'I was a Jewish Japanese Prisoner of War'

By Pearle Manne

Dear Jewish State Reader: This is a retelling of this story as told to The Jewish State reader Pearle Manne by Dacha, whom she met while on vacation. It is being published in the hopes that such survivor's stories will continue to be told in the future.

Dacha was born in Polish Jew in 1908. Her earliest recollections started at age 4 when her mother died. Her father left her with her grandmother who lived outside of the city and who was, herself, an old woman. She took pity on Dacha however, and took her in and raised her.

Her grandmother had no money but insisted that Dacha go to school. After the school day, Dacha made casings from the intestines of the cows and sheep. She then went by train in the city to sell them to the butchers who made sausages out of them.

When she was 18, a letter came to the grandmother from Dacha's aunt who at the time lived in New York. This aunt offered to take Dacha in and care for her. The grandmother asked Dacha if she wanted to go, and Dacha agreed.

Soon after, a ticket came from the aunt, but it wasn't to New York as Dacha had been promised. Rather it was a ticket to Canton, China, where her aunt now lived and taught as a professor at a university in Canton. It was a destination that would change her destiny.

Dacha left Poland on a ship bound not east to New York, but to the Far East. As soon as she stepped on the deck of the ship she wanted to disembark, but it was too late. She cried and cried.

The ship's captain tried to console her telling her "If you don't like it, you can go back to Poland when the ship goes back to the West."

"But I don't have any money to go back," she said.

"You can work your way back," he advised. "You can sell merchandise to the passengers from the ship's store. But you will first have to get off in Canton. When the ship finishes its tour through the East, it will come back. You can return to Europe then," the captain explained to her.

Having no alternative, Dacha got off the ship at Canton. She was met by her aunt and a Chinese man whom the aunt had since married. Dacha had never seen a Chinese person before and the marriage shocked her.

She told her aunt she wanted to return to Poland immediately, but her aunt did not have any money to send her back. So Dacha was left alone in her aunt's house with the servants. There was no place for her and nothing for her to do.

Just when things seemed darkest, the ship did indeed return from its tour. She seized the opportunity to go back home to her beloved Poland.

Even better, the ship's captain told her that there was a wealthy family on board who were looking for a governess for their children. He introduced her to the family which consisted of a husband who was an American flyer, his German wife and their two children.

The wife wanted Dacha to teach the children German so that they would be able to speak to their grandparents when they met them. Being fluent in German as well as her native Polish, Dacha quickly accepted the job thinking she would soon be on her way home.

So, in 1928 Dacha went with the family, not to Poland but the Philipines. She also made a contract with the woman to stay with the family for two years. In doing so she was thus able to both take care of herself financially, and to send some money back home to Poland to the grandmother who had raised her.

To Dacha's great surprise there was a Jewish synagogue in the city were the family had settled. That Rosh Hashona, Dacha asked the wife if she could go to services, to which she agreed. It was another destination that would change her destiny forever.

It was in fact in that synagogue where she met her future husband, Hyman, another Polish immigrant. He had come to services along with a number of Jewish soldiers. When she entered the synagogue, he was immediately attracted to her. He wanted to date her, but her employers insisted on having him over for dinner to "check him out" before permitting Dacha to do so.

Through the swift courtship, Dacha was determined to keep her two-year contract with the family before she left to marry her husband, Hyman. When it finally terminated she was at last free to live her own life for the first time in her life.

Hyman's family had come to the U.S. from Poland years before, but after his discharge from the army, rather than return to the U.S., he asked Dacha if she would like to stay in the Philipines. She agreed. It was a decision that would prove fateful.

They settled in Manila and Hyman started a business selling office supplies. They had a beautiful home complete with servants. To add to their joy, they a son.

But outside forces would soon shatter this serenity. Japan and China were constantly at war with one another, and this soon spread to the Philipeans that was a crucial location to both nations.

When Japan finally did invade the Philipines, Dacha, her husband and son were incarcerated. She had become something she never imagined possible -- a Jewish Japanese prisoner of war.

While her son and her husband were together in the camp with the men, Dacha was separated from them and sent off with the women. She was as alone as the day her father had abandoned her with her grandmother. She would have to begin her journey all over again.

Life became regimented and institutionalized. Every morning, the POWs had to stand in the front of their meager huts to be counted, and the endless head count never seemed to be right.

Whenever Dacha would catch a glimpse of her husband and son, she felt better. At least they were still all alive. There was a chance, however slim, that they could somehow get their lives back.

They endured starvation and unspeakable cruelties, especially the women. The old, infirm and unlucky were shot and then shoveled into mass graves. Those who were sick only received first aid, and many died from pneumonia. Like the victims of the Holocaust in Europe, no one would know of their nameless fate.

To add to their misery, Dacha's shoes and the shoes of the other prisoners were taken away. They were given flat wooden clogs with a strap across that were impossible to walk in, let alone run. This was a deliberate deprivation to prevent them from being able to escape.

Men, women and children died of hunger, exhaustion and tropical diseases such as malaria. The heat was intolerable. The water in the streams smelled and tasted of crude oil. Mosquitoes bit and spread further disease and parasites.

Daily life for Dacha was nothing like it had been in Manila with her house and servants. The women showered themselves with water that had used to wash their laundry. Meals consisted of gruel made from rice that had been picked through to remove the dirt, grit and insects. Sometimes they were lucky enough to find vegetables that had grown in puddles.

Worst was the psychological terror. There were constant rumors of torture. Night once filled with passionate love were now filled cold, terrifying fear. She would often awake in sweat and panic

By the end of the war, Dacha weighed only 74 pounds and her menses had stopped. She could no longer recognize herself or the person she had been. She had come a long way from an orphan in Poland to an ex-POW in the Asian theater.

After they were freed, the Americans POWs were taken to an island where they entered the U.S. Zone. Here they began the process of delousing and disinfecting. Dacha and others also lost many of their decayed teeth.

She was later reunited with husband and son who had also survived their own ordeals. When at last they returned to their home in Manila, they found everything demolished. There was nothing to go "home" to.

As Hyman was an American citizen, they decided to go to U.S. They settled in Portland, Oregon where they had relatives and tried to pick up the shattered pieces of their lives.

While Dacha and Hyman desperately wanted another child, this was not to be. Dacha suffered several miscarriages due to her debilitated physical condition. Eventually, the doctors forbade her from trying to have any more children as they felt it would be too dangerous for her.

Life returned to normal as it could be for them. Hyman opened another business. Their son returned to school. Dacha ran the house and continued her healing process.

When they were informed that they were eligible to receive reparations, Hyman decided to return to Manila to see if he could get any money for the losses they had sustained. He came periodically to the United States to see his wife and family.

After their son began college, Dacha rejoined her husband in the Philipines, planning to live there permanently. She was pleasantly surprised to find that in the interim Hyman had rebuilt the old house the Japanese had destroyed.

They continued to live in the Philipines for the next 54 years. They then returned to the U.S. to retire and to be near their grandchildren and great-grandchildren. While Dacha still suffers some physical debilitation from her experience, especially from her now flat feet, her limitations remind of just how far she has come, and how precious life is.