[Annotator's Note: The interview begins with the interviewer stating that he and Joseph DeMott have already been discussing a battle in Java, Indonesia that DeMott was part of.] Joseph DeMott participated in the defense of Java by bombing Japanese convoys [Annotator's Note: he was a radioman on a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber in the 22nd Bombardment Squadron, 7th Bombardment Group]. The Japanese wanted the oilfields in Borneo, Sumatra and Java. DeMott was on his third mission against the enemy fleet. Enemy Zeros [Annotator's Note: Japanese Mitsubishi A6M fighter aircraft, referred to as the Zeke or Zero] attacked his plane because it was in the lead. DeMott was wounded in the leg. A tourniquet had to be applied. Upon landing, he was sent to a field hospital where he remained until he was captured [Annotator's Note: in Malang, Java, Indonesia]. Coincidentally, the Asiatic Fleet was fighting offshore. The Houston [Annotator's Note: the USS Houston (CL-81)] became famous. It was sunk during the naval battle. Of the 800 crewmen, only 200 made it to shore. The natives were not friendly with the Americans so just 150 of the crew survived. In 1943, DeMott met some of the survivors. Before capture, DeMott knew the Japanese were coming. He expected to be killed since that had happened at another captured field hospital. He survived because there was no resistance at his hospital unlike at the other location. There were nine Americans in his hospital that had been with the Air Corps. The rest of the patients had left on a freighter shortly before the enemy arrived. DeMott was left behind because it was said he was too badly wounded to move. That was probably a mistake. Some people on the freighter were severely wounded. DeMott attended a postwar reunion about 1990. An Air Force officer told him that he was ordered to landed and remove the Air Force patients from that hospital before its capture. The pilot was too frightened to do so. DeMott can still hear the plane's engines flying overhead. When DeMott left the United States, he felt he would never return. The Americans were outnumbered and outmaneuvered during those early months. He should have kicked the bucket multiple times through the war years.

After the Japanese captured the field hospital where Joseph DeMott was being treated [Annotator's Note: he was wounded while operating as a radioman on a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber in the 22nd Bombardment Squadron, 7th Bombardment Group], they took him out and placed him in a prisoner of war camp. He was subsequently sent to a main camp which interned about 4,000 POWs [Annotator's Note: prisoners of war]. The guards did not make their captives do much of anything. In September 1942, the Dutch colonel in the camp informed DeMott that the Japanese commander said they were not going to shoot him. DeMott was grateful for that [Annotator's Note: he laughs]. Previously, he had been interrogated by the Japanese. In April 1942, the Dutch officer had told him that the Japanese were planning on shooting the American captives. DeMott knew he had no recourse if the enemy chose to do that. During the interrogation, the captor told DeMott not to lie or he would be shot by Nippon [Annotator's Note: a Japanese name for Japan]. They questioned what DeMott did. He said he was a gunner but did not reveal that he was a radioman. After a while, the questioning ceased. Some of the other prisoners were abused by the interrogators. A couple of years later, an informant infiltrated the POW group. The men were playing cards at a prohibited time. That was rationale enough for the Japanese to beat the hell out of the prisoners. A Japanese officer who had been on an island bombed terribly by the Australian air force saw that DeMott was an airman. DeMott could see the hate in his captor's eyes. The officer used his samurai sword [Annotator's Note: Katana, Japanese sword with a curved, single blade] to frighten DeMott by swinging it close to his throat. DeMott closed his eyes and felt it was his end. Another swing came, and DeMott survived that time as well. The officer had a guard beat DeMott's back with a bamboo pole. DeMott could tell when the blows were coming and slightly moved forward to lessen the impact. Another man lost his kidney by not doing something similar. DeMott never lost hope. Strange things happened during his incarceration. A Japanese guard observed him doing a prohibited thing and just shook his finger at him. When DeMott was with the 131st Field Artillery POWs [Annotator's Note: 2nd Battalion, 131st Field Artillery, 36th Infantry Division (Texas National Guard) was deployed to Java where they were captured by the Japanese in early 1942] in a small camp, there was a draft for those being transported to Japan. He was requested by one of those being transferred to allow another man to take his place. DeMott agreed to do so. The ship that moved the POWs was torpedoed and sunk by an American submarine. Only ten POWs survived. Another draft for POWs to be sent to Singapore to work on the River Kwai railroad [Annotator's Note: the River Kwai bridges on the Burma-Thailand Railroad were part of what was known as the Death Railway] was developed. DeMott's name was on the list, but it was delayed because Tojo [Annotator's Note: Hideki Tojo (Tōjō); former Imperial Japanese Army General and prime minister of Japan] resigned. When the draft was recalled, DeMott had dysentery [Annotator's Note: infection of the intestines]. A doctor said DeMott could not make the voyage. That saved his life as that transport was sunk off the west coast of Java by a British submarine.

Joseph DeMott worked in the farming fields, dug trenches, and built fences as a prisoner of war [Annotator's Note: in Java, Indonesia]. It became such a routine, he felt he would spend the rest of his life doing that. He fell in line and did the work. He actually became numb as a consequence. The Japanese considered their captives as dogs to be beaten. They beat up POWs [Annotator's Note: prisoners of war] for nothing. There was torture of the inmates. DeMott has not thought about these memories for a long time. It all comes back. He felt someday he would end up in a hole in the ground. He did not want his parents to know of his status because of what DeMott had heard that the Japanese did to Dutch women. The Japanese and the Koreans had a propensity for beating their captives. DeMott knew to bow to Japanese officers. One side of the camp, grave markers were lined up after the escapees were recaptured. DeMott had a plan to get through the Java jungles to a Japanese plane that he could fly to Australia. He was not a pilot but figured he could land the aircraft anyway. He discovered that the Japanese drained all the fuel from the tanks at night. If one American escaped, nine others would be killed. One American begged DeMott to not attempt to escape for fear that he would be left behind and shot. DeMott never actually saw a retaliatory killing after an escape. Starvation was a problem during late 1942 before the Japanese were losing at Guadalcanal [Annotator's Note: Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands]. DeMott had [Annotator's Note: inaudible] and completely lost his vision temporarily. He lost his central vision but maintained his peripheral vision. He learned to adapt to the loss. He had tropical malaria [Annotator's Note: mosquito-borne disease caused by a parasite] because there was no quinine [Annotator's Note: medication used to treat malaria] in the camp except what a British doctor had. That saved his life. Rice was boiled for the POWs. It was called pap. Sometimes seaweed water would be used to boil the rice. That may have provided some nutrition. DeMott never heard of anyone losing eyesight due to malnutrition.

Batavia [Annotator's Note: now Jakarta, Indonesia] was the last camp Joseph DeMott [Annotator's Note: a prisoner of war] was held in. That camp was known as the Bicycle Camp [Annotator's Note: referred to as such because it had been the former barracks to the 10th Battalion Bicycle Unit, Netherlands East Indies Army before the war]. American commandos entered the camp because they did not know what the Japanese would do. Admiral Mountbatten [Annotator's Note: British Admiral of the Fleet Louis Francis Albert Victor Nicholas Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma] was in charge of the South Pacific including British and American forces. The Japanese were to drop their weapons but stay in place temporarily. When DeMott saw the first commando, the soldier looked great despite being all grimy and dirty [Annotator's Note: he laughs]. DeMott moved from the camp after the Japanese surrendered. After being in the new location for a while, a plane was to take him to freedom. A C-54 [Annotator's Note: Douglas C-54 Skymaster transport aircraft] came in and landed near Batavia. DeMott was quite taken with the American nurse who was onboard. He flew to Singapore and then Calcutta [Annotator's Note: now Kolkata, India] with its American military hospital. Different methods were used to survive the camps. Some Japanese could be bribed but the men with DeMott all took it on the chin. Some went crazy. DeMott saw a British medical officer slap one man on the face to bring him out of his condition. The Japanese feared those they considered crazy. There was a special camp for those individuals. No one comes out of captivity unaffected. It remains with you until you die. DeMott got attached to two men who feared being killed by the Japanese. DeMott reassured them that they would get through it all. That reassurance was given whether he believed it or not. DeMott grew frustrated at them one night and called them SOBs [Annotator's Note: sons of bitches] and told them he would get out of there unless the enemy shot him. It seemed to give the two men some level of courage. The worse thing that can happen is for an individual to lose hope. Without hope, a person would die. Some of DeMott's buddies helped him get his food when he could not get up to get it himself. He had a bad case of malaria [Annotator's Note: mosquito-borne disease caused by a parasite] during that time. Something good happened when the British doctor managed to get some quinine [Annotator's Note: medication used to treat malaria and babesiosis] to aid in his recovery. DeMott was a captive for three and a half years from March 1942 to September 1945. He recovered after the war over the period of a year. He was discharged in May 1946. Having three years of college, he entered Penn State [Annotator's Note: Pennsylvania State University in University Park, Pennsylvania] in September 1946. After the first semester, DeMott was upset and ready to quit. His father admonished him for saying he could not take it. DeMott returned to college [Annotator's Note: he subsequently graduated].

Joseph DeMott [Annotator's Note: a prisoner of war of the Japanese] left the war feeling that we are all human beings with good and bad traits—even Americans [Annotator's Note: he laughs]. DeMott had a fight with a Texan and had to be stopped by a friend before the captors shot him for fighting. The Japanese would shoot someone at the drop of a hat. They had means of torturing captives. The Australians were tough guys and could take it. DeMott learned to do so also. There was nothing he could do about it. There were certain smells that were terrible in Java [Annotator's Note: Java, Indonesia]. He definitely remembers the American nurse when he came off the C-54 [Annotator's Note: the female greeted him upon his arrival at Calcutta (Kolkata), India military hospital after he landed in a Douglas C-54 Skymaster transport aircraft following three and a half years of captivity]. She looked like an angel. His parents did not know he was a POW [Annotator's Note: prisoner of war] for a year and a half after his capture. He only received one Red Cross package and that was in 1944. He had to divide it between two other POWs. Two days after liberation, he had a roasted chicken. The drumstick was delicious. He told a fellow captive, Charlie Foret [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling], that no one can really appreciate what they went through no matter how much you talk about it. DeMott never met a Japanese POW after returning to the United States, graduating from Penn State [Annotator's Note: Pennsylvania State University in University Park, Pennsylvania], during his career, or raising his family. It never came out. He is adamant that he loves his country. There is no better place than here. After being at Calcutta, he was checked out with no reconditioning required for him. He found out from his experiences that he should not take life so seriously. He should not worry so much. He is happier that way. He was nearly 93 years of age at the time of this interview. When he was liberated, [Annotator's Note: interview is briefly interrupted, and the subject is not pursued]. All that he went through in the war was just part of his job after he joined the military. Following the war, he had bad experiences with the VA [Annotator's Note: Veterans Administration] in seeking help for his vision. That turned around after a while. It hurts when he felt his own country was trying to lie to and cheat him. To DeMott, it was hypocrisy. Canada provides greater cost share for treatment that the United States.