In Japanese-run camps, the death rate was 27 percent. One out of every four captives of the Japanese perished.
"One other thing," Mucci said. "There'll be no atheists on this trip." Upon adjourning the meeting, he said he wanted every last one of them to meet with the chaplains and pray on their knees. Services would be held in a half hour. "I want you to swear an oath before God," he told them. "Swear that you'll die fighting rather than let any harm come to those prisoners."
Pivoting with a flourish, Little MacArthur bid his men adieu and left them to their swirling thoughts. Then all 120 of them, even the cynics and doubting Thomases in the ranks, went to church.
