Myers didn't lock his doors when he was growing up. If strangers came by, you would share food with them. People came from all over, emigrating to a better life in the U.S. Myers graduated high school in 1937 and went to work. He worked at an all-night service station for 12 hours for $2.50 a day and he was a 1-man full-service station. The money went to pay his father's bills. His father went broke with the drag line [Annotator's Note drag line excavator] during the Depression. Myers worked and joined the union in 1938 for operating engineers. He was 19 years old. He was working for PG&E [Annotator's Note: Pacific Gas &Electric] construction job building a tunnel in California, but the company had shut down the deal just before the war. His father had already left at that time for Wake Island. Once the job got shut down, he decided to join his father. He signed up in April 1941.Everything on Wake before the war, they had more food than they had ever seen before. Working 10-12 hours a day, they had no time for recreation; just time to take a shower and go to bed. They had movies they would show. Before the war, they were on 12 hour shifts.On 8 January [Annotator's Note: he means 8 December], he was running a shovel loading trucks, he was 50 yards from the parking lot of the jet fighter planes [Annotator's Note: there were no jet fighter planes on Wake Island] that arrived a few days before. There were 8 of them and they were preparing for them to get ready. Ike Wardel, the foreman, stood up by his machine, and said, "Leroy, the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor." Myers made light of it because he did not believe him. Around 12, Myers was just getting off work, planes came in and bombed the fighter planes that were being fueled with gasoline from 50 gallon drums. The truck driver took off, Myers and the oiler were left standing so they took off across the runway to see if they could help. There was nothing left but flames. In the mean time, the planes had gone over and bombed Peale Island, the Pan American air base, and gone out to sea and turned around to bomb and machine gun his island. Myers ran as fast as he could to the beach, which was not very far from where he was working. Another truck came by a supply truck, and he hopped on and was taken to Camp 2 where their housing was located on the other side of the island. The superintendent came to them because they wanted to know what they could do. He told them to dig a hole and get in it. So they did it. Myers was worried about his father because he did not know where he was. They got together and dug their hole. Off of Wake Island there were no guns fired on the 1st day. On the 2nd day, they were bombed. Myers and his oiler were getting sand bags at the time for their dug out. The planes came in and bombed the camp. Nearby there was a lumber yard with stacks of lumber. When he heard the bombs coming, he laid under the lumber, flattened out. The oiler worker laid on the top of Myers under the lumber. When they got up they could hear the bombs, they looked and the shrapnel had gone at angel and took off the top of the lumber that they were under. They were extremely lucky.

They hurried with thier sandbags and got in their hole. The anti- aircraft guns were used the other day and had to be moved, because the enemy now knew where they were. The superintendent, Bill Ray, who was executed on the Island, came to Myers' father, who was the senior operator, who trained men to be operators of rigs because they could not get professional operators from the States. Bill came to the elder Myers and wanted him to take the crane to move the guns on Wake.Every day Myers would help guide his father move the guns, and help sandbag them with their oiler, Marcott, would get food and go back to the dugout hole. When the planes came, then they would jump in the hole. Most of the equipment operators were busy doing what the Marines needed. Some had been trained on the anti-aircraft guns, such as loading ammunition. Only a few men went out with rifles. There were not enough rifles for all of the civilians. Some people entered the Ag tunnel [Annotator's Note: unsure of what position Myers is talking about] which was the safest place on the island. The civilians responded to help the Marines. When asked by the superintendent, everyone helped.They had spread out the 2nd day, when they bombed the warehouse and hit the main camp buildings. They took the food and moved it; the cases of peaches and pineapple, Vienna sausage and scrambled eggs and spread it out over the island, which was fortunate for them after they were captured by the Japanese.They had no part in the 1st invasion. Myers stood out watching the tracer bullets and the saw the shells were going over the island because the island is so flat. The highest point on the island is 18 feet. Myers said he knew what happening. He knew the Japanese got "whipped". They got bombed every day and had to move the guns every day. The only thing in their routine that changed [Annotator's Note: for Myers and his father] was when the superintendent came to them and wanted them to help move the 5-inch guns. For the guns on Peale they needed someone to run the rigs to move them the way they wanted to. As civilians they had not been allowed on Peale Island because that was Pan American base and they did not want them mixing with the civilians [Annotator's Note:the civilian passengers]. They moved the rigs at night. This was the only night Myers remembers experiencing a night bombing. The diesel crane was running, and Myers was directing while his dad was running the rig. The flames from the diesel motor were shooting out like a beacon. A Marine stuck a gun in Myers stomach and told him to shut it off. Leroy shut down the rig. With the rigs going they could not hear the klaxon [Annotator's Nore: warning siren] and did not know there was an air raid. Once they turned off the machine, they could hear the bombs on Peale.They did not know where the shelters were, so Myers and his dad took cover under the rig. After the attack they moved the guns then went back to their dugout.

They built the dugout for 3 people. They would run around and get food, and they would work all night. After sandbagging the guns and working they would be tired. Everyone was pretty much confined. The superintendent came and told them the island had been surrendered and that they were to go up to the road where a truck would pick them up. They stripped their clothes off and then were taken to the airport. The Japanese did not know who were soldiers and who were civilians and who were Marines since everyone looked the same naked.On the 2nd day, Myers believes they were waiting for orders from Tokyo on whether or not to execute them. There was an interpreter, who told the Japanese that there were both military and civilians. The Japanese could not believe they had 1,200 civilians and only 200 or 300 Marines and sailors and they [the Japanese] got beat with only 200 Marines. The Japanese wanted someone to go to the wharf to run the crane to unload the Japanese ships, so his father volunteered himself and Myers to do this. If they did not they would have been shot. Since they did not have people to run their operations, they needed their help to occupy the island, so they kept Myers and his father alive.From then on that was their job. Myers almost got in trouble because he was young and a little impetuous. He was standing along the side of the rig, while his dad was unloading torpedos. A Jap soldier came by and hauled off and kicked him. Myers kicked him back. That was something one does not do. The interpreter and officer came out and took them to the commander who wanted to know what happened. Myers' father defended him and said he did not deliberately kick him. They got away with it, but when they executed Hoffmeister [Annotator's Note: Julius "Babe" Hoffmeister], they made Myers and his father watch as a warning of what happens for bad behavior. Not a nice site to watch. All the men were sorted out. They kept operators for the rigs and most of the oilers. That was his job at the airport, to load and unload. 2 men escaped from the island. They had a longboat that was used to pick people up individually coming off the ship. They wanted to escape and go to Midway. They wanted the Americans to know there were civilians still on the island. For his own survival, they would pick up cases of fruit and food which was spread all over the island that was for 1,200 men, but 800 of them had been shipped to China on the 10th or 12th of January so there was all of this food and only 350 men.

They loaded the back of their rig. They took the ballast off and put the goods in there so they did not go hungry. They furnished the men who tried to escape with case goods. They thought they had enough diesel fuel to make it 600 miles. It was 1200 miles to Midway. They would use their engines for half of the journey then sail the rest of the way to Midway. There was not a big stir made about the men who escaped. This was in April [Annotator's Note: April 1942]. When the men escaped, for some reason, the Japanese did not seem to notice the boat was gone. Myers was told 2 months later by the interpreter, Katsuri [Annotator's Note: unsure of spelling], that they had been captured around the Marianas and had been executed. He found out later that this was true. At the time, they thought the interpreter was lying.They were bombed and strafed by American planes twice. Myers thinks that the interpreter was from the United States because he could speak English. By October, they only had 1 ship come in. Myers thinks they were running low on supplies. They decided to split the group up and ship all of the older men to Japan. Myers' father was told he had to go to Japan. He and his father went to the interpreter and asked to go together and since Japanese were very family oriented, they let them. Since Myers was going, the Japanese kept a man by the name of the Bob Orndorf [Annotator's Note: unsure of spelling] in his place. Orndorf died and Myers is alive.His father and him were together and again, it saved them both their lives. They got to Japan, and Camp 18. They arrived in Yokohama. They were in the hold of a freighter. They were not given any water. They were sleeping in their own sweat.This group of Americans, coming out of the Depression, the men were experts on random things and they could usually find somebody who could anything. They found a pipe down below to the fresh water on the ship. The Japanese ships didn't make thier own fresh water and had to take it aboard in tanks. They had enough water to drink, but some of the guys wanted to start taking showers. The Japs found out about it, and it got really tough for them the rest of the trip. When they got in close to Japan, the men could tell by the climate change. A day or 2 before they got into Yokohama the ship hit something. The ship reared way up and Myers thought they had been torpedoed. They may have hit a fishing boat or a rock. They made a run for the stairs. The big hatch got slammed shut and bolted down [Annotator's Note: by the Japanese]. If the ship sank, they were going down with it.

They got in to Yokohama and were put on a train to Fukuoka, or the island of Kyushu. They were put on trucks in Saebo [Annotator's Note: Myers more than likely means Sasebo. Sasebo Air Field in Fukuoka was used as a POW camp] and taken up into the mountains to Camp 18 which was nothing but a cement warehouse that had been converted. The Japanese had put little deck on it. It had a wood slatted floor with straw sacks for cover, and that was it. They issued them 3 light blankets. In the tropics they had light tropical clothes.Fortunately, Myers was able to get a hold of a package of Day's Work chewing tobacco with either 6 or 8 packs in it. The Japanese let him take it on board. They didn't know what it was. They asked him what it was and when he said it was tobacco they laughed because they had never seen chewing tobacco before.They could take a lot of stuff off of Wake because they had gotten to know the soldiers. They were working for the Japanese and they needed Myers and his men, so they did not really abuse them.When they got to Camp 18, they weren't allowed anything-- no pencils papers, nothing. The commander told Joe Troy, when everyone was dying, that he wanted everybody dead anyway. This was in November 2003 [Annotator's Note: Myers means November 1943]. They had gone over in October 2002 [Annotator's Note: Myers means October 1942]. They were still on the island [ Annotator's Note: Wake Island] during the Battle of Midway [Annotator's Note: 3-7 June 1942]. They knew about the Battle of Midway because after the Japanese got the hell kicked out of them at Midway, they brought the fleet back to Wake for protection, at least the freighters. They had torn the rig that Myers and his dad were running and had broken it down into 2 pieces-- the boom and top and the tracks and base. They broke it down and had it on a barge to take it Midway. They thought that they would have to blow everything up on Midway in order to take it and were going to need something to unload their ships. Myers and his dad were to go with the rig and would have been in the hold of a ship in the Battle of Midway [Annotator's Note: If the Japanese had won the sea battle and actually landed on the island].When the Japanese were beat, they had Myers and his dad put the rig back together. The airport was covered with torpedo bombers and fighter planes and anything they could fly in. They even flew in a couple of their long range bombers which were not out there very often.They were prepared for a fight. He told a Japanese soldier he had to go oil a boom which was 50 feet up. From there he could see all the ships off shore, strung out heading home.After Midway, they sent a bomber in. They came over not to bomb but to take pictures. The Japanese fighters took off. He could hear the .50 caliber machine guns shooting at them. The Japanese fighters just flew away and did not stay up there to argue with that bomber [Annotator's Note: unsure of type of aircraft Myers is describing - most photo recon aircraft were not armed] and those .50 caliber guns.One pilot could speak English and he said the Japanese should never have bombed or fought the United States. He said Russia was their real enemy, not the US. Myers believes that the pilot had been educated in the United States.He heard that a lot when he got to Japan from the older Japanese. America had always helped them if they had a catastrophe like an earthquake. America was the first to jump in to help. Myers does not think they [Annotator's Note: the older Japanese civilians] were that happy about going war with the US like some today are not happy about the war in Iraq.In Camp 18 they were broken into 12 squads of 22 or 23 men to a squad. They were so close they had to lay head to head because it was such close quarters. It did not take long before they had more room because the men were dying. The first men died in 2003 [Annotator's Note: Myers means 1943]. Myers does not remember why the first man died. Captain Petterson died because he wanted to die. He was the captain of the tugboat that towed the barges. After that it was a matter of the weather getting colder, eating less, working 10 or 12 hours a day and everyone gradually went down. They were issued 1 issue of Japanese clothing, which fit them like shorts. The pants came to their knees. They were light like a burlap sack.

The heat of our bodies is what saved their lives. They had charcoal heaters but were not given any charcoal. It was just hell. Myers did not know what hell was like but thought it could not be much worse than it was there.Myers thinks they they were conditioning him for his future life. After that it was just work. The Japanese guards came in and beat the crap out of them. They were starving to death. If one guy got into trouble they would line everyone up and beat them. Each squad had a "honcho". They were not soldiers, but Japanese Marines. They had been captured by the Navy and this was a Navy job. They also had civilian honchos who came up to work. Myers had a decent honcho. He would beat them if they did something wrong but he did not go looking for a reason to beat them. There was one [Annotator's Note: honcho] who they called Daimyo [Annotator's Note: unsure of spelling] because the only thing he would say to them was "daimyo," meaning "you're bad". He switched a man across the face who was digging a ditch. Every time he came up with a scoop of dirt he would hit him in the face again. The man begged him to stop hitting him. The next time he came up the Japanese man switched him really hard the face. The man jumped out of the ditch and hit the Japanese honcho with the flat of the shovel like a baseball bat, and knocked him out. They shipped him out and said he would be put on trial. Myers knows how that ended... he died. He does not know where they took him, but they must have cut his head off if he died. It took a month or 2 before the Japanese man came back. It must have broken his jaw or part of his head. He hit him hard enough to where it could have killed him.There was short guy on their squad named Camick [Annotator's Note: unsure of spelling]. They were working down below the dam digging gravel for the mixer. They had these little crabs about the size of a dollar and the guys were grabbing them and eating them since everyone was starving.They were brought some barley flour and it was so full of weevils they couldn't put their thumb on it without touching a weevil. They steamed their bread, and it would stick to your hands. The only way to cut it would be with bamboo and a wire and cut it into slices. Camick would take a slice of bread and put a crab on it so it could not move and he would eat it. It was against the rules to have them. Once when he did it, the crab bit his lip and cut him and was stuck on his lip. Their honcho saw it so all of them were beaten. In the barracks the honcho lined everyone up. By this time they had all learned some Japanese and knew what was going to happen. They had no interpreters the entire time they were in that camp. They had to learn some Japanese to get by. They lined them up and Camick was first since he was the 1 they caught. They use a hardwood club which was like a sword but made out of hardwood. They line him up and hit him on the rear end, and when he's hit a whole bunch of crabs fall out of his pocket. He had somehow found a little glass jar and filled it with crabs. Everyone laughed-- even the honchos! He gave him a couple more whacks but everyone was laughing so hard, he never even beat the others.They never knew what the Japanese would think. If he thought the exact opposite of what they would think, he was closer to thinking along their lines. They would laugh when they saw their guys get hurt. The only time Myers saw them crying was when the Emperor announced that they had surrendered.

They had to break the monotony. They would see someone get beat and they would laugh about the way he hollered or the noises he made, but he had to get through and deal with the fact he was next. It was a sadistic change in their thinking.They had a guy in their squad who had been running call girls in San Francisco and he had stories that would make them laugh. These guys had been around. They had been through the Depression, done every kind of job, and seen a lot, so these stories were great when we had the chance to tell them. It got our minds off the fact that we might be dead the next day or even the next minute.In this camp, they were losing men in 2003 [Annotator's Note: Myers means 1943], 6 months after they got there. It was cold in the mountains. Myers had dysentery very bad that he took an old undershirt and used it as a plug. He had to wear it for months. The Japanese would not give them anything.They would get barley flour with weevils in it. Myers traded all of his 3 ounces of grain he got 2 times a day for a loaf of bread. He was getting about a pound of bread for 6 ounces of milo maize [Annotator's Note: a type of grain]. He ate only that. No soups. The soup was the tops of the carrots, cucumbers, and once in a while, miso soup, but that was a rarity. There was no substance to it. He got rain water because at that time it was April 2003 [Annotator's Note: Myers means 1943]. He was close to dying of starvation. With dysentery, his body could not absorb anything because it went right through him. He ate only bread until it finally plugged him up. He could not go to the bathroom for days. He stayed on bread and water and actually started to gain weight. He got in good shape also on the barley-weevil bread and water diet. People shouldn't complain about having only bread and water.There was a man, Joe Troy, who was a linguist and knew 3 or 4 languages, and Ben Marsh; they both learned Japanese very quickly and very well. Troy went to the commander of the camp and told them the men were dying. By that time they had lost 30 or 40 men. The commander replied that he wanted them all dead.They found out later that the Japanese had executed the 98 men left on Wake island. Myers and his father were the only ones who knew that there were 98 men left on the island. The 800 men that went to Japan knew that 350 men were left on the island, but they did not know that they had been split up because they had no contact with anyone. Myers and his dad were never allowed to send letters or to write anything for the 2 years they were in Camp 18. No mail at all-- nothing.

Sometime in the spring of 2004 [Annotator's Note: Myers means 1944] there was a Japanese, who Myers thought had been educated in the United States as a school teacher. He had a group of school kids doing something near his camp. The teacher asked Myers' group how they were doing. They told him they were dying. The man said that they were lying. He said he read the paper and the paper said only 2 men had died. They told him to go over and count the graves across the creek.Myers had gone over 1 time. He volunteered, like an idiot, because they promised him a ball of rice of he did it. 2 men died while they were burying the 1. They ended up burying 3 men that day. Myers earned his rice ball and never volunteered again.When Troy told the the Japanese commander in charge of Camp 18 that the men were dying, he was certainly trying everything he could [Annotator's Note: to kill them all] outside of just executing them. Myers is not sure if the man was convicted and executed, but feels that he certainly should have been. The 1 on Wake was convicted and executed. He is not sure about the 1 at Camp 18, but he said he was ruthless and should have been.They had no doctors and no medicine. They had a very small room. Ben Marsh [Annotator's Note: maybe Morris] was in charge of the hospital where they were put just to die. They would get scurvy sores and the Japanese would play with it and pull on the muscles to make them holler. No one did anything about their wounds. Someone suggested that they put acid on it or grease, anything that might help, but nothing did.Everyone had beriberi. They had everything.The fleas were unbelievable. When they would flood the rice fields, the fleas would run; he could see them running like little rows of ants. They had to pick their blankets. There were probably 30 or 40 fleas they killed in each blanket. Myers had flea bites everywhere.They also had lice and that was worse because they could not find them in the dirty clothes. 1 fellow had lice so bad his squad got a cement sack and put him on it and stood him up and scraped the lice on him, literally scraped them off. He eventually died.A fellow in another squad had cut a blanket to make a pair of mittens, and the Japanese found out about it. They stripped him down, in the middle of winter, and put him in the guard house which was just a little cubicle out in the freezing weather. All night long they could hear him hit the walls on each side walking all night long. They gave him 1 rice ball a day and some water. He died in a day or 2. That was fine with them, because they wanted him dead anyway. The worst was being reminded that they could be next. It was like being over in Iraq and not knowing when the next roadside bomb will go off. The suspense was horrible. Myers thinks he would be a good instructor for men who come back from Iraq because he what they went through. When he got back in San Francisco they kicked them off the boat and said "get your ass in gear" and they were on their own.

The Japanese split the camp up again. Myers thinks that after the school teacher had been to the camp he said something to somebody, because a couple of months after that, 2 truck loads of soldiers came in and took them away from the Navy. They had Navy guards while they worked, but in the camp they had soldiers. Then they got more food. They weighed them and gave them more food. Myers got in better shape which was a good thing. There was alot of work his father could not do. His father hurt himself in a rock slide and that kept Myers from killing himself. At that time Myers' dysentery was so bad he climbed up a rock ledge and fell down and hurt himself. He was trying to clean himself off and the pipes were frozen. He was right next to the dam, and he was about to commit suicide and jump off. His father was hurt and was in the barracks at the time. Leroy thought, if he jumped then his dad would die too. He did not jump. He decided to just go ahead and put up with the misery. It was cold but better weather was coming. That was the lowest point in his life. He would have just been another 1 who died at Camp 18.After the army took off they shipped them out to the "grass huts" in Fukuoka. Some were sent there and a group was sent to the coal mines at Kobe or 1 of the other camps. Myers went to the grass huts and worked on the airport expanding it.They started out digging and loading little rail cars that would be rolled out to the airport and dumped. Then they found out about them [Annotator's Note: Myers and his dad] being operators. This camp had English officers and soldiers and alot of men there. They needed equipment operators so Myers and his father got on big rollers that would pack the gravel down before they poured the concrete. They also had a small bulldozer with a big roller behind it. 1 of their men was crushed with that when it slipped off into a ditch.The food was terrible, but was twice what they were getting under the Navy at Camp 18. Myers stood out on the airport when the pilots [Annotator's Note: US Navy pilots] came in-- he thinks off a carrier. The Allies were not on Okinawa at that time. They had learned some Japanese and had 2 or 3 guys who could speak Japanese, so they knew when they went back into the Philippines and when they took Okinawa. When those fighter pilots came in Myers knew that there were carriers out there. Like a damn fool, he screamed "Come on guys! Give 'em hell!".At that stage in the game they had been told regularly they would be executed if the Allies invaded the island. They got to thinking that they probably would not live anyway. They did not want to die so they thought they will just live until they find out 1 way or the other.They were then moved to a camp by the airport with a bunch of trees to the "hog sheds". Where they slept was only about 18 inches, beds on both sides, and a peak in the middle. The tall guys could not stand up. There the Japanese had pits dug between the barracks and would run them into those pits. They were set up with guns to keep them in the pits if the invasion started. They knew we were in Okinawa, that they had been back into the Philippines, and about Iwo Jima. More and more they were told that if Japan was invaded, they would not have time to deal with prisoners.

The general population was preparing, women too, to defend that island. Myers feels that if they did not drop the atomic bomb, probably 10 million Japanese would have been killed and probably a million of our own [Annotator's Note: Americans] not counting him, because he would have been gone. Myers is glad they dropped the bomb. He hates that it was developed, but it is here now so Americans have to put up with that.They heard new from the Japanese soldiers talking. They did not know the guys had learned Japanese. They would talk fast amongst themselves. Myers knew what was going on. His group had Joe Troy and Ben Morris [Annotyator's Note: Myers may be saying Marsh] who could speak Japanese. Max Bollsinger [Annotator's Note: unsure of spelling] could also speak Japanese. They were well abreast of what was going on. Everyone had became a close knit crew by then. When they arrived at Camp 1 they had great jobs because they could speak some Japanese. That is why they got the deal on the mechanics squad and the roller. The Japanese appreciated that they could speak some of their language.There was an American doctor there too now. There were a few American soldiers there too but mostly Dutch, Japanese-Dutch Army people [Annotator's Note: unclear]. It was a big camp of about 1000 or 1,500 men.Myers could speak enough Japanese that he could horse trade. He would trade with other mechanics. In the mechanics squad there were 4 of them from Camp 18 and 2 sergeants and an English soldier. Myers' dad was a good mechanic but Myers wasn't, but he Japanese didn't know that, so they were able to stay together. Myers did the trading. The trucks would come in with soy beans or whatever. There was no money. 10 yen was a lot of money and 10 yen was not worth a penny at that stage in the game. This is in 1945.Myers had everything he was not supposed to have. He would get searched. At this time he was off of the airport and moved to the new camp. Myers' job was at the supply depot repairing trucks. There were a lot of supplies coming in so it was easy to trade.The worst situation Myers ever heard of or saw was about a group of officers who were shipped out of the Philippines before the war ended. The ship they were on was sunk. Then they were shipped to a different island and that ship was sunk so they put them on a sugar boat. They had no water, no food so they started to eat the raw sugar and they were dying. Myers was told by an officer who survived that everyone had a buddy or they would not make it. They turned back to back. The officer heard his buddy scream because a guy behind him had bitten a chunk out of his back and was sucking the blood out of his back. They made a rule that if a man stood up he was crazy and they would kill him. Myers does not know how many came in but when they came in to the island, he and the others went down to the airport and had to carry them off and take them to barracks.In 1945, they knew the war was being lost so they paid them off in yen. Every officer was supposed to get the same compensation his Japanese equivalent would get [Annotator's Note: In most cases Allied prisoners of war were paid the same their Japanese counterparts were paid throughout their captivity]. When they hit Myers' camp they had never seen that kind of money. He saw 100's of yen. Myers took 1 of his bowls and traded it for 100 yen. When he went out with the guards or people from the supply depot who were only getting paid about 10 yen per year he could do just about anything.

There were 2 shifts working and they would usually meet coming out. When they got to the camp everyone was outside on the parade ground. Myers was told that they were searching everybody. He told his dad that he did not hide his stuff very well. Myers was usually dealing with guards and he would get notice of a beating coming up. They would tell him to put his tin pants on. But this time, the guards were guys that had been wounded. They would run in and make you bow. And they would take turns so the guys would have to get up and bow each time.They were on the parade ground and they would call out names. There were 10 or 15 guys and they beat the crap out of them. The took 5 guys and sent to the guard house which meant that they would get more beatings later. Myers told his dad that they were going to kill him. There was no way they could not find all his stuff. They let them loose and when he returned to the barracks he saw that nothing had been disturbed.About 30 minutes later, 2 guards came along and called out Myers' number and said he was the number 1 thief. He thought that was the end of him. But the guards were laughing at him. He tried to be respectful. They said he was okay and that he was not in trouble. They took some of the stuff he had and walked away laughing. Myers laughs about it now. That is what it was like. They just did not know how things were going to be.Myers was allowed to go to the warehouse and supply depot to get stuff for the mechanic shop. They had a forge that they used to cook their extra stuff. They were isolated from the main body of the camp and other squads. Myers found a roll of copper. It was black but when they polished it they had thin sheets of copper. A fellow by the name of Unger, cut Myers a block of wood and engraved a spoon for him, that he would hang on the inside of his pants, so the Japanese would not see it. Myers made a cigarette case that would hold 10 cigarettes. A Japanese Dutch guy was a great engraver and could engrave nude, lewd pictures. The Japanese ate this up. The dirtier the picture, the more they liked it. Myers traded with a guard sergeant who took them out to the camp. He would get the guard to trade with the truckers that came in. Myers traded with a guard who got him some white rice, which was pretty special, because no one got white rice at the time. The guy probably stole it from the officers. A guard caught Myers making the rice then beat the hell out of him because he would not tell the guard where he got it. The guard left to get someone, probably to have Myers beheaded, and came back with a sergeant. It was the same sergeant who had given him the rice. The sergeant asked Myers why he had not told the guard where he got the rice and Myers replied that he did not want to get him in trouble. The sergeant took the guard and berated him then started beating him and said that he was in charge of prisoners, not the guard. He yelled at the guard that he better not ever touch 1 of his prisoners again. That bastard never went near Myers again.

They never really knew. They could have used any excuse to cut Myers' head off, but he still took alot of chances.Myers had 2 buckets of soy beans and a dynamite box. He dug a hole in the middle of the shop to hide it. The guys in the shop knew but the guards never came by. That was his bank. Myers had alot of money and made sure that the 6 of them had enough to eat.They got a monsoon rain where it rained so bad they did not go out to work 1 day. When they went out the next day there was huge mound of dirt in the middle of his shop. The soybeans had swollen in the mound and it lifted up out of the ground. His money was all wet.There were big pots used to heat the soup. Myers went to the Englishman running it and he got him to cook the soybeans. He had some of their miso and food stock and he made a stew. The Japanese would search them every time they came in. They carried out about 5 or 7 gallons of soup and heated it outside. Myers carried the soup in and set it down next to him when he was searched. They never even looked in the pot to see what it was. They did not care about that, they only searched him. Myers brought the soup into barracks and sold it for 10 yen a bowl to get his cash back.The food they were feeding them there was bean flakes. It was full of hair. When Myers asked a guard what it was he was told that it was horse feed they fed to the horses to deworm them. They did not eat it. They didn't have to eat it since Myers had his own stash.The head officer of the supply depot found out about the cigarette case and approached Myers. Myers thought he was in trouble, but the officer wanted a cigarette case. Then Myers went into mass production. He would make 10 of them. That officer would come over every day and check his progress. That is the 1 thing Myers wishes he could have brought home from Japan because it had made life easier for him in Japan the last couple of months.When the war ended, there were officers and women working in the supply depot. Around noon they all came out and lined up by a loud speaker on the outside of the building. The emperor said that Japan had surrendered. He saw women and men break down and cry. The Japanese could not believe it. They had been told they were going to win the war. No more than 15 minutes after that, a group of soldiers came running out of camp. They lined everyone up. They [Annotators Note: the POWs] knew something drastic had happened but were not exactly sure what was said. They brought them back into the camp and locked them down. There were not many guards, but the gates were closed.The next day pamphlets were dropped, one in English and one in Japanese. It said that Japan had surrendered and any American soldier should report to the highest ranking officer. American civilians are to be treated like Japanese civilians.

The Japanese commander of the camp, stood up on a platform and spoke in Japanese with an interpreter, and says, "The war is now over and now they were friends and that the American officers would take care of the camp". He got off of the platform and within 10 minutes the Americans could not find a Japanese soldier within half a mile of that compound.A Dutch officer, the highest ranking officer, wanted everyone to line up. An American officer, a doctor, said to him, that he could control the soldiers but not the civilians. So some of the guys [Annotators Note: Civilian guys since they cannot be controlled by the military] broke a hole in the bamboo fence to go down to Fukuoka. Myers and his father did not go. He heard his guys were in Kobe. Myers caught a train to take him to the camp by himself [Annotators Note: not sure which camp he's speaking about]. He visited for 2 or 3 days. When he got back he heard that Australian soldiers from a camp nearby got into some wood alcohol and mixed it with the juice from the food drops and it killed 6 of them. 2 doctors were flown in from Okinawa on 2 C47's to take care of the men. The doctors told someone in Myers' camp that were setting up an advance base at the tip of the island to fly people out. If they could get down to that camp they would fly them down to Okinawa.So very soon thereafter, they wanted to get out of the camp. Joe Choy [Annotator's Note: Myers may be saying Troy] was killed during a food drop. Myers was almost killed as well but got out of the way.Myers went down to the train station with his dad and 2 other guys. He was the only 1 who could speak enough Japanese. They picked up 2 guys on their way down to the station. They got on the train in the car behind the engine and in it was Japanese soldier who still had his rifle with him. When Myers got on the train he starts yelling about harakiri and wanting to avenge his country. There were other Japanese in the car who were not saying anything. Myers thought to himself that if that guy stands up and does something, they were going to take him and kill him. They were not going to let that son of a bitch shoot them.They got to the next town and on came a bunch of Japanese police. They get in and drag him out of the train and take his rifle. They asked the guys where did they want to go and Leroy told them to the tip of the island. They were taken non-stop to the tip of the island. The greatest sight Myers ever saw was the American MP's [Annotator's Note: military police] with their white helmets and stripes there waiting for them. They had already been notified that there were some guys coming.

They got into the base and they stayed and ate. The next morning, they put them on a C-47. There was 2 or 3 other ex-prisoners from other camps, not American. They get up in the air and over the loud speaker, the pilot wanted to know if they were there the atomic bomb went off. Myers had no idea what an atomic bomb was. They were told by the Japanese that poison gas had been dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima. The pilot flew them all over Nagasaki. There was nothing left except some smoke stacks and cement structures. They flew to Okinawa and the day they got there they were told a Japanese woman had thrown a hand grenade in a Jeep and killed an American officer and his driver. Since that was not safe either, they wanted to go to the Philippines. There were no passenger planes going to the Philippines. Myers decided to fly to the Philippines in the bomb bay of a bomber.They put 2 by 12 boards across the bomb racks and the passengers either laid or sat on them. They were warned not to step on the doors because they would open automatically and they would be in the ocean. They told Myers they lost a guy earlier because of the door opening. Myers was not sure if they were just kidding but he did not want to take any chances. They made it to the Philippines. They were there for almost a month before they caught a ship. He was deloused and went through all the inspections. They put them on a freighter where Myers got deathly sea sick. He had to sleep on deck. It was a long ride, about 2 weeks. They made 1 stop in Honolulu.A cutter came out, Drew Foss was the grandson of Tugboat Annie and he was in their squad. He had gone from Myers squad to the coal mines. His dad had flown out to Hawaii and got him off the ship and that was it. From there they went on to San Francisco. They had notified Myers' family that they were coming in. Myers' brother, who had flown 96 missions in Italy and Brenner Pass, was home. His oldest brother who was too sick to register for the draft and his youngest brother who was still a kid all came to greet him. Myers' mother had passed away in November of 1944. She never knew if her husband and son were still alive.They did not know about Myers and his father. It was only after the war that they knew about the men who were left on the island and were executed.Myers saw the diary of a Japanese soldier that said that they [Annotator's Note: those left behind on Wake] had eaten all the birds and rats and anything they could catch and even indicated that they had reverted to cannibalism. Maybe some fish, but even that can run scarce.Myers spent the next 4 years working with Mary Ward and Morrison-Knudsen, trying to get the government to honor their contracts and pay them their salaries to get some sort of compensation. The government never acknowledged that they had taken part in the Battle of Wake until 1948. His father and he were named as people who participated in the defense of Wake.

Myers was discharged from the Navy as a Seamen Last-Class [Annotator's Note: either apprentice seaman or seaman 2nd class].Shovel and drag line operators were the highest paid employees on the island next to the foreman. They were getting 285 dollars per month base pay and the foreman was getting 305, which was a lot of money in 1941. They ended up going on their own and that was it. His father died before he should have died. Myers feels that he, himself, is too damned ornery to die.Myers is asked by the interviewer about the attack on Wake Island.When the Japanese fleet surrounded Wake Island, Myers could see the ships. He climbed a tree and could see the destroyers. Most of the battle was done at dark, by midday it was all over.The first time they came in, Myers could not see them because they got out of there quicker. They could see a ship but didn't know what it was. Myers knew there were destroyers because they came in closer to shore. They did not bring the big aircraft carriers. Coming back from Midway, there were some big ships out there. When Myers was up on the boom of that rig he could see some pretty big ships but he doesn't know what they were. He may have been dispatched as a sailor but he wasn't much of 1.During the second attack Myers could see when the 900 Japanese marines landed. He knew what was going on and that all hell was breaking out. He could see the gunfire and the tracer bullets and he knew they were on the beach.They were not told anything. They were on their own. Myers has no idea where his supervisor was during this time. They may have been in the bunker where the hospital was. They had 2 supervisors, the foreman and the superintendent. Ike Wardell was their foreman and Bill Ray was the superintendent in charge of all of the heavy equipment. Myers oiler, Marcott stayed with him and his dad until the war was over. He was just a young kid and had only been on Wake for about 2 months. The US government would sign up anyone to go out to Wake.Myers just kind of watched the take over of Wake Island. He knew they had come to take the island when he saw the fighter bombers come in and drop on anything that moved. 2 guys did hide out and try to escape. It amazes Myers that the 2 men were able to hide out during everything that was happening. They were over on Peale, away from most of the activity which was on Wake and Wilkes islands. On Peale the reef was out so far and the tide so rough that to land landing craft was asking for trouble. All of the basic defenses outside of anti-aircraft guns were over where they knew they [Annotator's Note: the Japanese] had to land.

There was sharp drop off and that is how they were able to put the destroyer right up on the beach. Myers could only watch to see what happened next.Everybody who came back did so because they had a buddy. The buddy system kept them alive. With Myers it was his father, but he says that everyone had a buddy to keep people alive. Some guys had friends that they buddied with and there were some brothers but in a lot of cases the Japanese split them up. There were also 3 sets of fathers and sons; 2 of them in Myers' camp. Both of them died and that was sad. Myers thought the old man was going to die anyway, but he was so ill that he could not get up and fight for his bowl.At Camp 18, they would get their grain in a little dixie [Annotator's Note: a metal pot] for 20 men. A guy with a ladle would ladle it in. They never got a full bowl because there was not that much grain so they would watch to see which was the heaviest or the biggest. Myers dad was hurt at the time and could not fight for a bowl, so he had to grab 2 bowls and give him 1. Myers found himself giving his father the lightest bowl and he felt self-conscious about it so he decided to make a pact with himself. Whichever bowl he got in his right hand, he would give it to his father.When Myers reached the tip of the island on the train, for rescue, he was so happy he wanted to cry. After 4 years, the emotion was so strong. He cannot explain. It was overwhelming and that really isn't a big enough word to describe it.World War II made Myers more tolerant. It gave him an insight into people and made him more well rounded. He stopped running rigs and went to work for Del Monte Foods. He worked his way up to an executive position. He knew something about men. To understand men, one has to see through the facade they try to present you. Look for the little things in people. It made him tolerant. He does not rush into things. He tries to think things through. Over there he would get his ass beat by rushing because he was impulsive. People have a tendency to act on impulse and it gets them in trouble. That is the biggest lesson, think about it after the impulse and it will keep one out of trouble.World War II took America out of the Depression. It made a lifestyle. People could go to work, but it was a lot easier after World War II. They created what was going on now. Myers believes that his generation, in most cases, tried to spoil their kids. Now their kids are ruining the grandkids with the over abundance. He worries about his country. He knows what the Depression was, he knows about how people act when they are in the depths of despair and the cruelty of what people can be.When they came out of the Depression they had been conditioned to be a prisoner. The cruelty was new but the rest of it they had already seen.Myers doesn't thinks anyone today could endure it. He thinks that many people today would commit suicide.People don't understand hunger. Hungry is when a person misses a meal. Hunger is when it hurts more to eat than it did if they didn't eat.Hungry and starvation are two different situations.

Myers knows how Mahatma Gandhi survived; he could do it. He does not know why, but he understands how people can go and just die of it; it does not hurt. It is not the most painful death. Captain Petterson died that way. He did not moan and complain he just silently starved to death.If the Japanese had won the war, every Japanese that was in the US they would have become a Japanese. The same goes for the Germans. They would have changed their allegiance. People are fickle. Make no mistake, he has no sympathy for the fact that the Japanese were in prison [Annotator's Note: Myers is talking about internment camps in the US]. Myers feels that the Japanese in the US were still Japanese and that even those who fought [Annotator's Note: in the US military] were fighting in Germany or somewhere else.He has no animosity towards the Japanese. He admires them, but he hated the ones that were over him, the bad ones. He would hate a white guy if he treated him the same way.He hears them complain about being in internment camps [Annotator's Note: in the US]. Myers feels they lived a lot better than they would have if they were civilians in Japan. He does not feel bad for them. He believes that they lived like kings and are lucky they were in the US. If they were in Japan, they could have died a number of ways.Myers does feel they should have their land back. Most of them out of the camps have done really well for themselves. There would have been a whole different world if they would have won. It would have been a catastrophe.Myers talks about the various spellings and meanings of his last name.

Because of the war, those that survived were probably better off. They could get a job if they were willing to work.It might have been better off if they didn't have Hitler and didn't have Tojo to start a war but they did and can't change that.We [Annotoators Note: United States] had nothing to do with Hitler. The US may have prodded the Japanese but not to go into Korea or China. The Japanese, they were getting cocky trying to take over the world.Myers discusses how he thinks the US should handle issues with Iran, Russia, China, North Korea, and anywhere else there is a potential for trouble.World War II was not an isolated thing where only some of the people were involved like it is now. Everyone was involved.Young people want to know what they did. The sons and daughters of the people that were there [Annotator's Note: want to find out what happened]. Some of the guys wrote books to make themselves heroes. Plenty of books are not very factual.Some day, people are going to want to know what happened. Like Gettysburg, if someone did not write that down, no one would know.Myers feels people must know what happened in World War II because it could happen again. If people do not learn from history then they are stupid because it will repeat itself. Human beings do not change that much and religions do not change at all. Myers feels that religion is the biggest problem because they never learn to be tolerant of each other. Numbers made them powerful. Churches are the same way. Myers is a firm believer of seperation of church and state. The only difference between this country and others is the tolerance that our country has for all kinds of religions and has all kinds of nationalities. Fortunately at this point there is enough of them that no one has become all powerful. If that happens, they take advantage of the others. That's the cause of wars and half the trouble in the world.Myers doesn't believe in the idea of having all the kids a person can have. It makes more numbers for the church but it also makes more kids starving. Myers goes to Mexico a lot and knows what it's like down there. The women are walking the street [Annotator's Note: as prostitutes] in order to feed their children. People go to church and hear that they need to have more kids even though they can't feed the ones they got. Myers feels that people should only have plenty of kids if they can afford to feed them.Myers had 3 and he stopped. He put his 2 daughters and 1 son through school. They got all have a good education. 1 just retired after 30 years as a school teacher. 2 of them have Masters out of the University of California at Berkeley. He does not have to worry about them taking care of themselves. He does not worry about their children or stepchildren. He does worry about the grandchildren because they have no idea of what life is really like in this world. He is the 800 pound gorilla in the room, so what does he know.