In the final year of his incarceration, JD was sent to a Mitsubishi copper mine in northern Japan. There the old mine's conditions had deterioated so badly, they made the physical site of the miracle-like, but happily-avoided mine disaster in Chile pale in comparision.
There, because of Merritt's uncooperative attitude, he was put to work on a detail led by the toughest Hancho in the mine, a sumo-sized Japanese giant named Fukuda. To "correct" JD's B.A., (bad attitude) he was made to work alone in a basho no batsu. (an old, abandoned lateral nearing collapse} When Fukuda accosted him one morning, JD's Irish temper overcame his good sense and he roughly cursed The Monster in fluent Japanese.
Dumfounded by JD's blasphemy, Fukuda screamed "Yattsukeru omae no horyo." (roughly, "I'll kill you, slave.") Then the man-mountain charged Merritt, his ridiculously short legs churning his body forward as his long, gorilla-like arms swung like blades on a windmill. When JD glimpsed his ham-like hands clenching, grasping and reaching, he knew this was a battle to the death - no quarter given or expected. Read the miracle-like ending in "Adapt Or Die."
Dear Mr. JD Merritt,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your book. I just put it down a few minutes ago and should be done with Book 6 by tomorrow. I will probably re-read it many times as it's hilarious while at the same time poignant. Although I had many laughs at many chapters (my wife kept asking "what are you laughing at from that book?") there are also many pages that made my eyes wet.
I will mention your book to friends and not just in the Filipino community. And it will be an honor to meet you, a real WWII hero.
Take care and regards,
Leopoldo "Pol" Duran
Dear Mr. Merritt,
ReplyDeleteI just finished reading your provocative book and I must say that it was a real eye-opener! I think that many people gradually came to learn of MacArthur's duplicity and egotism and FDR's "Europe First" policy and how the Japanese were goaded into war. However I never heard of the CIC threatening our own POWs, and it is heartbreaking to think that the Fil-Amer guerrillas passed along the Hellship info to Halsey et al yet it was disregarded! Once maybe, but all of those torpedoes--never! I am happy that you survived your ordeal and were able to tell your story.
Thank you for sharing those painful memories.
Mary Lou Rote
Kinue Tokudome reviewed Mr. JD Merritt's remarkable POW memoir, which he describes as follows: "Truth is the soul of this book and it is written exactly as I lived it." To read the full review please go to JD Merritt's memoir
ReplyDeletehttp://www.us-apandialogueonpows.org/Merritt.htm
Dear JD,
Congratulations on the publication of your long-awaited memoir, Adapt or Die. It is full of adventurous, hilarious, heart-wrenching, and triumphant episodes.
People you described in your book came to life before our eyes. As a Japanese person, I am especially grateful that you approached the Japanese people you encountered with an open mind, and even passion. But I must say that the most interesting and attractive person emerged from this book was the author--you in those trying times. As I read your remarkable stories of survival and love, I could not help but wish I had lived back then and met you, although I know those were terrible times.
You and I almost lost our friendship before it even started. In 2005, you kindly shared with me some draft passages for this book. I was fascinated and wanted to introduce them as an essay in my just-launched website, US-Japan Dialogue on POWs. But when you sent me your essay, I found myself in an impossible situation. You wrote about your very first Japanese friend, Japanese soldier Mori, who was killed by his own troops after he had become a POW of the US forces, which took care of him at the Field Hospital #2 in Bataan.
I had no doubt that you wrote it exactly as you saw. But my website was just launched and it often received nasty anonymous emails from Japanese people who did not like what I was trying to start—informing my countrymen/women of the experience of American POWs of the Japanese. It was also the time when Japan had a rather nationalistic administration and many right wing groups exerted their influences. They would go after anyone who they thought was dishonoring the Imperial Japanese Army. One author was even sued when he wrote that the Japanese military had ordered civilians in Okinawa to commit mass suicide in the final days of the Pacific War. They could have easily destroyed my fledging website if I posted the episode of a Japanese solider being killed by his own troops. Then my opportunity to inform the Japanese people of the experience of American POWs would be forever lost.
The email I wrote to you to tell that I could not post your essay on my website was the hardest I ever had to write. I knew I hurt and even offended you, a former POW of my own country, deeply. Our correspondence discontinued, ending what might have developed into a great friendship.
Almost four year had passed and I was going through my little personal crisis last year. And it was you who wrote to me,“I wish you the very best in this troubling time. Smile, dear Kinue, even when your heart is breaking. Be strong when others falter. My heart and mind are with you.”
You will never know how much I appreciated those words that came from someone whose friendship I thought I had lost forever.
In this book, you come across as a strong-willed and even ruthless person who could not tolerate anyone who violated the rules of basic human decency. But you were also a person with a gentle soul whose love was extended even to your enemy countrymen and women. That is rare and precious.
I am glad that you did not forget that your 1945 contract with the US government to remain silent about your POW experience would become null and void after 50 years.
Thank you for writing this book for all of us.
Kinue Tokudome
Hello, JD Merritt, author of
ReplyDelete“Adapt Or Die"
I'm sitting in the carpool line waiting for my boys...only have a few minutes. Good God...I've been on the edge of my seat since the beginning of your book and this past hour my heart has been racing! I wish I was further back in the car line!! I will write more after dinner but just had to let you know how overwhelmed with emotion I've been since page one. Darn...here they come!! Argh! I'm signing off momentarily...I have so much to say.
Sincerely, Lisa Richards
Dinner’s over and the dishes are in the dishwasher so Hi again, Now, after first hearing about your book I had no doubt it would be phenomenal but never did I think I would be so caught up in each page the way I am. Each and every detail within all of the day to day journey you were embarked on is riveting! I feel like I’m there seeing all that you saw…smelling the smells...tasting the Oriental food and feeling all of the same emotions you did throughout each step. Now I’m about to start “The Final, Desperate Days” and know I’m going to have to go into a quiet corner for a couple of hours to take all of it in. I am so humbled by what you experienced and how you chose to deal with each situation. No doubt we ARE fat and spoiled and too little of what you learned as a child and carried with you even till today is passed down to present generations who so desperately need it. Too few men and women will ever actually EXPERIENCE life and how every precious moment could be their last. I am so grateful for you and what you have passed on to many generations of Americans. Not only through the wonders in your book, but through the wonders of your soul. To have the opportunity to look so deeply into your world and to meet all of the men and women that were your lifeline is a priceless life experience of my own and I plan to read your book over and over to fully appreciate all of the good, the bad and the ugly. And yes, the hysterically hilarious!!!
I have to run, it’s time to put the boys to bed and then I’ll return to “Adapt Or Die.”
Thank you for sharing these precious memories.
Lisa R
Dear JD
ReplyDeleteI have finished Reading, " ADAPT OR DIE", Not only are you a POW survivor you are a great writer. I have always been interested in the History of World War II, maybe because I am one of many "Baby Boomers". Many men sacrificed their time for that war, which included My Dad and My Father-In-Law and of course you. I am sorry it has taken fifty years to publish this book. After finishing Your book I simply closed the book and imagined the horrific treatment you and Your fellow soldiers received. Because of the great efforts of your survival, we all have a chance to read a part of the real World War II, I am sure they are memories that will never be forgotten. Thank you for serving our Country.
Gerald McKillip
Hello JD/GIC,
ReplyDeleteI passed over the first time you used BIC and after seeing it a dozen more times, I had to scan back until I confirmed what I thought it meant.
Jane and I both love your book. Its like you and us are around a camp fire and you are telling us stories. We really like your writing style and your appreciation for the reader.
We both started reading at page 416 when Mike first enters the story. He never told us that he hea rd depth charges before he heard the torpedoes. We then started at the beginning.
I couldn't stop laughing when reading about the inspection ordered by the beached whale. Right now I am on page 250 where you describe the Japenese Dockmaster swallowing 5 alka seltzer tablets. I could almost hear the farts. I had to put the book down and go check my e-mails.
Like you said there are other parts that make you cry-the murder of Celing and the others in the Filipino camp and poor Mori.
I just can't fathom our nation's love affair with MacArthur. Even as a kid I thought little of him after he made President Truman wait on the tarmac when he went to fire him. Then MacArthur ma de his speeches to the nation and said he was going to work for AT&T as a telegrapher-what BS. Mac did a great job pre-positioning food and supplies for ready use by the Jap invading forces. I heard from other sources the fiasco of not touching rice in a Manilla warehouse because it belonged to the Japs.
I share your opinion of FDR and even wrote a paper in college blaming him for Pearl Harbor.
We are learning a lot of history reading your book. I don't think many people are aware of what made up our fighting forces on Bataan. Me like most folks just assumed the Army had 3 or 4 highly trained Infantry divisions, maybe more to face the Japs. No it was guys like you and even for a while, sailors from Canopus. We will emphasize that aspect in our book review that Jane and I will write very soon.
I hope your book gets translated into Japanese!
Ralph
Dear JD: My late husband accumulated a library full of POW books and how I wish he could have read yours. It is the best written and most interesting of all of them. I couldn't put it down once I started reading it. My brother-in-law, Dan Weigel, was among the 1800 of our POW's who died when the Hell Ship Arisan Maru was sunk by one of our own submarines.(Only nine survived) It was an unmarked ship, but we know now that our government had information that our own POW's were aboard those ships. I am so glad you have made this public in your book. You are a one of a kind fellow former Michigander and I am privileged to call you my friend.
ReplyDeleteHello, Mr. Merritt,
ReplyDeleteI hope this email finds you doing well and feeling good.
When your book “Adapt or Die” arrived I had to stay up very late several nights, frankly I just couldn't stop reading it. Not only was it informative but I appreciate that you called to tell me about it. Otherwise, I would not have known that Filipino guerillas had infiltrated Port Area Manila where you had worked for over two years. Since they had radio contact with General MacArthur, and informed him when POW's were being sent to Japan on their merchant ships, General Macarthur must not have had any compassion at all. Feeding his ego, didn't the media and text books make him out to be a hero? It makes me very angry when I think that my uncle, Richard Hilliard, could have survived, as you did, if the Arisan Maru had not been sunk by American submarines....what a horrid decision! It is good that you wrote the book, allowing the true story to finally come out.
I had learned from other POW's that they were also questioned and told not to talk about their experiences. And I appreciate that you refused to sign any document in spite of their threats.
I saw on your business card included with your book that you have a website. Finding it, I watched your video and sent the site on to my brother, so he can also hear what you say. You look very good for all that you have gone through in your life. I don't understand how anyone was able to survive all that horrible treatment.
Again, thank you for the book. I have read several other books of this genre, and yours is the one I will always remember most. I appreciate that you were brave enough to tell it all.
Blessings to you and your family.
Sincerely,
Mary Lou Francis
What so impresses me after finishing Adapt or Die is the quiet heroism of the author. J.D. Merritt saw his duty and accomplished it with grace and heroism. Whether sabotaging the Japanese war effort, dispatching the enemy to the Gods of Nippon, or surviving the brutality to which he was cruelly subjected, Mr. Merritt accomplished it all with sly ingenuity¸ high resolve, and sheer guts. This is also a book about love found in unlikely places and love lost, sometimes tragically and always sadly. Mr. Merritt’s recall is an impressive achievement and his writing is eloquent, urging the reader on. After reading his memoir and speaking with him personally, I can say in all sincerity that J.D. Merritt is one of the greatest of the “Greatest Generation!”
ReplyDeleteRabbi Mark S. Miller
Newport Beach, California
I read this book and wondered how anyone could survive the horrors of being a prisoner of war.
ReplyDeleteThis is well written, it takes the reader through J. D. s life, through the camps, through the jungles, and the mayhem during those dark days of world war two.
Thank you for letting us into your story, and of those who served with you.
I'm not surprised anymore by the arrogance, and cover ups in our government, and military. Shame on them.
Thanks J. D.
Molly Pratt
Sonora, Ca.