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MV Tantalus
MV Tantalus was sunk in the Manila Bay on the 15th od December 1941 and the crew were interned in the Santo Tomas Camp.
The following accounts describe how the men were treated by the Japanese, and also the murder of two of the crewmen who attempted to escape, this description is quite harrowing, so please bare this in mind befor reading on.
Manila Bay on the 15 of December 1941, the crew were interned in the
HANSON & ORTH
41 East 42nd Street
New York,
December 13, 1943
AIRMAIL
Mr. Lawrence D. Holt,
52 Ullet Road,
Liverpool, England
Dear Sir:-
I was fortunate enough to be among the 151 American and Canadian repatriates who left Manila on September 26, 1943, and I thought that you would be interested in hearing something of the men from s.s. TANTALUS which was sunk in Manila Bay about December 15, 1941.
In the first place I am attaching a true report of the circumstances connected with the shooting of the three men in February 1942, among whom I am sorry to say were two of the s.s. TANTALUS crew, and I will leave you to use the information as you think best; the notes I have placed beneath will aid in any later accounting, which I hope and trust will be possible. Copies of this report have been delivered as indicated.
Captain Morris and men are in good health, but he has lost, like most people, a tremendous amount of weight and has aged considerably in looks. They are all now in Los Banos Camp, some 50 miles south of Manila, where they were moved from Santo Tomas, Manila, in May 1943. I can assure you that the crew of the s.s. TANTALUS will long be remembered for their splendid discipline and their willing cooperation in the work of the camp, whatever it fell to their lot to do.
Mr. Theo. Rogers, a noted columnist, and editor of the Philippine Free Press, assured me that he would give special mention to the splendid behavior of the British Seamen when the time came.
The men have recently been receiving, through Gordon Rimmer of Smith Bell & Co. Ltd. a monthly allowance of about P15, which has enabled them to buy cigarettes and some extra fruit, eggs, and food of whatsoever nature is available. They have also received one and one-half comfort kits from the Canadian Red Cross.
Regarding the camp, the Japanese allow for each internee P1.00 per day, and after paying for sanitation, medical supplies as available for the camp hospital, electricity, gas and water, there is about 42 centavos remaining for the purchase of food. This consists of cornmeal and synthetic coffee at 7.00 A.M.; either mongo beans, vegetable stew or peanut loaf, or some other form of beans, one banana and substitute tea at 6.00 P.M.; a calorie content of 1500 according to the Camp Medical Director.
Living conditions are crowded; the space allowed each person being about 34 square feet; cots and camp beds being used; sanitation is poor, and specifics for dysentery, anemia.
REPORT ON CASE OF:-
Messrs. Laycock - Australian Manila resident.
Weeks )
Fletcher) A.B. seamen from s.s. TANTALUS - Britons
who were executed by the Japanese on February 15, 1942.
February 11, 1942.
The three men escaped from the Santo Tomas Internment Camp after the 9.00 PM roll call. All three were present in their room at this time.
February 13, 1942.
The three men were caught and brought back to Santo Tomas, and were turned over to the Japanese Gendarmerie Commandant by the Japanese Military authorities.
The Commandant ordered the guards on duty to punish these men severely, as an example to the rest of the camp. In the guard room situated on the main floor of the main building of the camp, a number of guards (8 to 10 approx) administered severely brutal corporal punishment. No internee was allowed to witness this incident, but the sounds of the beatings and the screams and moans of the victims were heard by many internees. Several times the men were insensible and were roused by buckets of cold water for further punishment.
It is believed that Laycock received the most severe beating because he resisted and fought with the guards.
Later in the day, the men were removed to Fort Santiago by order of the Japanese Military authorities.
February 14, 1942.
A Military Court Martial was held by the authorities at Fort Santiago. Our men were allowed no representation, and no voice in the proceedings. The trial was conducted completely in the Japanese language, which none of the three men understood.
On this same day a petition was drawn up by the Internee Executive Committee, headed by Earl Carroll, pleading for the return of the three men to Santo Tomas, on the grounds that they were civilian prisoners of war, and had already been punished for attempting to escape from camp. This was submitted to the Commandant of the Camp for forwarding to the Military authorities. There is no assurance, except the verbal assurance of the Commandant, that the petition was received by the Director-General.
February 15, 1942
The three condemned men were shot at the North Manila Cemetery.
February 16, 1942
Mr. Earl Carroll, Chairman of the Central Committee, made a statement to the Floor Monitors. This statement given below is not verbatim, but is a reconstruction of his report made by Mrs. Dorothy F. Sanford, who was present in the capacity of Women’s Floor Monitor:
Mr. Stewart of the Chartered Bank in Manila (Room Monitor of the executed men), Anglican Padre Griffiths, Bishop Binstead, also Anglican, and Earl Carroll were taken by the Commandant to the Manila South Police Station where Weeks, Fletcher and Laycock were picked up. The whole party was driven to the Manila North Cemetery.
There, the men were stood by freshly dug graves, and were informed, for the first time, that they had been tried by a Military Court Martial and found guilty of attempted escape, and an attempt to convey information to the enemy; and that they were sentenced to be shot.
When asked if they had anything to say after hearing the sentence of the Court Martial, Weeks and Fletcher were silent; but Laycock asked for retrial. He was refused.
The three men were then allowed two or three minutes alone with Bishop Binstead, Padre Griffiths and Carroll and Stewart. The Japanese withdrew out of earshot.
During this time, the men smoked their last cigarette, and gave personal messages to our representatives. Weeks asked that his wallet and other effects be sent to his wife.
The three men were then stood before their respective graves and blindfolded. Laycock requested that his blindfold be removed; - but was refused. The order for execution was then given by the officer in charge, and the firing squad, composed of three soldiers armed with revolvers, shot each man several times. The graves were then filled in. No doctor was present to certify that each man was dead before buried.
This report was compiled by:
/s/ Dorothy Frances Sanford
DOROTHY FRANCES SANFORD
/s/ Richard M. Sanford
RICHARD MILO SANFORD
11-9-43
Copies to:
U. S. Government
British Ambassador to Washington
Canadian Government
Memorandum to Mr. Walker. No copy made.
I believe it was the 12th of February that Laycock, Weeks and Fletcher disappeared from camp. They were apprehended some time the next day, where and how is a matter of rumor. They were brought back to camp in the middle of the afternoon. I believe it was the day they escaped, though it may have been the following day. The camp medical director was called by the Commandant, Lieut. Tomiatsu, to see the men. He said that they had been beaten across the cheeks, that Laycock’s left cheek was so badly beaten that there was little skin left on it, and the left eye was shut by the swelling. The Commandant asked what treatment was required, and the medical director replied that local applications of ice or an ice-bag was what he recommended. The young Japanese lady a resident of the Philippines, a former student of the Philippine Women’s University who worked as a clerk in the camp office, said, “Oh, have they been beaten? I want to see them” and went in while the doctor was there, and gazed at them with sadistic pleasure. The men’s hands were tied behind them. The beating was the kind that results from lashing with a buckle-end of a belt, but there is no evidence what was used. Certainly it was not the variety of wound that comes from slapping. The men were taken away and no medical attention was given.
There was a rumor that various Catholic clergy asked for clemency. The Commandant took off his uniform and put on the regulation garb of a Japanese who is asking for a favor, coarse clothes, and grass sandals, and went somewhere saying that he meant to plead for the men’s lives. He returned in a pessimistic mood. There was a rumor that the men had been turned over to the municipal police and were at the City Hall.
The next day, the second or the third day after the men had escaped, Mr. Stanley, a British subject, perhaps a Canadian, who acted as interpreter in the Commandant’s office, told the interne women who did volunteer sewing to make three plain white arm-bands. He required, at the instance of the Japanese, Mr. Earle Carroll, the chairman of the Central Committee, Rev. Mr. Griffiths, and two monitors from the sections of the gymnasium where the men lived, to come with him in an automobile, and did not tell them why. After he got started he stopped the car and went back to get the three white arm-bands. The car drove to the Cementerio del Norte, and there met another car in which the three men rode, also, I take it, several Japanese. The cars drew up on the grass at the side of the road.
The three men, with their hands tied, were lined up against the fence. Something was read to them in Japanese and Mr. Stanley translated to them that they were to pay the extreme penalty of death for having escaped from Santo Tomas. Onlookers gained the impression that they had not heard of any trial or sentence before.
before. Weeks asked that his wallet be taken out of his pocket for him, and had his young wife’s picture taken out. He said that he had been married only a few months before leaving England, that his wife was pregnant when he left, and that by the time he was talking he was undoubtedly a father. He asked whether such circumstances could not be taken into consideration in extending clemency. Mr. Stanley refused even to translate the request into Japanese. The men were led away. Mr. Griffiths refused to leave the automobile. It is said that one of the men was a Roman Catholic but I do not know which one. Any religious function that Mr. Griffiths was supposed to have was overlooked or neglected.
The men were then marched into the cemetery. In the distance Mr. Carroll and the monitors saw several Philippinos digging a large grave in front of a bower of blossoming red shrubs. The pile of earth was entirely to the rear of the grave, not on both sides, and the pile had been made in such a way that there was a margin of flat sod more than a foot wide between the brim of the grave and the pile of earth. The men were blindfolded some time either just before getting to the grave or when they arrived, with the three white “arm-bands” the intense ladies had made for Mr. Stanley. Laycock is said to have protested that he wanted no bandage over his eyes. His request was ignored. The three men were made to sit down on the ledge of sod at the brim of the grave, with their legs dangling in the grave and their backs to the pile of dirt, but not reclining against it. There was a Japanese lieutenant or captain in charge of the affair and three private soldiers armed with revolvers. The three privates took their places on the side of the grave opposite the three men who were to be executed. Mr. Carroll stood at a distance of less than a hundred yards, the monitors even further off.
The three soldiers then each fired one shot. One man fell into the grave. Another fell across the lap of the third. The first round of shots were fired almost simultaneously. The soldiers each fired a second shot, one into the grave at the man lying there, the other two at the other two British. They also then fell in. From then on the shots were irregularly spaced, but the onlookers could tell, either from flashes or smoke, which soldier was firing, and distinctly counted five shots each. At the first the men groaned, although it is not recorded that they yelled. The behavior of the soldiers was such that they seemed after each shot to have expected that each soldier’s man would die, and so each waited some seconds if not minutes, and hearing groans, or possibly seeing movement in the grave, delivered another shot, and waited again. The groans must have been rather loud or Mr. Carroll, fully 50 yards away, and the monitors further off, would not have heard them. They were sure that each soldier first and last delivered five shots in all. At the end there were still groans coming from the grave but the soldiers motioned the Filipinos to come and start filling in the grave. They did. As the affair was over the Japanese captain, who I take it, had stood a little apart or perhaps behind his soldiers came running back towards Mr. Carroll with tears streaming down his cheeks, obviously deeply moved. The soldiers are reported to have been very matter of fact in their work.
Mr. Carroll is reported to have been much agitated, and not to have slept for two or three nights. The monitors resigned and most of the rest of the monitors in camp also resigned in the next few days. Although I am not clear about the spacing of the days I know for sure that the execution took place on Saturday, for on Sunday Mr. Foley read a statement at church to the effect that the men had been executed “yesterday”. He preached a sermon which was intended to have some reference to the tragedy.
My information came to me not from Mr. Stanley, Mr. Griffiths or Mr. Carroll, but second hand. It has been confirmed in occasional conversations through the last year and a half from several other sources, some of which may be as far as third hand. I can say, however, that my source of information was very prompt. I know Mr. Laycock’s brother but never talked to him about the matter, for I had heard that he was very much upset about the matter.
The other Japanese Military Police Officers in Camp was Lieut. Takahashi, these two officers have been reported to the Intelligence Department in Washington, D.C. also two civilians Sugino and Okamura who have information of value.
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