by Morgan Byrn
Born in Lonoke, Arkansas, Second Lieutenant Julian J. Gates lived in Memphis, Tennessee when he joined the Army Air Corps. He kept a diary from 1942-1945 during his service in World War II, a manuscript of which is part of the Tennessee Historical Society’s “Home Front Tennessee” World War II Project records now housed at the Tennessee State Library and Archives. According to the dates listed at the beginning of the diary, Gates was captured when the United States surrendered to the Japanese on April 9, 1942 after the three-month Battle of Bataan in the Philippines. These soldiers, captured by the Japanese, were forced on a march to their prison camps on what has been come to be known as the Bataan Death March.
During the march and the months to follow Gates did not keep a diary. However, by September of 1942, he had acquired paper and took a moment to summarize his experience leading up to the diary start date. “We missed our boat for Corregidor and were taken prisoners of war by the [Japanese] at 9:00 that a.m. on April 9, 1942. The next day we started on a 72 mile hike that took us about 10 days to make. That harrowing experience I shall never forget.” Along the way many died and the conditions for the living once they arrived to the camps were appalling. “The events of this interim [June 4th-September 19, 1942] shall go unrecorded except by single words which will recall important things to mind. The words are: [not the full list] dysentery, quinine & Thysol, rumors, dripline, sickness, H2O, food.” The diary also provided dates for each camp, which included dates, events, and length of stay. Based on those dates he was being held at the Yodogawa POW camp during Christmas 1942. He wrote on Christmas Eve,
Jingle Bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way—Happy Xmas Eve! I am writing in bed with the cover up around my arms and head. I have a fever of 100 degrees. I thought last Xmas was tough, but at least I had food…. Anyway, it is Xmas and I am going to try awfully hard to look up and see the brighter side of this bad situation. Xmas gift!
One could only imagine the abominable conditions had he already endured before writing in his diary from his sick bed on the 24th of December. By this time he had already been transferred to at least five different camps, before this one. Physically and mentally exhausted, hungry, and now sick the holidays seem bleak. He continues his diary and writes on Christmas Day,
MERRY XMAS to the world! Have just finished my Xmas dinner. The Japanese dinner was rice, water, and bread. But English Conley had saved a small can of sardines, so Lt. Placko cooked up a sardine and rice loaf. It had two tablespoons of lard (priceless), hot green pepper and black pepper, baked in a pot. It was wonderful! There are two meals prior to this that I always remember, but today, if I live to be 100 years old. I’ll never forget this Xmas dinner. My one prayer this Xmas is that these 400 [number of other POWs] won’t have to spend another Xmas under these food circumstance.
Instead of only reflecting on the poor circumstances he found himself in, Gates wrote about the kindness shown to him by another soldier. The small meal meant so much to him that it will stay with him for years. By the next Christmas Gates had moved to Zentsuji POW Camp, arriving there on August 1, 1943. As Christmas Eve of 1943 commenced Gates cheerfulness for the Christmas holiday is still apparent. This time he and his fellow roommates had decorated their room for Christmas.
I never realized the old Xmas spirit could be so prevalent in a Prisoner-of-War camp. …As I sit and write I can look around and see all sorts of Xmas decorations. What a difference from that dismal Xmas of a year ago! There are other decorations, so the Xmas spirt is here….Today we received two eggs apiece, which are priceless in Japan; also 10 tangerines; also two RC [Red Cross] parcels to three people. Tomorrow we are to get prune pie, milk, bread, noodles, chicken (10), etc….
Gates described how the men were able to transform their room with the materials they had on hand. They cut newspapers into strips and fashioned them into chains to hang around the room. Then they cut tin cans into strips to make tinsel to hang from the ceiling. Wreaths for their room were made with pine needles collected around the camp. Gates painted an idyllic scene; men sitting around their room each with his task and working hard to make it perfect. What a sight it must have been once it was completed. Food again is featured in Gates’ Christmas diary entry. Food, in Japanese POW camps, was sometimes in short supply. Red Cross packages helped with some of the food problems during the year, but they were far and few between. It seemed though, at least where Gates was being held, the guards may have been more generous with food rations because of the holidays. Gates recorded in his diary about the carols that were sung by the men and he even attended a performance of A Christmas Carol put on by the other prisoners. The role of Scrooge was played by Lt Fred W Koenig, US Army; 1st Lt Stanley J Gladys, USQMC, pictured third from right in the photo below. The festivities took place over Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.
A full year later, Gates is still at the Zentsuji POW Camp. Unfortunately, Christmas Eve will once again find Gates sick. He was unable to enjoy the food on Christmas Eve. He did attend the Christmas carols, which “certainly puts one in the Xmas spirit,” he writes. On Christmas Day, however, he felt better and was able to “enjoy my chicken soup… [and] I did not feel too badly to eat my two doughnuts with butter and jam.” Gates and the other men enjoyed a reprise of last year’s performance of A Christmas Carol as well. As Christmas Day 1943 came to an end, his third away from home, Gates reflected on the day,
I can certainly say that this has been my grandest Xmas since a prisoner because any one of the 768 [POWs] of us could have and did get full of good food; also, because to a man we know next Xmas will find us at home (that’s what we thought last Xmas).
The information Gates heard was correct, and by the following Christmas he and his fellow POWs were freed when Japan surrendered on September 2, 1945. Gates’ diary gives an impactful look at the holidays by an American POW. For three years, he endures food rationing, sickness, and the pain of being away from his family. Despite this his entries on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day are generally filled with an attempt to find the joy.
Gates returned to Tennessee after the war. In addition to time as a pilot, according to FindAGrave.com, He attended Tennessee State Teachers College (now University of Memphis) and had taught in a one-room school house in Widener. He had been a principal of the Madison Public School. In 1986, he received the Memphis Senior Citizen of the Year award for his work with various charity organizations. He died, at age 86 on Friday, Sept. 14, 2001, at the Memphis Veterans Medical Center, is buried at Memorial Park Cemetery in Memphis.
Morgan Byrn is an educator and the Children’s Gallery Coordinator at the Tennessee State Museum.
Image Captions:
Excerpt of the Transcript of Julian Gates’ diary, December 14-24, 1942.
This Japanese Prisoner of War uniform, currently on display in the Museum’s Change and Challenge Gallery, was issued by the Japanese to Col. Stewart A. Hamilton, who was captured on Bataan and imprisoned for more than three years in Formosa in Manchuria.
Group portrait of prisoners of war (POWs) from Zentsuji Camp at Shikoku, Osaka, Japan, c. July 1942. Identified, left to right: Second Lieutenant (2nd Lt) Clyde L Teske, United States (US) Army; Lieutenant Colonel O Harwood, US Army; Captain (Capt) Eugene Rosemont, US Quartermaster Corps (USQMC); Lt Fred W Koenig, US Army; 1st Lt Stanley J Gladys, USQMC -- Koenig played Scrooge in the production of A Christmas Carol that Gates mentions in diary; Capt Louis T Lazzarini, US Chemical Warfare. Most of the men in the camp were Allied officers captured in the early battles of 1942. The camp was a 'show camp' used by the Japanese for propaganda purposes, but after 1942 conditions worsened. Photo: Australian War Memorial / Public Domain.