:
Tanaka realized he definitely had a dilemma on his hands.
Well, he's got Barb in a lorry and is careening down the road without a plan. What did he expect would happen? He might as well let Barb drive. :couch::devil:

I think I am, once again, caught up. This is stupendous (has anyone used that word here yet?)!! The detail, the suspense, the carnage. They say a good movie needs sex and violence. This has all that. I was even sorry for poor old Sam and Bill, and they were only incidental characters. Mind you, I suspect that our new 'friends', Tanaka and Hiroko are also in trouble now as well. Lots more opportunity to say "Oh shit!" coming our way, I fancy. But this is truly a spectacular story, Barb!
:very_hot::headbang::clapping::clapping::clapping::icon_popcorn::icon_popcorn::icon_popcorn:
 
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20. Bataan Peninsula, somewhere in the hills above Lubao, midday April 17, 1942.

Hiroko and Shirley had left Kubo lying where he had fallen, with half his head blown away after taking a bullet there fired at point blank range. Together they trekked on into the back-country hills above Lubao, proceeding for a considerable time in silence, he ahead and she following doggedly in his wake.

Hiroko’s mind was spinning as he tried to make sense of what had happened that morning. He had shot Sergeant Kubo! That was an unspeakable breach of military discipline and Bushido honor, for which he rightly should have immediately taken his own life. But he hadn’t! Instead he had fled, and taken an escaped American POW with him. And not just any POW, but an American army nurse for whom he had developed an improbable amorous affection.

He, Hiroko, had actually made love to her! True, she was bound to a tree at the time, and had been stripped naked by his own hand, but there was no denying that he had made love to her, and planted his seed in her. Which is why protecting her had become his sole obsession. But why? Perhaps, it was the surprise knock on the head from behind that he had received from a partisan in the lead up to the breakout. He didn’t know. But what was done was done. He, Hiroko, would escort her to safety.

But progress was slow. She was struggling to keep up, which was concerning, because he imagined pursuit could not be far behind. Every so often he would stop to wait for her, urging her on with encouraging gestures while admiring her beauty. Her bobbed light hair and green eyes were a source of fascination to him, as was her body. While it was true that he had chivalrously covered her nakedness, more or less, by giving her the shirt off his back, it fit her only loosely and revealingly. And there was nothing to cover her legs.

This time, however, the pause for her to catch up was turning out differently. He could see that she was done in, and it had begun to rain ... one of those unseasonable, drenching rains that occurred suddenly at that time of year on the Peninsula.

But not far from where Hiroko stood was something that offered the prospect of temporary shelter ... a downed airplane. He recognized it as a Japanese Aichi Type 99 dive bomber.

It was partially intact. The engine housing was crumpled, the propeller blades were bent and broken propeller, and one wing had sheared completely away. A bed of broken and knocked over trees supported the fuselage. Eerily, the dead pilot was still in the cockpit, seated bolt upright under a smashed canopy, his face grotesquely covered with maggots.

But beneath the intact wing, Hiroko could see that there was space large enough for two to lie down and find shelter from the pouring rain. So he reached for her hand, and with a few words of encouragement that she couldn’t fully comprehend, but appeared to trust, he led her to shelter.

***********

Tanaka finally decided he needed to do something. For well over an hour the two American nurses on the rear decking of the lorry had been subjected to a grueling non-stop succession of brutal rapes. Tanaka felt there was simply no way for him to continue to maintain his indifference to what was happening. The lorry had already stopped three times along the narrow dirt track, and at each stop he had watched from where he sat in the cab, grim-faced, as a bunch of gang-raping soldiers would hop off only to be replaced by new ones eager to have their turn. It had been going on for long enough.

In his many years in the military, Tanaka had witnessed a good many atrocities, especially against civilians in China, but this wanton degradation of female flesh was shocking even to him. These nurses were no longer regarded as human beings, but as meat to be devoured. And worse yet it was he, Tanaka, who had placed these hapless women on the back of the lorry with all those soldiers, and then ignored what was happening until now. Enough! He, Tanaka, would have to put an end to it.

Jumping from the cab the next time the lorry stopped, he used his authority as an officer to prevent anyone from climbing on board in addition to ordering those already there to get off.

Clambering up onto the vacated space himself, he looked down on Barb and Natalie’s naked forms. Sprawled on the decking, arms trussed behind their backs, they were a pitiful sight to behold. Their hair was matted and plastered to their heads and faces. Their genitalia and their bodies were liberally covered with long thick tendrils and fat gooey gobs of ejaculated sperm. The body of the one Tanaka knew as Lieutenant Moore lay twisted slightly to one side, and showed every sign of having been sodomized by her most recent assailant. Her companion lay stretched out, flat on her back, her legs spread wide, knees slightly raised. Both regarded him as he approached through haunted hollow eyes, their contorted facial expressions expressing something akin to animal pain and terror.

Tanaka put on a sympathetic face and motioned for them to sit up. There was no response at first, just blank stares. And when there finally was a response, it came only guardedly as they struggled to raise themselves into a sitting position.

He took a step forward, and immediately they pulled back, moving their legs to propel themselves away from him while eying him warily. And each time he took another step, they slid themselves a little farther away, until they backed up against the wall of the cab and could retreat no further.

Despite the fact that he had saved them from further desecration, neither of them showed him the slightest sign of relief, no willingness to extend to him the slightest trust. They were petrified, robbed of any spirit. Only fear remained.

And then it began to pour rain ... a typical tropical meteorological event ... one minute hot and humid, clouded over, then a downpour the next.

Moving swiftly, and without concern for what they might think or feel, if anything at all, Tanaka reached out to seize each of them by an arm to pull them to their feet. And then, half dragging them, he moved them to the edge of the lorry’s flat bed, where he leaped ahead to the ground before turning about to pull them down beside him. From there it was but a few steps to the cab door, which he shouted at the driver to open. And when the driver did, Tanaka shoved them inside, Barb first, followed by Natalie.

Running around to the driver’s side, Tanaka ordered the man out and climbed in behind the wheel himself. The engine was already running. He slammed the transmission into gear, revved the engine, and let out the clutch ... upon which the lorry lurched forward. Shifting gears, he pulled forward, scattering several soldiers who had taken shelter from the rain alongside.

Careening down the heavily rutted track, the lorry picked up speed. He was on his way, passing knots of Japanese soldiers positioned to intercept escapees. He felt Barb falling against his shoulder as the vehicle lurched violently to one side. She appeared to have lost consciousness, as had her companion, who had slumped against the door on the far side of the cab, eyes closed, chin resting on her chest.

Steering with his right,Tanaka released the grip of his left hand from the wheel ... freeing and raising his arm enough to allow him to wrap it around Barb's far shoulder and to rest his hand on her bare hip. There was no response,

Peering out through the rain spattered wind screen, Tanaka drove grimly on, his mind engaged in solving the problem of what to do next. It was indeed a thorny problem.

He reckoned that no more than an hour down the track was the main road into Lubao. One option would be to take the main road, drive to Lubao and turn his two escapees in. Doing that would technically be acting in due accordance to his duty as an officer. It was, of course, the proper thing to do. If he did that, though, Lieutenant Moore and her young companion would most certainly be summarily executed.

Glancing down on her, his gaze lingered briefly on the mesmerizing way her tits jiggled with each and every bump in the road. No, he thought, surely there must be an alternative to consider.

He could, he thought, just set them free somewhere up ahead, and simply claim they had escaped. But that might not stand up to scrutiny if he were to be questioned. What had he been doing transporting prisoners alone, without any backup, and how was it that two naked American nurses got the best of an imperial Army staff officer? There were witnesses, after all, who saw him drive off alone with the two of them beside him in the cab of the lorry.

No, Tanaka realized he definitely had a dilemma on his hands. And, to add to his troubles, the sudden squall was getting worse. Torrential sheets of rain were making it almost impossible to see through the windscreen in addition to transforming the dirt track into a treacherously slick quagmire. Maintaining control of the lorry had become a struggle that demanded his full attention.

***************

Shirley lay next to Hiroko beneath the shelter of the downed plane’s wing. Overhead, torrential rain beat against its surface, and poured down in cascading sheets over its edges. She was grateful for the shelter and for the opportunity to rest, for she desperately needed time to think, time to digest the recent string of improbable events that led her to find herself huddled under the wing of a downed plane alongside a Japanese soldier who had both raped her and saved her life.

She knew nothing about him, other than that he was one of Kubo’s men who seemed to have taken a liking to her ... the recognition of which had lain behind the previous night’s desperate plan to lure him to the compound wire so that he could be overpowered and the wire breached.

It had all gone awry, and although a few of them had managed to escape, Kubo had managed to track her and Nora down and had ordered them stripped and raped, prior to being executed.

Hiroko had been ordered by Kubo to assault her, which he did. But then when Kubo was about to bayonet her, this man she now sheltered with ... her admirer and her rapist ... had shot Kubo in the head, given her the shirt off his back, and led her away from the pursuing Japanese.

So now what? The rain would eventually stop, and they might then move on ... but to where? What would happen should they stumble upon Japanese soldiers? Or what if they met up with partisans? And what are they to do with one another?

**************

Minutes before the rain began to fall, Alejandro led his party into the rendezvous base camp he had set up high in the foothills leading to the peninsula’s mountainous spine. Much to his relief, most of his men were already there, accompanied by what appeared to be the majority, although not all, of the escaped POWs.

To get there had meant slipping through a line of Japanese blocking positions strung out along a dirt track, but getting past them and the lorries that had brought them there had presented no major problem, especially under the cover of pouring rain.

Alejandro, however, could not account for the two nurses he had left behind at the aid station hidden in that ravine or the partisan he assigned to get them out if necessary. He had to assume, with regret, that the Japanese had either captured or killed them. Also, he himself, had been forced to leave two nurses and a badly injured male POW behind. They too were presumably recaptured or dead.

The immediate problem before Alejandro, however, was what to do next. In addition to his own partisan band, he now had a sizable number of American POWs, and he was finding one among them, who identified himself as First Lieutenant Bradley Whitaker, to be a rather headstrong character, who wanted a place at the table when it came to any decision making. Alejandro wasn’t used to sharing decisions, but was beginning to realize that he was going to have to find a way to at least appear to accommodate this American while maintaining his customary control over operations.

His experiences fighting with the Americans during the battle for Bataan ... and one reason why he had deserted rather than surrendering ... was that while he admired their bravery, he deeply resented their condescending and racist attitudes towards their Filipino allies.


And, he was keenly aware of their naïveté ... now that continuing the fight meant guerrilla warfare ... about how to outmaneuver, surprise and fight the Japanese using small highly mobile units that knew how to advantage the complex rugged terrain of the peninsula. The Americans, in his mind, were simply too conventional in their approach.
And so as we seem to be building towards a climax, we see three distinct spheres of action. Firstly, the new odd-couple, Shirley and Hiroko, in their makeshift shelter. Then we have the guilt riddled Tanaka and his dilemma, and finally the heroic guerilla who is struggling to harness the new resources available to him. This really is an epic ... can hardly wait for more!
 
American nurses First Lieutenant Barbara Ann Moore and her colleague Second Lieutenant Natalie Brennan, abused, beaten and raped in the back of the Japanese Truck ...

Abused, battered and beaten.jpeg

This original photograph was stolen from the Japanese by the Philippines during Japan's three-year occupation in World War II. (AP Photo/U.S. Marine Corps) ASSOCIATED PRESS.
 
Apparently, with the torrential rain, events calm down.:paraguas:

With the death of Sergeant Kubo, the unity of the Japanese characters is falling apart again (confirming the saying that NCO's are the backbone of any army). The partisans and lieutenant Whitacker have to come to tems in an uneasy conflict on leadership vs. authority and technical expertise.:argue:

An uneasy, situation, always with a smell of doom, since for more and more characters, there is ultimately no way out of the peninsula (unless, during their last stand on a beach, a US Navy submarine miraculously would show up and rescue all at the last moment, but suggesting this, will most likely yield me a few demerits from Barb for reading ahead!).:doh:
 
So now what? The rain would eventually stop, and they might then move on ... but to where? What would happen should they stumble upon Japanese soldiers? Or what if they met up with partisans? And what are they to do with one another?
That does seem an imponderable conumdrum!

Another fabulous episode Barb! You have us still sitting on the edge of our seats!:icon_popcorn:
 
21. Bataan Peninsula. 14th Imperial Army Headquarters, Saint Augustine Church, Lubao, midday, April 15, 1942.

Lieutenant General Masaharu Homma poured himself a cup of sake, his fifth in quick succession, and downed it in a single quaff. Rising from his map table he began to pace back and forth. Homma was agitated ... agitated about his imminent meeting with an emissary from General Count Hisaichi Terauchi. his superior at Southern Army Headquarters

Such visits were invariably bad news. Homma’s relationship with Terauchi had been deteriorating rapidly for some time, and these unwelcome visits were occurring with increasing frequency. He feared that this one might mean his dismissal and the profound dishonor that would accompany it.

Striding over to a window, he looked out just as a Type 95 staff car pulled up and an officer jumped out. Homma groaned. It was his worst nightmare. The officer was none other than Major (Rikugun-Shōsa) Fumihisa Ohno, the most sycophantic and bumptious underling on General Terauchi’s staff. Beating a hasty retreat to his map table, Homma seated himself, tented his fingers over the table’s paper strewn surface, took a deep breath and waited.

225F4661-4E7F-4BC2-84EB-E4E0C205A363.jpeg

Moments later the door burst open and Major Ohno strode through, marched straight up to the map table, planted both feet, stiffened and saluted smartly. Homma remained seated, offered only a half-hearted return salute, and said resignedly, “Welcome, Ohno. Good to see you again. To what do I owe the pleasure?”

“I think you know perfectly well, Lieutenant General.”

“Enlighten me.”

“It’s about another of your failures, of course ... the partisan raid last night that succeeded in freeing American POWs from the holding compound outside this very town, right under your very nose, Lieutenant General. You have been warned repeatedly to take more strenuous measures to suppress the local population and its lawless partisans. Two days ago your criminal laxness cost the lives of hundreds of brave Imperial Army soldiers in Balanga, and now you have disgraced yourself further by bungling the job of preventing the escape of these American POWs!”

“This is war, my dear Ohno. Not everything goes perfectly. War is messy. Things happen. But overall, I believe the 14th Army has distinguished itself well.”

“General Count Terauchi would not agree, Lieutenant General. He has petitioned Tokyo to have you recalled. And in the meantime he has sent me to handle this POW escape fiasco personally and properly.”

“That’s really not necessary, Ohno. One of my personal staff, Captain Tanaka, already has the situation well in hand. It’s my understanding that he has moved swiftly to cordon off the hills behind Lubao, sealing off the possibility that any escaped POWs will get far. I can assure you that Tanaka has the situation completely under control.”

“You’ll excuse me for doubting that, Lieutenant General. My orders are to take direct command of the effort to recover the escapees, as well as to exact civilian reprisals, and to oversee the interrogations and summary executions of all recovered escapees.”

“I see.”

“Now, I have serious work to do, Lieutenant General, and must take my leave. If you would be so kind, please direct me to the whereabouts of this POW holding compound from which the escape occurred.”

“Drive south out of town, Ohno. You can’t miss it.”

“Thank you, Lieutenant General. Enjoy what time remains to you until you receive notice of being relieved of your command here.”

With that, Ohno turned smartly on his heel and departed without saluting.

Homma waited until Ohno was gone and his staff car could be heard driving off before taking a long swig from his sake bottle and flinging it at the door.

**************

High in the hills above Lubao, Tanaka had reached the point where the track he had been following intersected with the main road leading into Lubao. He pulled the lorry up short and stopped. The disengaged engine idled smoothly and the rain drummed steadily on the hood and roof of the cab. Minutes ticked by. It was peaceful sitting there. But it was also decision time.

Tanaka looked at the two American nurses with whom he shared the cab. Neither was awake. Moore leaned against him, his free arm wrapped around her, hand on her bare hip. The warmth of her body pressed against his had turned his shirt damp with sweat. On the other side of the cab, her companion slumped against the far door. The diffused light coming through the windscreen gave her nakedness a pale sheen. He liked the contrasting dark hue of her nipples.

What was he to do? He would revisit what he saw as his only two options one last time. He took his time, turning them each over in his mind. Then he decided. Honor won out. He was an officer in the Japanese Imperial Army. In the final analysis, he had no choice.

Tanaka revved the engine, let out the clutch, and eased the lorry out onto the road, heading in the direction of Lubao.

And, as he shifted gears and picked up speed, the rain let up. Was it a sign? Tanaka hoped so. He smiled, as his thoughts drifted off to the talented young comfort girl he knew would make herself available to him that night in Lubao.

*************

Hiroko woke with a start. He had dozed off ... for how long he wasn’t sure, but it was no longer raining. Beside him was his American nurse, asleep. He thought of her now in possessive terms. It seemed perfectly appropriate to think of her as “his”.

He decided not to wake her, at least not right away. He wanted to just look at her for awhile. She was lying half on her back with her legs off to one side and slightly drawn up.

The shirt he had given her to wear had ridden up over her hips in her sleep, revealing everything from the waist down, including the sweet triangle of fine, light-colored hair that covered her mound. The shirt front was partly open as well, baring one breast nearly to the nipple. By positioning his head just right he found that he could see it, poking up beneath the edge of the fabric.

Her eyes were closed, robbing him of the opportunity to study the greenish color that he found so alluring. Reaching out gently he rearranged her bobbed hairdo, noting how fine and silky her hair was.

She stirred suddenly.

He pulled back, to watch her as she wakened, stretching languidly before opening her eyes.

On seeing him, she started. But he pressed a finger to her lips, and smiled at her reassuringly ... and then he removed the finger and touched it to his own lips. She smiled back, which made him so joyfully happy that he sat up abruptly and cracked his head on the sheltering wing of the downed plane.

51D0A4B5-7FFB-4009-AA30-585690F2CB6E.jpeg

**************

Alejandro had gone to cool off. Not because of the heat. The pouring rain had made for a relatively cool day. He had gone off by himself to gain control of his anger.

He and Whitaker had just had a heated disagreement over what they should do next. Alejandro had wanted to pull back, arguing that the Japanese would be launching a major pursuit as soon as they realized that the partisans and the American escapees had slipped past the Japanese cordon. He had also pointed out that the soldiers guarding the march along the coastal road would be heavily reinforced. In his view it was time to melt back into the mountains and lay low until things settled down.

Whitaker had other ideas. He wanted to mount a new attack on Lubao to free more POWs and then to possibly follow that up with a spoiling attack on the railhead at San Fernando.

Whitaker had accused Alejandro of being too timid. Alejandro had told Whitaker that he was underestimating the Japanese, and that his ideas amounted to nothing more than short-sighted gambles likely to endanger both the partisan band, which was not designed or ready for conventional set-piece attacks against an alerted enemy, and a civilian population likely to be subjected to bloody reprisals.

While Alejandro understood the American officer’s anxiousness over the safety of his comrades in Lubao, and his desire to get at the Japanese, he was not about to risk his band in a foolhardy attack.

Nothing had been resolved yet. They had each gone off angrily. A reckoning over who was in command was going to be necessary.

*************

Major Ohno’s Type 95 command car pulled off the road near the main gate of the Lubao POW holding compound. Leaping from the vehicle before it had fully come to rest, he accosted the nearest of the Japanese soldiers lounging about nearby, demanding to speak immediately to the officer in charge. One of the soldiers was soon hastening off to fetch Lieutenant Kinoshita, thankful to be avoiding the withering dressing down that Ohno was by then administering to his hapless comrades.

83A3A1B8-6046-4B3A-AF86-D0DB513276F0.jpeg

“Lieutenant Kinoshita reporting, Sir!” barked Kinoshita with spirit, despite the fact that he was slightly out of breath after sprinting clear across the compound.

“These men!” snapped Ohno, pointing at the soldiers he had just finished haranguing, “are a complete disgrace! I want them all on report!”

“Yessir.”

“Now, tell me about last night’s breakout, Lieutenant! Exactly what happened?”

“Well, it was touched off by a partisan raid, Major. They staged a diversion at the north perimeter while managing a breach in the southwest corner. We think the POWs were in on it somehow.”

“And how many of the POWs escaped?”

“We can’t be certain, Sir. We think it was somewhere around twenty to thirty”

“And how many have been recaptured?”

“Well, Sir. Sergeant Kubo organized the pursuit. But in the confusion, as you might imagine, some valuable time was lost. A few of the more injured POWs were found and killed, nonetheless.”

“How many is a few, Lieutenant?”

“Well ... uh ... two, actually, Sir.”

“I see. And where can I find this incompetent ... this Sergeant Kubo?”

“Uh, you can’t, Sir. He’s dead.”

“So you’re telling me, Lieutenant, that we lost a man in exchange for only two of theirs?”

“No, not exactly, Sir. Captain Tanaka took a force up into the hills on lorries to set up a blocking position to cut off the POWs escape routes.”

“And where is Tanaka now?”

“He hasn’t returned yet, Sir. But we expect him back shortly.”

“I see. And are the other prisoners who were in the compound last night still here?

“Yessir. We thought it best to keep them here for the time being.”

“And have you interrogated any of them?”

“No, sir.”

“Well I intend to do that right now, Lieutenant! Form a detail immediately! Bring me two of the American POWs, and find me an interpreter! We need to find out who was behind this and I, for one, know very well how to make people talk!”

“Yessir.”

“Oh, and a couple more things, Lieutenant.”

“Yessir?”

“I want Tanaka brought to me immediately on his return! And he’d better have results to report or I will have his head!”

“Yessir, and the other thing?”


“Consider yourself on report, Kinoshita. I’ll deal with you later!”
 
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“This is war, my dear Ohno. Not everything goes perfectly. War is messy. Things happen. But overall, I believe the 14th Army has distinguished itself well.”
True : "Who wants to control everything, controls nothing" (Frederick The Great, after the battle of Leuthen (1757)).

“I want Tanaka brought to me immediately on his return! And he’d better have results to report or I will have his head!”
The major is clearly out for a promotion, at the expense of other officers!
 
Major Ohno’s Type 95 command car pulled off the road near the main gate of the Lubao POW holding compound. Leaping from the vehicle before it had fully come to rest, he accosted the nearest of the Japanese soldiers lounging about nearby, demanding to speak immediately to the officer in charge. One of the soldiers was soon hastening off to fetch Lieutenant Kinoshita, thankful to be avoiding the withering dressing down that Ohno was by then administering to his hapless comrades.
Madiosi-2021-030-Bataan20.jpg
 
21. Bataan Peninsula. 14th Imperial Army Headquarters, Saint Augustine Church, Lubao, midday, April 15, 1942.

Lieutenant General Masaharu Homma poured himself a cup of sake, his fifth in quick succession, and downed it in a single quaff. Rising from his map table he began to pace back and forth. Homma was agitated ... agitated about his imminent meeting with an emissary from General Count Hisaichi Terauchi. his superior at Southern Army Headquarters

Such visits were invariably bad news. Homma’s relationship with Terauchi had been deteriorating rapidly for some time, and these unwelcome visits were occurring with increasing frequency. He feared that this one might mean his dismissal and the profound dishonor that would accompany it.

Striding over to a window, he looked out just as a Type 95 staff car pulled up and an officer jumped out. Homma groaned. It was his worst nightmare. The officer was none other than Major (Rikugun-Shōsa) Fumihisa Ohno, the most sycophantic and bumptious underling on General Terauchi’s staff. Beating a hasty retreat to his map table, Homma seated himself, tented his fingers over the table’s paper strewn surface, took a deep breath and waited.

Moments later the door burst open and Major Ohno strode through, marched straight up to the map table, planted both feet, stiffened and saluted smartly. Homma remained seated, offered only a half-hearted return salute, and said resignedly, “Welcome, Ohno. Good to see you again. To what do I owe the pleasure?”

“I think you know perfectly well, Lieutenant General.”

“Enlighten me.”

“It’s about another of your failures, of course ... the partisan raid last night that succeeded in freeing American POWs from the holding compound outside this very town, right under your very nose, Lieutenant General. You have been warned repeatedly to take more strenuous measures to suppress the local population and its lawless partisans. Two days ago your criminal laxness cost the lives of hundreds of brave Imperial Army soldiers in Balanga, and now you have disgraced yourself further by bungling the job of preventing the escape of these American POWs!”

“This is war, my dear Ohno. Not everything goes perfectly. War is messy. Things happen. But overall, I believe the 14th Army has distinguished itself well.”

“General Count Terauchi would not agree, Lieutenant General. He has petitioned Tokyo to have you recalled. And in the meantime he has sent me to handle this POW escape fiasco personally and properly.”

“That’s really not necessary, Ohno. One of my personal staff, Captain Tanaka, already has the situation well in hand. It’s my understanding that he has moved swiftly to cordon off the hills behind Lubao, sealing off the possibility that any escaped POWs will get far. I can assure you that Tanaka has the situation completely under control.”

“You’ll excuse me for doubting that, Lieutenant General. My orders are to take direct command of the effort to recover the escapees, as well as to exact civilian reprisals, and to oversee the interrogations and summary executions of all recovered escapees.”

“I see.”

“Now, I have serious work to do, Lieutenant General, and must take my leave. If you would be so kind, please direct me to the whereabouts of this POW holding compound from which the escape occurred.”

“Drive south out of town, Ohno. You can’t miss it.”

“Thank you, Lieutenant General. Enjoy what time remains to you until you receive notice of being relieved of your command here.”

With that, Ohno turned smartly on his heel and departed without saluting.

Homma waited until Ohno was gone and his staff car could be heard driving off before taking a long swig from his sake bottle and flinging it at the door.

**************

High in the hills above Lubao, Tanaka had reached the point where the track he had been following intersected with the main road leading into Lubao. He pulled the lorry up short and stopped. The disengaged engine idled smoothly and the rain drummed steadily on the hood and roof of the cab. Minutes ticked by. It was peaceful sitting there. But it was also decision time.

Tanaka looked at the two American nurses with whom he shared the cab. Neither was awake. Moore leaned against him, his free arm wrapped around her, hand on her bare hip. The warmth of her body pressed against his had turned his shirt damp with sweat. On the other side of the cab, her companion slumped against the far door. The diffused light coming through the windscreen gave her nakedness a pale sheen. He liked the contrasting dark hue of her nipples.

What was he to do? He would revisit what he saw as his only two options one last time. He took his time, turning them each over in his mind. Then he decided. Honor won out. He was an officer in the Japanese Imperial Army. In the final analysis, he had no choice.

Tanaka revved the engine, let out the clutch, and eased the lorry out onto the road, heading in the direction of Lubao.

And, as he shifted gears and picked up speed, the rain let up. Was it a sign? Tanaka hoped so. He smiled, as his thoughts drifted off to the talented young comfort girl he knew would make herself available to him that night in Lubao.

*************

Hiroko woke with a start. He had dozed off ... for how long he wasn’t sure, but it was no longer raining. Beside him was his American nurse, asleep. He thought of her now in possessive terms. It seemed perfectly appropriate to think of her as “his”.

He decided not to wake her, at least not right away. He wanted to just look at her for awhile. She was lying half on her back with her legs off to one side and slightly drawn up.

The shirt he had given her to wear had ridden up over her hips in her sleep, revealing everything from the waist down, including the sweet triangle of fine, light-colored hair that covered her mound. The shirt front was partly open as well, baring one breast nearly to the nipple. By positioning his head just right he found that he could see it, poking up beneath the edge of the fabric.

Her eyes were closed, robbing him of the opportunity to study the greenish color that he found so alluring. Reaching out gently he rearranged her bobbed hairdo, noting how fine and silky her hair was.

She stirred suddenly.

He pulled back, to watch her as she wakened, stretching languidly before opening her eyes.

On seeing him, she started. But he pressed a finger to her lips, and smiled at her reassuringly ... and then he removed the finger and touched it to his own lips. She smiled back, which made him so joyfully happy that he sat up abruptly and cracked his head on the sheltering wing of the downed plane.

**************

Alejandro had gone to cool off. Not because of the heat. The pouring rain had made for a relatively cool day. He had gone off by himself to gain control of his anger.

He and Whitaker had just had a heated disagreement over what they should do next. Alejandro had wanted to pull back, arguing that the Japanese would be launching a major pursuit as soon as they realized that the partisans and the American escapees had slipped past the Japanese cordon. He had also pointed out that the soldiers guarding the march along the coastal road would be heavily reinforced. In his view it was time to melt back into the mountains and lay low until things settled down.

Whitaker had other ideas. He wanted to mount a new attack on Lubao to free more POWs and then to possibly follow that up with a spoiling attack on the railhead at San Fernando.

Whitaker had accused Alejandro of being too timid. Alejandro had told Whitaker that he was underestimating the Japanese, and that his ideas amounted to nothing more than short-sighted gambles likely to endanger both the partisan band, which was not designed or ready for conventional set-piece attacks against an alerted enemy, and a civilian population likely to be subjected to bloody reprisals.

While Alejandro understood the American officer’s anxiousness over the safety of his comrades in Lubao, and his desire to get at the Japanese, he was not about to risk his band in a foolhardy attack.

Nothing had been resolved yet. They had each gone off angrily. A reckoning over who was in command was going to be necessary.

*************

Major Ohno’s Type 95 command car pulled off the road near the main gate of the Lubao POW holding compound. Leaping from the vehicle before it had fully come to rest, he accosted the nearest of the Japanese soldiers lounging about nearby, demanding to speak immediately to the officer in charge. One of the soldiers was soon hastening off to fetch Lieutenant Kinoshita, thankful to be avoiding the withering dressing down that Ohno was by then administering to his hapless comrades.

“Lieutenant Kinoshita reporting, Sir!” barked Kinoshita with spirit, despite the fact that he was slightly out of breath after sprinting clear across the compound.

“These men!” snapped Ohno, pointing at the soldiers he had just finished haranguing, “are a complete disgrace! I want them all on report!”

“Yessir.”

“Now, tell me about last night’s breakout, Lieutenant! Exactly what happened?”

“Well, it was touched off by a partisan raid, Major. They staged a diversion at the north perimeter while managing a breach in the southwest corner. We think the POWs were in on it somehow.”

“And how many of the POWs escaped?”

“We can’t be certain, Sir. We think it was somewhere around twenty to thirty”

“And how many have been recaptured?”

“Well, Sir. Sergeant Kubo organized the pursuit. But in the confusion, as you might imagine, some valuable time was lost. A few of the more injured POWs were found and killed, nonetheless.”

“How many is a few, Lieutenant?”

“Well ... uh ... two, actually, Sir.”

“I see. And where can I find this incompetent ... this Sergeant Kubo?”

“Uh, you can’t, Sir. He’s dead.”

“So you’re telling me, Lieutenant, that we lost a man in exchange for only two of theirs?”

“No, not exactly, Sir. Captain Tanaka took a force up into the hills on lorries to set up a blocking position to cut off the POWs escape routes.”

“And where is Tanaka now?”

“He hasn’t returned yet, Sir. But we expect him back shortly.”

“I see. And are the other prisoners who were in the compound last night still here?

“Yessir. We thought it best to keep them here for the time being.”

“And have you interrogated any of them?”

“No, sir.”

“Well I intend to do that right now, Lieutenant! Form a detail immediately! Bring me two of the American POWs, and find me an interpreter! We need to find out who was behind this and I, for one, know very well how to make people talk!”

“Yessir.”

“Oh, and a couple more things, Lieutenant.”

“Yessir?”

“I want Tanaka brought to me immediately on his return! And he’d better have results to report or I will have his head!”

“Yessir, and the other thing?”


“Consider yourself on report, Kinoshita. I’ll deal with you later!”
A somewhat more calm episode, certainly for our redoubtable nurses. However, tensions within the Japanese hierarchy suggest that this might well be another 'calm before the storm' moment ... excellent narrative as always.
 
As @Fossy commented, a calmer episode, but anticipation of trouble is building rapidly again. The Americans have traded Kubo as a chief adversary for Ohno. Only time will tell who was worse.
Yada, Yada, Yada - another fine bit of writing, Barb.
 
Major Ohno’s Type 95 command car pulled off the road near the main gate of the Lubao POW holding compound. Leaping from the vehicle before it had fully come to rest, he accosted the nearest of the Japanese soldiers lounging about nearby, demanding to speak immediately to the officer in charge. One of the soldiers was soon hastening off to fetch Lieutenant Kinoshita, thankful to be avoiding the withering dressing down that Ohno was by then administering to his hapless comrades.
And all the soldiers think : "Oh, no! Ohno is there!":D
 
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