By Kara Shire
Tri-Valley Herald

Sept. 25, 1999

DUBLIN — Mel Routt doesn't expect anyone to understand what life was like as prisoner of war.

But after 31/2 years as a Japanese prisoner during World War II, Routt, a Tracy resident, knows the horror.

"I can't expect people who weren't there to comprehend," Routt said. "You don't have to exaggerate this. You can't make it any worse."

Routt spoke at a Camp Parks ceremony Friday held in remembrance of former American prisoners of war and those missing in action.

The third Friday in September is the nationally observed POW/MIA Day. Camp Parks officials post poned the ceremony to allow Routt to speak.

"There was no place during World War II that took more fire than the island of Corregidor," Routt said to a crowd of 50 people. "It was so intense you could feel the ground move. The only time they didn't fire shells is when they were bombing."

More than 92,000 soldiers from World War I, World War II, the Korean and Vietnam wars remain missing, said Lt. Col. John Randolph.

"We're here to remember the thousands of POWs," Randolph said. "This ceremony is to never forget them or those whose fate has not been resolved yet."

Routt served as a 2nd class fireman in the Navy where he was stationed in the South Pacific island of Corrigedor. The only thing the men had to defend themselves were outdated World War I weapons that couldn't fight off the advanced Japa nese Navy, Routt said.

"We watched them as they came with barges of supplies for an invasion," he said. "We knew it was coming. We knew we were marked."

But they had no way to fight back, Routt said.

On May 6, 1942, the Americans surrendered to the Japanese and Routt became one of thousands of prisoners of war.

Food was scarce and he watched as men starved to death. Routt dropped from a 168 pounds to a mere 86 pounds while fighting to survive on food rations riddled with rocks and bugs.

"Self preservation is a very impor tant thing," Routt said. "First you learn to eat whatever there is just to get food in you. We ate little frogs, we ate snakes and grasshoppers — anything we could get our hands on."

Routt was transported to a Japanese coal mine, the largest of its kind situated near Nagasaki Bay.

"You had a choice, you worked or you were buried there," he said. "So we did the best we could."

The nuclear bombing of Nagasaki set Routt free. Today, he tells his story to school kids and veteran groups so that it's not forgotten.

"You don't read this in the books," he said. "They don't teach this in the schools. Our president at the time didn't want people here to know we were being written off, sacrificed and that we weren't prepared for war."