Shadows of Shelly

Brit - Inhumanity Part 15b

FIFTEEN-b

Brit - Inhumanity

Two hundred POWs were retrieved from the nasty cages. There were no toilets, showers or covering. The only clean water came when it rained. The majority walked poorly or had to be carried. They were mostly skin and bones. Seven had been locked up for six years. We fed them K-rations which most of them puked up what little they ate. We made a watered-down vegetable beef soup that they were able to retain.

The villagers did consume rice soup with bits of some unknown meat once a day while in captivity. Thai fried rice with chicken chunks was prepared for these forced laborers and captured Chinese teens. They were thin, but not as gaunt as the POWs. My limbs went rigid. Pain flared up at my temples. How could anyone be so depraved as to treat human beings like retched animals?

A Chinese Colonel and Major were apprehended in the jungle. I asked them why did they treat their own boy soldiers so poorly? Both replied in Chinese that the youngsters were lower than scum and replaceable! The youth were in hearing range, and their countenance turned ridged. Colonel Peetee shot the two in the head saying, "Officers in time of war, under Thai law, are judge, jury and executioner."

Part of me was sad, not for the Chinese officers, but for the youthful adherents who were crushed by the words of their countrymen. Yes, Peetee was correct. These detainees can be converted to a better life.

I had lived a sheltered life. A stark reality smacked me in the face. What had been said about war, not being pretty, was becoming an actuality. I did not comprehend how to respond. Adrenalin was keeping me upright.

General William Tecumseh Sherman speaking about the civil war in 1870 to the Mayor and Councilmen ofAtlanta said, "War is hell!" I experienced the wretchedness of that statement.How do I share that with Shelly and Momma?