Since there were very few medical supplies available, POW doctors believed that keeping a healthy attitude was important for survival. Therefore, POW doctors encouraged POWs in and outside the hospital to find an interest and keep busy. The idea was to promote a healthy attitude. Taking the doctor’s advice, POWs engaged in different forms of entertainment to ease the boredom and keep their minds off their aches and pains. For example, early in the war, the Japanese allowed a whole truckload of books to be delivered to Cabanatuan. It amounted to over twenty five hundred books. The books offered POWs some escape from the reality of camp. Immediately, the men set up a system of distribution, book repair, catalog system and designated a librarian. They then made lists of books to read putting them on reserve if need be. [1]  Ex-POW Irvin Alexander confessed, “I enjoyed the library … not only was I able to catch up on my reading of old books, but I had the opportunity to read many new books.” [2] To further ease the boredom of camp, POWs set up schools in which they taught one another foreign languages, physics, history and other college courses. They held lectures on just about anything. [3] In addition, prisoners held talent shows in which they played guitars, ukuleles, put on skits and comedian acts. [4] POW Doctors arranged for the performances to be held within the camp hospital to help the patients get through another night. Tony Bilek, an ex-POW who attended a performance on the malaria side of the hospital, described his feelings afterwards, “We all had such a good time … that those of us that could gave a standing ovation, did so … After the performance, I was surprised to find a lump in my throat and was wet in the corners of my eyes.” [5] These diversions gave POWs something to look forward to each day and took their minds off their troubles for a bit. Moreover, it gave a sense of community which greatly affected their attitude towards survival.  Without these avenues of escape, many POWs would have just given up and died.

 

Humor improved the attitude of the POW and proved to be essential to survival. [6] POWs poked fun at their guards by nicknaming them derogatory names. It proved humorous in several instances due to the language barrier. There was one sadistic guard that reminded the prisoners of the cartoon character Donald Duck. They told the guard he was named for a famous Hollywood movie star. Then the guard told all POWs to address him as “Do-noo Duck.” [7]  Humor became a coping mechanism. It made the POW experience more tolerable. POWs learned to laugh at their horrific predicament rather than cry. Sergeant Forrest Knox, an ex-POW explained, “One of the tricks of survival --- laugh no matter what happens.” [8]  Due to the circumstances of POW camp, humor evolved into a perverse form of entertainment that few outsiders would understand. Ex-POW Tony Bilek confessed that they placed bets on those afflicted with dysentery making it to the latrine on time. “Our fellow prisoners' misfortune turned into a warped form of entertainment …  that guy's in pretty good shape, look at him go. The other replied, bet he makes it … No bet, Tony. That guy's too fast.” [9] Another incident that brought chuckles to fellow prisoners involved two POWs in the dysentery ward at Cabanatuan. They were about to go to sleep when they began to think the man sleeping in-between them had died. They stripped the dead man of his clothing and laid him outside as standard procedure. In the morning the supposed dead man walked back in the ward demanding to know who put him out. A fellow POW who had witness the whole thing, chuckled, “it was funny.” [10]

In contrast, POW medical attendants often made their POW patients angry to see if their attitudes showed a fighting spirit that was necessary for survival. Then, they would determine who received medical treatment and who did not. Anger proved to be a successful antidote for many ailments. One POW corpsman, interned at Cabanatuan, went around every day and hit those patients in his ward that had their eyes closed, hard with a stick on their legs.  On the surface, this would appear to be sadistic. However, it was done to determine who still had the will to live. When whacked, those POWs that soon died did not respond but those who still had the will to live, got angry.  Former POW, Forrest Knox who witnessed the treatment confessed, “If you could make someone mad enough to fight, they would not die …. These guys promised themselves they were going to live long enough to kill that medic and they would live.”[11] Likewise, Japanese guards tested POWs in the camp hospital wards to see if they were truly sick. If legs or arms were bandaged due to infection, Japanese guards would kick the infected area. This was done to get more POWs out of the hospital to work.[12] However, it instilled a deeper hatred for the Japanese soldier and for some POWs may have given them an incentive to live, out of the need for revenge.