Statement of Frank Bigelow
Before the Senate Judiciary Committee
June 28, 2000
I want to thank you for allowing me to speak to you today. I want to give a special thanks to Senator Hatch from Utah for his efforts.
I am Frank Bigelow, formerly Seaman Second Class. I am now 78 and residing in Brooksville, Florida. I am here to speak for the POWs from World War II.
Bullets, exotic diseases, and starvation couldnít kill us. Neither could 2 years of slave labor being beaten and nearly beheaded, by the masters we were forced to serve. It is that strength that brings me here today.
Justice is long overdue for the thousands of WWII veterans. No doubt, you have heard of Omuta's Camp #17 where your fathers, sons and brothers were forced to do hard labor.
We were defending a beach on Corregidor when thousands of American and Filipino troops were taken prisoner by the Japanese. I knew right then, that I was going to make it, when they hauled down the American flag, ground it into the earth and urinated on it. It made me sick. I love my flag and my country. I was 20 years old and half a world away from my home in North Dakota. I contracted malaria, jaundice, diarrhea and dysentery all at the same time. I forced myself to eat charcoal and it saved my life.
After a year, the Japanese asked for 500 POW volunteers to go to another camp. After 3 weeks at sea we found ourselves in Omuta, Japan. That was August, 1943. Camp 17. The Japanese army delivered us to a coal mine everyday owned by Mitsui, one of the biggest business conglomerates in Japan. We were their slave labor. Mitsui Mining was right up there in front. We were told to "work or die."
Long hours and short rations, usually tiny portions or rice and seaweed soup, could barely sustain us as we were doing heavy physical labor. I was skin and bones. At 6 foot 4 inches and just 95 pounds. We worked as many as 27 days straight. We were beaten, badly.
Since my bones were so brittle from malnutrition, one night, when a huge rock fell on my leg, it broke my bones like old dead twigs. There was another American POW, Dr. Thomas Hewlett. He improvised with 2 sharpened bicycle spokes. One through my knee and one through my ankle. Eventually, I got gangrene. Due to lack of choice, since we had no medical supplies, much less surgical supplies, he had to do what you call a guillotine operation. He had a hacksaw blade and razor blade, some knives, and 4 guys holding me down. He resorted to a primitive method to battle the growing infection. He put maggots inside the bandage. When he took them out . . . he pulled out the infection. That man saved me and the rest of my leg.
Japan surrendered and at the age of 24 I left that POW camp, thinking only of my freedom in America. Navy and Marine former prisoners of war were shipped to Guam. When we reached Guam, Navy Intelligence Officers took us one on one into rooms. We were each handed a paper headed, ìRestricted,î with the subject, ìPublicity in Connection with Liberated Prisoners of War.î We were told to read, sign, and keep our mouths shut. I am putting this politely. We were young, scared and yearning to get stateside. We would have signed almost anything.
What do I think the company owes us? My leg, a couple of years of our lives and at least minerís wages for what we did. And most of all . . . they owe us an apology. It was wartime . . . as prisoners of war we were supposed to be treated humanely, fed, given a decent place to live, and medical treatment. We received none of these.
If our lawsuits go to trial against the biggest and richest companies in the world . . . Mitsubishi, Nippon and Mitsui among them, we hope that photos taken by Terence Kirk will help make our case. We want to use them as evidence against the Japanese who enslaved us. Industrialists whose companies used prisoners of war as slave labor were never tried. And the photos were never used. We feel it is only fair to hold these companies accountable.
In closing, may I say, protect your freedom and flag with your life, if itís necessary. It is the most important thing we will ever have as Americans.