Glenn Frazier was born in Fort Deposit, Alabama in 1924. He grew up during the Great Depression, but since his family lived on a farm, they experienced little of the deprivation that others in that time period did. He had hand-me-down clothes, but otherwise had to make few sacrifices during that time. His father also ran a country store and often helped the needy with food even though he would not receive payment. As a Greyhound [Annotator's Note: Greyhound Bus Line] agent in Fort Deposit, Frazier earned enough to buy a Harley-Davidson motorcycle. With gasoline only five to ten cents a gallon, he could take long rides on the motorcycle. He often had a girl on the back of the cycle with him. It was not a bad time for Frazier. When he had a failed relationship with one special girl, he decided to join the United States Army. The enlistment resulted from Frazier dating a special girl. When he could not afford to bring her to the graduation prom, she decided to see other fellows. When she made a commitment to join another boy for the Fourth of July, Frazier tried to talk her out of it. He succeeded in doing so, but the girl's mother forced her to keep her word. This greatly aggravated Frazier. He rode his cycle off to Montgomery, Alabama where there was a dance hall. After a disagreement with the management, he was forcibly ejected out of the establishment. Frazier was so angry that he retrieved his motorcycle and rode it into the dance hall and onto the dance floor. He quickly left the facility afterward. Having momentarily escaped the wrath of the owner of the hall, Frazier soon learned that that man was a violent person who would soon be coming after him. That was when Frazier decided to sign up with the Army. The date was 3 July 1941 when he went into the recruiting station. Initially told that he was too young, Frazier fabricated a story about his age and why he had no draft notice. He said he was 21 years old that day. The recruiter accepted the story, and the new soldier was sworn in. [Annotator's Note: Frazier was only 16 years old when he enlisted. The Selective Service Act of 1940 required men from 21 to 35 register with local draft boards.] He volunteered for the Philippine Islands because he was told by the recruiter that it was good duty in a paradise. Frazier went to his cousin's house and arranged for him to keep his motorcycle. Frazier was careful not to say where he was going or for how long. He disguised his intent with all his family and friends. He was given a train ticket and one meal ticket by the recruiter to go to Hattiesburg, Mississippi. Before leaving, he was told he was responsible for assuring that two black recruits arrived at Camp Shelby with him. When the trio arrived in Hattiesburg, the two blacks were fed, but Frazier was not. The next morning, the group entered Camp Shelby, and Frazier's time in the Army began.

Glenn Frazier met a large sergeant when he arrived in Camp Shelby. Some of the new recruits were destined for Hawaii. Others were headed to Guam. Then, there were those like Frazier who were headed to the Philippines. They stayed in the camp for six days. They were issued their first uniform from a long counter where random pieces of the uniform were given to them without regard to their size or weight. As a result, hardly anything fit the recruits. The 50 to 60 men had ill fitting uniforms even after swapping amongst themselves. At the first inspection, the captain told the sergeant to take the men into the woods the next morning prior to an inspection by the general. He did not want the general to see this motley crew. This did not give Frazier a very good first impression of the Army way of life. Frazier was sent with 25 other men across the southwest by train destined for San Francisco. On the way, the men were told to get off the train in a desolate location. They were to be picked up the next morning by another train headed to the west coast. It turned out to be a fortunate thing because that next train took them through Colorado where the southerners saw country that they had never seen before. The scenery was beautiful and unlike anything in Alabama. When they arrived in San Francisco, the sergeant in charge told them to stay in the terminal. After a bit, Frazier and three others went outside to see some of San Francisco. They encountered four men in red, white and blue uniforms with shiny buttons. When they spoke to the other uniformed men, they were physically assaulted. When they returned inside the terminal, their sergeant told them they had just met the Marines. Frazier and the others then went by ferry to Alcatraz and then to Angel Island. Their voyage on the USS Cleveland troop ship began, and, as Frazier looked back at the mainland, he felt like he might not have made the right decision. He had told no one where he was destined; but at that point, he had made his course for the future. He just had to make the best of it.

Glenn Frazier sailed the Pacific on the USS Cleveland troopship [Annotator's Note: the passenger liner SS President Cleveland had been acquired by the US Army in July 1941 renamed the USAT Tasker H. Bliss]. The ship stopped at Waikiki Beach. After seeing Pensacola, Florida, the quality of the beach at Waikiki did not impress him. His next stop was at Guam where he was very sick. Frazier met a funny and interesting individual at that time. The fellow was an anti-authority type. Because he was such a comic, he became Frazier's buddy. When the troopship arrived in the Philippines, there was a large reception. After the ceremony was over, all the newly arrived troops went to their various assignments except for Frazier and his six comrades. They had been assigned to Nichols Field and the United States Army Air Corps. Frazier learned that his air wing was off on maneuvers and would not be back for two weeks. They were temporarily billeted at Fort Santiago near the Manila docks. This was courtesy of the 75th Ordnance Depot Company. Six days later, they were asked if they wanted to join the Ordnance Company. They were offered training and then an officer rank in the Philippine Army. At 16 years old, the offer sounded good to Frazier. Duty with the 75th was not only light, but it included a permanent pass to downtown Manila. All seven of the new arrivals accepted the offer. As Frazier began his new assignment, he learned that part of his responsibility was to go to Bataan and stock up the 60 camouflaged warehouses there with munitions and supplies. To him, it seemed like a field trip every few weeks. It was a break from the other training he had to attend. By the end of November 1941, Frazier had completed his school training and was to be graduated on 10 December 1941. The war started on 8 December and changed the plans. [Annotator's Note: The date difference is due to the Philippines being west of the International Date Line.] Frazier's colonel assigned him to take charge of ammunition movements to the front lines. He was also given the rank of first lieutenant in the Philippine Army.

Glenn Frazier was in the Philippines on 8 December 1941 when the war started. [Annotator's Note: The date difference is due to the Philippines being west of the International Date Line.] Although 2,500 individuals were killed at Hawaii, the Philippines saw 6,500 killed but General MacArthur [Annotator's Note: US Army General Douglas macArthur] kept the news quiet for public relations purposes. Ten days later, the Japanese landed at Lingayen Bay. The Japanese had assigned the 14th Army which was one of the best units in the Japanese Army to the Philippine assault. Frazier watched from Bataan on the first day of the war when the Japanese bombed Corregidor [Annotator's Note: Corregidor was a fortified island in Manila Bay which was armed with heavy guns to protect the port of Manila]. The realization of being at war came to him at that time. Coming from a Christian background, Frazier did not know whether he would be able to kill the enemy. He loaded up the ordnance trucks with 500 pound bombs and headed to Nichols and Clark Fields [Annotator's Note: the two major airfields for the United States Army Air Forces in the Philippines]. The trucks were on an expedited mission. At Nichols Field, they were told to go to the back of the field. Bombings were frequent and unpredictable. The next morning, they offloaded the ordnance and returned to the 75th's [Annotator's Note: 75th Ordnance Depot Company] barracks. Upon arrival, there was an air raid. A non-commissioned officer had frozen to his .50 caliber machine gun. He was shooting erratically at both friend and foe. He was finally knocked off the gun. The next day, Frazier left Manila for Bataan. He never returned to Manila. In the next day or two, Frazier went to Clark Field where the American air craft had already been destroyed. Frazier had carried truck loads of bombs for the B-17s [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber], but they were no longer of any use. Frazier found a building and lowered his tail gate and backed up and jammed the brakes and the bombs rolled out of the back of the bed of the truck. He had the other trucks do the same. Soon, someone came running out of the building objecting, but Frazier was quick to tell him that the bombs were not armed and could not explode. The next assignment for Frazier was to cycle munitions to the Philippine Army. The local forces had been trained so poorly that they did not realize they were firing blanks in their weapons until Frazier explained it to them. Once he did that, the performance of the Filipinos improved. By 1 January 1941 [Annotator's Note: 1942], the American and Filipino forces had retreated to Bataan. Japanese dive bombers targeted roadways with traffic jams streaming toward Bataan. In the haste of the retreat, people and supplies were left behind. Even though MacArthur notified President Roosevelt [Annotator's Note: President Franklin D. Roosevelt] that the retreat was a success, Frazier saw it as a failure. Food became very scarce, and it had to be severely rationed. The troops went to half rations and then to even less. The men resorted to killing any animal that they could find for food. During the four months of battle, there was no food brought to the front lines. Corregidor had food but did not transfer it to aid Bataan. The Bataan hospital facilities soon filled with wounded and sick. The Japanese had no consideration for the hospital as a sanctuary. While visiting a wounded buddy, Frazier and his group saw the Japanese planes bomb and strafe the hospital even though the facility was clearly marked. After one of his buddies was killed on that trip, Frazier hated the Japanese even more. He hated them so much that he would have had no issues with killing them.

Glenn Frazier was responsible for delivering ammunition to the Philippine Army at the front lines after the invasion of the islands started. He found that locating those forces was difficult. The communications network had broken down and was very inefficient. He would attempt to truck supplies to drop off at various depots near where friendly forces were located. In doing so, he would sometimes discover that the front lines had changed, and the Filipinos had withdrawn. The friendly forces were not in their previous forward position. Often, he would have to fight his way out of the situation. His plan for munitions distribution was to set up multiple ammunition dumps throughout the Bataan Peninsula for the Allied forces to have supplies for their weapons. He would also use available railway equipment to move munitions. Most ammunition movement was by truck at night. Frazier wired the dumps for demolition should the enemy come near. He watched sometimes as the enemy was blown up after advancing on an ammo dump. His trucks had red flags to show they had road priority. The trucks had heavy winches on them. Frazier and his group were often requested to help with heavy loads by the roadside; however, they usually had to press onward without assisting. An exception was the case of an ambulance being overturned on its driver on the side of the road. The driver was named Jolly. His arm was pinned under the vehicle. The ordnance group [Annotator's Note: 75th Ordnance Depot Company] used their winch to lift the ambulance to free Jolly's arm. Frazier would meet Jolly again at a later time. The Japanese war plans had required that the Philippines be captured by February 1942. They did not succeed in this although they had pushed the Americans and Filipinos to the bottom of Bataan by then. The Battle of the Points was an attempt to overcome the Allied forces on the peninsula. General Sutherland [Annotator's Note: US Army Lieutenant General Richard K. Sutherland] from Corregidor was there part of the time. Shelling from Corregidor helped the Allied forces but the Japanese found shelter against the incoming fire by hunkering down on the opposite sides of bluffs where they were afforded protection. Frazier was asked to provide ordnance to remediate the stalemate before the Japanese attacked. There was a strong force of about 5,000 Japanese protected by the bluffs. He worked with an American officer to develop 17 chutes that could deliver fuzed 30 pound fragmentation bombs onto the enemy forces below the cliffs. The plan worked well. Frazier estimated that all but 200 of the enemy were killed. Nevertheless, the enemy attacked and the Americans fought them hand to hand to fight their way out. Frazier's colonel recommended him for a commendation for his successful efforts in blunting the Japanese attack and saving Bataan to fight another day. During the course of this combat, Frazier and his unit discovered a stray monkey that they adopted. They adopted him because of his unique skill. The monkey could hear and detect the direction of incoming Japanese aircraft. He did not worry with American aircraft, but if he heard an enemy airplane coming, he would jump into a protective air raid slit trench. Not only that, but he would position himself on the side that afforded the best protection from incoming enemy aircraft. The monkey was a real aid in the survival of the Americans. Frazier and his unit called the monkey Radar. They hated to leave him after their surrender on Bataan.

Glenn Frazier heard Tokyo Rose broadcast to the defenders of the Philippines that no reinforcements were on the way. [Annotator's Note: Tokyo Rose was the name given to English speaking females who broadcasted Japanese propaganda in the Pacific Theater.] Frazier and his comrades would rather believe the Voice of America which emanated from Corregidor and told them to hold out for the help that was on the way. When General MacArthur [Annotator's Note: US Army General Douglas MacArthur] left the Philippines, the men called it Doomsday. Many were relieved because they then knew what had to be done. The troops planned what to do and held out for two months despite nearly nonexistent supplies and minimal ammunition. As Frazier made his ammunition delivery runs to the front, the troops would beg him for food. Their rations had been cut in half, and they were soon halved again. When April 1942 came, the talk of surrender became more prevalent. General MacArthur told General Wainwright [Annotator's Note: US Army General Jonathan M. Wainwright] on Corregidor to order General King [Annotator's Note: US Army Major General Edward P. King] on Bataan to fight to the last man. King told Wainwright that he would face court-martial after the war, but he could not expect his men to fight on without food, medicine, and ammunition. By that time, the Allied troops were limited to a narrow portion of the Bataan peninsula opposite Corregidor. What remained of supply and ammunition dumps were blown before the surrender. Frazier and his buddy Gerald Block drove to the front in an attempt to find gasoline. They were not successful. On the way back, they observed a Filipino bus loaded with civilians waving Japanese flags. They could not make out if the passengers were Filipino or Japanese, but Block emptied his BAR [Annotator's Note: Browning Automatic Rifle] into the bus. The vehicle careened off the cliff with apparently no survivors. Frazier and Block had devised an exit strategy off Bataan that involved a small boat stocked with a few supplies. Before they could reach the boat, they were overtaken by Japanese soldiers. Block had been carrying a small pistol which he did not want to surrender. Fearing retaliation by the Japanese, Block got rid of it before the Japanese troops discovered it. The two Americans were put in line with a larger group of Allied POWs [Annotator's Note: prisoners of war] and marched down to the Mariveles airstrip. There the Japanese had their captives strip and lay out their belongings. The guards took what they wanted from their captives. The Japanese also took the opportunity to empty the water from the canteens of their captives. The Japanese were harsh in dealing with prisoners carrying anything of Japanese origin or any weapons or ammunition. Those guilty were executed.

Glenn Frazier started the Bataan Death March with the other Allied POWs [Annotator's Note: prisoners of war] late in the afternoon from Mariveles airstrip. Frazier and his friend Gerald Block knew the terrain and knew of a short-cut. They took it, but were discovered by enemy troops. The Japanese found candy in the men's packs and took it from them. The enemy did not realize Frazier and Block had already been captured, or they may have executed them on the spot. The two Americans returned to the procession of captives. A photograph of the Bataan Death March participants taken at that moment includes Frazier in the picture. Frazier felt very dejected at the point of the photograph because he was observing a flag pole which previously had flown the flag of the United States, but at that moment, flew the Japanese flag. Frazier would be witness to the horrors of the Bataan Death March as he saw beatings, executions, and atrocities committed against the POWs. He could tell most of the mistreatment by the Japanese was deliberate against their captives. Consequently, Frazier had to reach deep down to keep going. He could tell that it was only a matter of luck that he did not suffer a worse fate on the March. His friend was beaten with a sugar cane stalk. Block told Frazier that he wished he had his small pistol to retaliate, but Frazier reminded his buddy that he would have been executed had he kept the weapon. The POWs soon figured out the points of shelter in their Death March column to avoid the Japanese abuse. The Filipinos were treated very harshly. [Annotator’s Note: Frazier describes in graphic detail some of the horrendous treatment of the native population as well as the American troops.] The March was six days and seven nights on paved road. Had the surface not been hard, Frazier might have stumbled and fallen and been executed. The last night of the March, Frazier drug his feet and nearly could not see. He expected to fall and experience serious consequences, but he made it to the compound.

Glenn Frazier entered a compound after the long Bataan Death March. The marchers were so fatigued that they simply stacked up and fell asleep against one another. The next day, they were loaded in cattle cars and sent to Camp O'Donnell. It was an old Army camp. When Frazier entered the camp, he was met by his old friend Gerald Block who aided him with water and a small amount of food. Despite being in and out of consciousness for several days, Frazier improved. The first drink of water that Frazier had went down like hot water. Gradually, his condition improved. Water was extremely limited in the camp. At times, a POW [Annotator's Note: prisoner of war] would fill his canteen then take a long drink of water and then collapse and die. No toilets were available so an open trench was dug as a latrine. The stench of death soon came over the camp. Times were so desperate that Frazier and Block paid 500 dollars for black-market corned beef. The beef gave them a bad case of diarrhea. The two men worked on the grave detail. Frazier decided to leave one of his dog tags in a burial pit so that if he disappeared during the war, his family could have some closure with the knowledge that he had made it that far and died. Frazier had managed to write home in November 1941, before the outbreak of the war. His family knew where he was. They were notified that he was missing in action after the fall of Bataan. Frazier made his mind up that he would survive Camp O'Donnell. The food at the camp was miserable so Frazier and Block volunteered for a work detail hoping conditions would improve. Frazier was selected for the detail, but Block was not. As the men parted and Frazier headed out on the work detail, he saw Block weeping. Block was an individual who had never whimpered or shown sadness in all the previous hardships, but he wept when the two friends parted.

Glenn Frazier was selected for the Tayabas road detail in the Tayabas area of southeast Luzon [Annotator's Note: in the province of Quezon]. A group of 306 POWs [Annotator's Note: prisoners of war] were transported via train to a location near Manila. From there, they were trucked to within 20 miles of their destination. Offloading the POWs from the trucks, the Japanese marched them 20 miles through the jungle. They reached a sandbar that the POWs thought would be only a one night stop. The sandbar was to become their nightly resting spot for the time they spent in the jungle working on the detail. There was no shelter so they slept in the open like animals. The POWs had no cooking utensils for their rice. They did have steel wheelbarrows that they carried dirt in during the day and then washed out and cooked rice in at night. Occasionally, there was a bit of corned beef. The prisoners suffered from diarrhea so the guards would feed them charcoal in an attempt to tighten them up. The POWs would joke about eating the charcoal. At this time, Frazier was hit with a rifle butt by a cruel guard. He was also hit with an iron bar. He went in and out of consciousness for two or three days. A band aid was all there was to correct the damage. The scar from the incident remained with him through the rest of his life. A man who was in Frazier's unit realized that he was dying. He requested that Frazier contact his son when he returned home. He knew Frazier had a good chance of survival and that he would keep his word about trying to contact the dying man's son. It took 50 years for Frazier to complete that commitment, but he did. A documentary was made of the story of that journey and the encounter with the dead man's family. After the Tayabas work detail, Frazier was sent to Bilibid prison. Upon arrival at Bilibid, the corpsman said they would not treat the POWs unless they were cleaned up. The Japanese guards used the city fire mains to wash down the newly arrived POWs in the street like animals. The cleaned up POWs then entered Bilibid. They were given some food and medical attention to help them recover. Frazier stayed there for three months then was shipped to Japan.

Glenn Frazier loaded on a Japanese freighter with 49 other POWs [Annotator's Note: prisoners of war] on 20 October 1942. They departed Manila Bay for Japan. They would eventually be transferred to Osaka after arriving in Japan. While they were on the freighter, the Americans had developed an escape plan. It involved overcoming their guards and firing upon the escorting gunboat. While watching the progress of the voyage, the men saw that the gunboat was never in a position where the weapon on the freighter could target it. This diminished the likelihood of success. The escape from the Japanese never materialized. After reaching the Japanese mainland in the freighter, the POWs were transferred to Osaka by rail. They were imprisoned in Osaka Camp Number One. Upon arriving, the commandant addressed them. The POWs made fun of a particularly ugly guard. It turned out that the guard spoke English. The POWs would pay a price for their insolence. The POWs were fed buns at the start of their stay in the Osaka camp but that did not last. The POWs soon began a series of sabotage efforts against their captors. The work they did in the foundry was done in a shoddy manner. They even went so far as to electrocute a crane operator by surreptitiously switching the current to his crane. The switches were returned to their previous positions before the guards discovered the reason for the electrocution. The Japanese continued to beat the POWs, and the POWs continued to work against their captors. When the buns were taken away from the prisoners; the POWs went on strike. Although the buns were not returned, the ration of rice was increased. The POWs would steal what they could and destroy other things. If a Japanese worker brought his lunch, it would disappear if it was not hidden from the POWs. Once oranges were stolen. The pilfering would persevere even though the beatings continued as punishment. The POWs developed tools to aid in their appropriation of food. Sacks of rice or beans could be punctured and the contents removed in small quantities without the sack losing its ability to carry the contents. The men benefitted from the added nutrition, but in the end, the POWs averaged about 120 pounds in weight. The time at Osaka came to an end when the Japanese transferred the prisoners across the bay to Tanagawa.

Glenn Frazier was transferred to Tanagawa. The Japanese were digging into a mountain to create a dry-dock. The overhead of the dock would have a screen that would prevent observation from above. The POWs [Annotator's Note: prisoners of war] would move rocks and pour concrete. There were opportunities to sabotage the effort while they performed the work. The strength of the concrete was weakened when the prisoners threw objects into the fresh concrete when their captors were not closely watching them. When the project came to an end, the gates of the dry-dock would fail because of these efforts by the POWs. The men also sabotaged an electric shovel and a cement mixer. The prisoners were beaten and punished but never gave in. They only facetiously promised to never do it again. The men were next moved to Kobe in the midst of an industrial complex in an unmarked building. They could tell the bombing of the American B-29 [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-29 Superfortress very heavy bomber] bombers was getting closer to them. While working in the Kobe factory, the POWs were proud of the fact that the plant throughput rapidly diminished. The 300 electrical component output per month dropped to 200 then 100 components. Eventually, it would be reduced to just three components per month. The POWs knew that they had to get out of there soon before they were punished for shutting the plant down.