Bataan Diary: An American Family in World War II
There was a period in my life when I read every war book I could find. Waves of layoffs made my job in corporate America seem like a battlefield. Each night I would read accounts of hardship, deprivation, and bravery so uplifting, so spirited, so amazing—that I took courage and went back to work the next day. If ordinary people could survive the London Blitz, I figured I could deal with my lot in the Big Apple.
That’s what a good war book can do for you, and “Bataan Diary: An American Family in World War II,” is a great example. Written by part-time Parkite Chris Schaefer, “Bataan Diary” is drawn from the actual diaries of U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel Frank Loyd and his wife Evelyn, who were stationed in the Philippines in 1941. Even before the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, Evelyn and the couple’s two children had already been ordered stateside. When the Japanese invaded the Philippines, she had no idea what had become of her husband.
Chris Schaefer intertwines Evelyn’s anguished story at home with a gripping blow-by-blow description of Frank’s experience. During the initial Japanese invasion, Frank had become separated from his unit and struck out through the jungle to rejoin the American lines. He soon realized that fallback lines did not exist.
To Frank, surrender was unthinkable. In fact, a few hundred Americans refused to surrender or disappeared into the jungle during the
Bataan death march, the infamous mass herding of prisoners of war during which 8,500 men died. Some of these prisoners established guerrilla operations and waited for General Douglas MacArthur to fulfill his famous promise to the Philippines:
“I shall return.”
Frank spent the next three years on the move, building crude shelters, eating bugs and suffering dreadfully from malaria. He buried cryptic diaries in various places or gave them to Filipinos he trusted. His survival can largely be attributed to the generosity of two Filipino men, Tivo Leonzon and Placido Filomeno, who risked their lives and the welfare of their families to supply food to Americans hiding in the jungle.
Frank Loyd’s attitude toward Tivo Leonzon was mystifying. One would think a man at the mercy of the kindness of others would be grateful for every scrap of food delivered to him. Instead, Frank was demanding, as if he felt entitled to the service. “The attitude of Americans toward the
Filipinos at the time was condescending,” said Schaefer, who is the nephew of Frank Loyd by marriage. “Frank was not as prejudiced as some Americans, but that kind of racial attitude was accepted dogma.”
The tense relationship between Tivo and Frank culminates in one of the most dramatic moments of the book. Frank’s behavior pushes Tivo over the edge. The Filipino pulls a gun and fires.
To find out exactly what happened between his uncle and Tivo, Schaefer and his wife Colleen journeyed to the Philippines. Armed with a key to the coded names in Frank’s diary, Chris Schaefer combed the island of Luzon. “Have you ever heard of U.S. Army Lt. Col. Frank Loyd?” he asked. “Do you know a man named Tivo Leonzon?” At a church on the Bataan Peninsula, he finally found Tivo’s son-in-law and learned the Filipino side of the story.
Schaefer’s research took five years and encompassed a whole war as well as the personal lives of his uncle and aunt. The book provides a detailed record of guerrilla commanders Col. Gyles Merrill, Lt. Edwin Ramsay, and Corp. John Boone, and spy-smugglers Margaret Utinsky and Claire Phillips. “I was surprised to learn that [American] guerrilla leaders had buildings in the jungle with typewriters and clerks. They seemed to be very well-organized with regular courier runs and a clear command structure,” Schaefer said.
Married to a lovely Filipino girl, John Boone headed a guerrilla outpost on the Bataan Peninsula. With a cadre of Filipino fighters under him, he waged a cunning harassment campaign against the Japanese and provided key intelligence when General MacArthur finally returned to re-occupy the islands in 1945.
Claire Phillips ran a nightclub in Manila. Part of the profits from the club went to a hospital. The other part was smuggled to American prisoners in the form of food, medicine, and cash. Her girls made a point to gather intelligence during “pillow talk” sessions with lonely Japanese soldiers. She continued operations until the Japanese arrested her in 1945.
Did Claire Phillips escape? Was John Boone ever decorated? Did Frank Loyd make it home to Evelyn? There are many questions to be answered by reading “Bataan Diary” and many lessons to apply to life. “We weren’t war heroes,” a former guerrilla fighter told Schaefer during his research. “We were ordinary people and we did what we could.”
“Bataan Diary” author Chris Schaefer has been skiing in Park City for more than 30 years. He was a gate judge during the 2002 Winter Olympics and his wife Colleen was a member of the Deer Valley timing crew. When they’re not skiing, they live with their two children in San Antonio, Texas. This is Schaefer’s first commercial book.
Reviewer Lola Beatlebrox escaped a stressful corporate life to enjoy Park City’s playground. She is education curator for the Park City Historical Society & Museum.
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