Darkness Dissolves When the Door Opens

The Dungeon and the Cathedral

Now, let me tell you how the dungeon looked like. Buried a couple of hundred meters below the ground, sat a dungeon with insane humidity that could make one suffer from flu every week. 

There were ten cells located in that specific dungeon. The prisoners were Private John Blanc at the cell nearest to the dungeon’s black iron door which led outside, Private Jules West who shoveled himself on the floor every day after crying his mind out of his endless misery and that he had only nine fingers, Private Blake McDuckins who told jokes all the time but no one even bothered to reply, Private Jai Altena who was the only Dutch in the dungeon, Private Asher Vans who was very big mouthed and somehow overdid stuff, Private Ezra Pekking who just died by a cyanide, Private First Class Glenn Sheppard who was very good with fixing stuff, Private Roger Anchorhead who was a medical support at his platoon, and Private Hal Morales who was… there.

In total, there were five dungeons in the whole Japanese facility, but only two sat in the basement underground. The facility itself was an abandoned Dutch catholic church called the Hundred Years European Cathedral. The Cathedral, as we like to call it, was a very strong building capable of holding enemy canons and air attacks. The place was structured like a fortress, built by hundreds of local slaves with the budget of building a military complex. 

The man in charge of this whole facility was that old, fat bastard you saw in the previous chapter named Corporal Akira Yamako. Yamako wasn’t only ruthless, but he also was a bit narcissistic and maniacal to everyone he met, but he was a pretty scary dude. 

Now back to the church, you could locate the place in the city of Semarang, Central Java, now the Republic of Indonesia, but then was still the Dutch Indies. By the Japanese and led by Yamako, the Cathedral did an important role for the military in Java. 

Germany and Italy were Japan’s grandeur allies, and with them, they prospered. Japans needed supplies to conquer all of the world, but who could help them better than their European mates. Germans and Italians came all the time to do business and shipping, and the headquarter of that business was the Cathedral.

Many Germans and Italians slept there, in the Cathedral for some weeks to plan their economic strategy or future friendship businesses. 

But that was not all. The place also transported troops for a long rest before they continued their journeys east or west. The place was like an emergency motel for Japanese men, and was very useful when war occurred. The Japanese needed to wipe out resistances forever. These locals had the spirit of steels, troublesome for the Japanese empire.

Can you find this place now? Absolutely not. The place was flattened by the British troops some years after the Indonesian independence as it was used for a refugee camp for injured resistances. But its blood stained the island forever.