#38. One Warrior’s Bed-Bound Surrender

Episode 38 – Jim Daly – “One Warrior’s Bed-Bound Surrender”

Cold Open
[Narrator] 27-year-old American serviceman Lt. Jim Daly was on the brutal front lines at Mt. Samat on Bataan. The action was fierce, the enemy unrelenting in their continuous assault.
24 hours earlier the young man, standing 5’8” tall with black hair setting off the blue eyes in his oval-shaped face, had been in a reserve position away from the front. But when that line began to disintegrate, Lt. Daly and the 45th Infantry were sent in to stabilize it . . . if that was even possible.
Japanese forces had already spent 4 days relentlessly bombing the American and Filipino front lines and strong holds on Mt. Samat, following that carnage with a flood of infantry men. Thus Lt. Daly found himself in the middle of an active, ruthless war zone.
Suddenly, something hit his leg, knocking him down as he felt searing pain in his right leg. A machine gun bullet: he was certain of that. Daly dragged himself to a nearby tree, then pulled himself upright with his back against the trunk, which offered at least a bit of safety amid the onslaught.
Blood seeping through his pant leg, he realized he needed help. Deciding to make a run for a safer situation, Daly took one step and fell flat on his face.
He couldn’t stand.
Rolling to his back, he pushed himself with his arms and good leg across the jungle floor – searching – and hoping – he could find help.

This is Left Behind.

Podcast Welcome
Welcome to “Left Behind,” a podcast about the people left behind when the US surrendered The Philippines in the early days of WW2. I’m your host and researcher, Anastasia Harman. My great-grandfather Alma Salm was one of the POWs, and his memoir inspired me to tell the stories of his fellow captives.
If you appreciate this podcast and believe it’s important for people to know this relatively unknown part of WW2 history, please consider sharing it with a friend. Word of mouth is the main way people find new podcasts, and by sharing, you’re helping to keep these important stories alive.

A few months ago, I got a message on Ancestry.com from someone I didn’t know: “I saw you posted about the 45th Infantry Philippine Scouts battles,” the message read. “My dad was in the 45th and was a close friend of Bill Bianchi, who won the Medal of Honor. I would be delighted to share my dad’s records with you.”
You may recall that I highlighted Bill Bianchi in episode 20. He was the 3rd and final individual to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor on Bataan.
This message quite intrigued me. The best friend and fellow soldier with a serviceman I’d already highlighted? That’s definitely someone I want to know more about.
Now, it’s not necessarily the easiest thing in the world to find someone on Ancestry.com. First, both of you have to be website members. Second, you have to know their username. Mine is Anastasia77 and I have nearly 200 family trees on the site (most of them starting with the letters P-O-W) – so if someone was looking for an Anastasia who published a podcast about POWs in The Philippines, you’d be fairly certain you found the right person when you ran across my profile on Ancestry.
Side note: If you happen to be on Ancestry, please feel free to reach out to me. My username is Anastasia77 (the 77 is a random number, not anything of significance). I’d love to hear from you.
Anyway, back to that original message. I immediately replied, and within a couple weeks, Jim Daly had sent me a number of his father’s – who also named Jim Daly – letters and reminiscences and pictures and service records. Pure gold for creating an episode. Soon afterward, Jim Daly and I were on the phone chatting about his father’s time in The Philippines.
The result is a little bit different of an episode. Between POW Jim’s personal writings and son Jim’s recollections of his father, the 2 men pretty much tell the whole story. Of course, I’ll add narration as needed. But for the most part, this episode is told in those two men’s words.
Let’s jump in.

POW’s Life Story
Before the War
[Narrator] James Walter Daly was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, on April 23, 1915. He was the second child born to William and Nellie Daly. Father William, for many years, was a travelling salesman while Jim was going up, and the family seems to have been well off financially. In 1930, the family had a live-in housekeeper and appear to have lived in what we might today call an “upscale neighborhood.”
Jim attended high school and then college in St. Paul. Here’s his son Jim sharing about his father’s educational years:
[Son Jim] “He went to an all-boys Cretin high school which is a Catholic ROTC school. So he had four years in the military at Cretin high school.
“He played football. In his senior year, he broke his leg, and he got way better grades, to the point that one of the teachers told the whole class: I wish more of you would break a leg.
“St Paul back in the roaring twenties and then the thirties was the gangster hideout. There was a system where the gangsters from all over the country could come to St. Paul, pay off the St. Paul police chief, and they could hide here as long as they didn't commit the crimes. My dad delivered newspapers and he said, “I know we were delivering those papers to John Dillinger.” He lived in the apartments on Marshall Avenue. Everybody in St. Paul knew that he lived there. But the FBI was looking nationwide and couldn't find him.”
[Narrator] As a refresher, John Dillinger was a gangster during the early days of the Great Depression, who was touted as a Robin Hood type figure in the media. He is credited as the impetus for J Edger Hoover to form the FBI. Dillinger lived in the St. Paul apartment under the name Mr. Carl T. Hellman. And the FBI eventually found him there and a shoot-out ensued in late March 1934, which Dillinger survived.

After graduating high school in 1933, Jim attended the College of St. Thomas, where he continued his football career. After graduating from the college in 1934, he studied engineering at the University of Minnesota.
In the late 1930s, he attended the Citizen’s Military Training Camp based at Ft. Snelling in St. Paul. Held throughout the United States, these camps were held 1 month every summer from 1921 through 1940, and were intended to allow male citizens to obtain basic military training without obligation to the US Army, National Guard, or Reserves.
To receive a US Army commission through this organization, a man had to complete 4 summers of camps. Jim Daly was one of only 5,000 men throughout the US (of more than 400,000 men) during camp’s 20 years of operation to become commissioned officers.
His son Jim shared:
[Son Jim] “He was sure that war was coming. So he enlisted in a program called CMTC citizens and military training camp. At the end of that, you were commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the army reserve.
“So he ended up number two in that. I have a photo of him in his uniform. Dad got his commission, and, shortly after that, he was offered the opportunity for one-year active duty in the army as a regular officer.”
[Narrator] Jim accepted and attended one year of Infantry School at Ft. Benning in Georgia from August to November 1940. And, then, it came time for a duty station assignment. Here’s his son Jim again:
[Son Jim] “His choice of duty station was either Greenland or the Philippine islands. He didn’t know too much about either one, so he went over to St. Thomas College to a military man, a Sergeant, who apparently he knew there. The guy said that, ‘Hey, I was in the Philippine Islands as a young Second Lieutenant. You're going to be dressed in beautiful, white dinner jackets. You’ll be expected to go to the ambassadors residences for dances, with the young Filipino girls. It's just a beautiful assignment.’ So dad picked the Philippines.”
[Narrator] Jim left the United States from San Franciso in late April 1941, but before he left, the family got together. The “grandma” referred to in this memory is Lt. Jim Daly’s mother, Nellie.
[Son Jim] “Just before dad shipped out to the Philippines. They got together in the backyard of his parents' house. The three boys. He was the second oldest. And his sister, then the youngest. And dad was in uniform, and grandma is frowning the whole time. And she told them all, ‘This is the last time we will ever all be together.’ She was just convinced.”
[Narrator] Turns out, Nellie, was right. I’ll get into that a bit later on.
But before we leave St. Paul, I need to bring up one other person in Lt. Jim Daly’s life – Irene Peterson, his girlfriend. Irene was 3 years younger than Jim and went to school with his younger sister. I don’t have details on when or how they got together, but by the time Jim left for The Philippines they were “an item” and seem to have had some kind of understanding, such as she would wait for him.

2nd Lt. Jim Daly arrived in The Philippines on May 8, 1941. The day before, he sat on the deck of the transport ship and wrote a letter to his mother:
[Lt Jim Daly] “Dear Mother, We are approaching Manila, I can see some islands off our starboard but I couldn’t tell you what their names are. Darn, I think I’ll have to move, a storm is approaching – Wow the wind is coming up in a hurry . . . The trip has been nice but I’ll be glad to see something besides water.
“Oh – my assignment – the best outfit in the Army – Philippines Scouts. . . . Lt. Binachi [is] going to the 45th Infantry with me. We don’t know our assignments yet. Rain.
“Well we passed the storm and are now passing between the islands. The shore is plenty rocky, lots of vegetation, some volcano islands stick up just like cones. We just passed a native sailboat a few moments ago; it looked like a Chinese boat you see pictures of, and it had long sticks out on each side to keep it from tipping. Some porpoises were jumping and diving in the water near the boat close to one of the islands we passed. . . .
“Wow—six . . . bombers . . . just came whizzing over us. They certainly look good. Just like home!”
[Narrator] After the war, Lt. Daly wrote some reminiscences of his first days in The Philippines that first summer.
[Lt. Daly] “I reported for duty in the Philippine Islands May 15th of 1941 at Ft. McKinley just outside of Manila. Assigned to Co. B of 1st Battalion of 45th Infantry, Philippines Scouts.
“I moved to Bataan on July 4 where the 1st Battalion was assigned to unload and store ammunition … in the jungle above Mariveles.”
[Narrator] In several of his letters, he wrote about the temperature and humidity in the islands, which was very different from the northern Midwest where he was raised. He often wrote that he didn’t mind the heat, but as he later told his son Jim, there were some issues:
[Son Jim] “Dad was Irish, fair skinned. I remember him sitting under the shade at the lake, and getting sunburned from the reflection off the lake. I said, “Dad, what did you do with in the Philippines?” He said, “Well, I’d burn. And then I’d blister and it would peel. And then I do it all over again. And the Filipinos, they’d never seen anybody do that. He said it was just constant: always getting sunburned, always blistering.”
[Narrator] Lt. Daly became close friends with fellow Minnesotan Bill Bianchi. As Jim noted in the letter to his mother, the two servicemen knew each other during their journey to Manila. We’re not certain when the friendship began, but they were likely drawn together as native Minnesotans in a foreign country. They may have also had some kind of distant family or mutual friend connection.
Lt. Daly later told his son of his friendship with Bianchi.
[Son Jim] “I know they hung out together. They went out on patrols routinely with the Filipino troops. And so he was learning Tagalog. They went to a movie in Manila. They had usherettes and he said there's two young Filipino usherettes. And he saw one of them nudge the other one, kind of pointed at the two of them and say something in Tagalog. He had no idea what she said. He had learned the phrase, “Oh you're only joking.” So he said to her in Tagalog, and he said you wouldn't think Filipino could blush, but this girl turned as many shades of red as she possibly could. Because she thought he knew exactly what she had just said.”
[Narrator] Beyond the friendships and the good times in Manila, Lt. Daly was aware of growing tensions. In October ’41, he wrote:
[Lt Jim Daly] “Dear Mother, Well, I am a busy man. My promotion to 1st Lt is effective Nov. 1, 1941. . .
“Things are rapidly coming to a head here. This is the hottest week in Near East so far. Germany closes on Moscow. Japan gets permission from Portugal to use an island near Australia as a base for a new airline. German sends a new minister to Bangkok. . . . Word had been given out that areas near Australia are mined.
“This is the set up. Japan may move on Russia if Germany is successful, or she may stand by and keep the British and US worried as to her next move. . .
“Don’t worry about me. I will call you on the telephone early Sunday morning about a week or maybe two weeks before Christmas. I will try to time it at about 7:00-8:00 am. You can figure out anything you want to ask me and I’ll do my best in 3 minutes.”

During the War
[Narrator] But 1st Lt. Jim Daly probably wasn’t able to keep that Christmas date. He later wrote:
[Lt Jim Daly] “I was in Manila the morning the war started [on December 18, 1941]. Leaving Manila, I saw the Philippine Army herding Japanese civilians down the street at gun point.
“We immediately moved to our assigned positions along China Sea Coast near Bagac. First Battalion had approx. 30 miles of coastline to protect. We set up observation points with telephone connection to our command post.”
[Narrator] In early January 1942, Jim’s unit was part of the first battle on Bataan at Abucay. I described this action in episode 16. Here’s Jim’s post-war recollections of that battle:
[Lt Jim Daly] “We were put in reserve, but moved up to the front line at Abucay Hacienda when the Philippine Army developed a break in the line. The confusions and lack of food were the hardest part.
“Japs moved around us at night and were behind us at times. Our left flank was unprotected except for patrols because the 31st Infantry PA were unable to move up to their assigned position. After about 10 days, we made a night withdrawal. I was Battalion supply officer. Our trucks moved at dark and packed up all extra ammunition and heavy machine guns. All with the Battalion . . . moved out of the front line. Order from Regiment were to move by Trail 5.”
[Narrator] Lt. Daly is referring to the American and Filipino withdrawal from Abucay to the second front line on Bataan, which happened January 22-26, 1942. Immediately after this withdrawal, what became known as the Battle of the Pockets ensued – as some Japanese forces pushed their way through the still-being-organized Allied front lines and became caught in “pockets” behind Allied lines.
The 45th Infantry was again called from reserve positions to help destroy these enemy pockets. And this is when and where Bianchi’s actions earned him the Congressional Medal of Honor.
A Platoon of 45th Infantry Scouts were assigned to destroy two machine gun nests in one of the three pockets. (If I’m understanding correctly, they were following/supporting the US tanks pushing through the pocket.) Bianchi volunteered to lead part of it, and Daly was in the same group.
General Douglas MacArthur described what happened next:
[MacArthur] “When the rifle platoon of another company was ordered to wipe out two strong enemy machine-gun nests, Lieutenant Bianchi voluntarily and of his own initiative, advanced with the platoon, leading part of his men. When wounded early in the action by two bullets through the left hand, he did not stop for first aid but discarded his rifle and began firing a pistol.”
[Narrator] Here’s Lt. Jim Daly’s account of what happened, from a letter he wrote a month later to his girlfriend, Irene, back home:
[Lt Jim Daly] “I guess you’ll be glad to know that I have come through all the battling so far with not even a scratch. Been scared out of about two years growth, however, guess I’ll only live to 90 instead of 92.
“Came pretty close to one up on the front. Received two Jap Machine Rifle bullets through my pants. That is as close as I intend coming though, My Sweet, so don’t worry too much. I still am in command of the same Company as before the war. I was recommended for the Distinguished Service Cross for going out in the Jap lines and bringing in two wounded men of my Company, but orders are not out yet.
“Lt. W.C. Bianchi has just been awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for same actions I was in. We were out together that day and really had some fun. He got our country’s highest award. We are pretty proud of him. I was glad to be with him when he earned it. He’s a great kid. Got shot six times but is back for duty now and is ok.”
[Narrator] Lt. Daly’s words, “really had some fun,” I think shows just how young these servicemen were. I mean, they were attacking live machine gun nests. It’s not really my definition of “fun.” But, hey, I’m not a 27-year-old serviceman in the 1940s. Plus, he was probably downplaying things a bit so his girlfriend wouldn’t worry . . . too much.
We see perhaps similar downplaying in a letter Jim wrote to his brother John on the same day he wrote Irene
[Lt Jim Daly] “Dear John, Well it’s eighty-eight days and we are still going strong. We have plenty to eat and I am in better shape now than I was when the war started. I have been under plenty of fire but my job as Adjutant and S-4 keeps me back of the front line most of the time. . . .
“I lost all my possessions at Ft. McKinley, but I have enough to get along. I know mother and dad must worry a lot, but I would rather be here than be on the way here. Is Dick in the Army yet? With his experience he would be very useful in a number of different places. . .
“Don’t worry about me. My only worry is that you will all worry about me. I feel confident that we have a position that will hold for months if necessary. . . .
“Well, keep ‘em flying this way until I see you again. Jim”
[Narrator] The “Dick” who Jim mentions is his youngest brother. Dick would indeed join the Army, then serve in Europe.
Also, did you notice what Jim said about food – “We have plenty to eat.” This is another place where I wonder if Jim, as other servicemen did, is making lighter of the situation than it really was. Jim later described to his son the food in a little different light:
[Son Jim] “They ate monkeys. They ate snakes. He said water buffalo was just so tough. Whatever they can get their hands on they ate.”
[Narrator] While we’re on the subject of animals, Lt. Daly adopted a baby monkey. The mother was run over by a truck, so he took care of it. He taught it to lay on its back and drink milk from a Coke bottle with a nipple on it. I’ve got a picture of Jim with the baby monkey on Facebook and Instagram. The links are in the show notes.

The letters to girlfriend Irene and brother John were written on March 6, 1942. They went out with the last mail from Bataan; I’ve come across many servicemen’s letters with this same date. Things on Bataan, at that moment, were rather slow – Japan having stopped its offensives while waiting for reinforcements and additional equipment. So, the men were able to write home and with fairly good assurance that they would reach home. (And they did – but not until well after Bataan fell and the men had become POWs, or worse, perished.)
9 days after Lt. Daly wrote his letters, Gen. Macarthur left The Philippines, under order from President Roosevelt. And 2.5 weeks after that, the Japanese began their final Bataan assault. Lt. Daly and the 45th were moved to the front line on Mt. Samat on April 5. He later wrote:
[Lt Jim Daly] “I was wounded on April 6th after moving up from reserve positions to plug the hole on front line when Japan had broken through. We moved about 17:00 hours on [April] 5th after a meal of rice. After all night move of about 10 miles, we moved up to stabilize the line.”
[Narrator] Lt Daly’s son continues the story:
[Son Jim] “He was up with the frontline, and the Japanese machine gun opened up and hit him. It knocked him down, so he decided he was gonna make a run for it. He said he knew his leg was injured so he backed himself up against a tree.
“And then he decided he was gonna throw his rifle away. He took the bolt out of it and threw it in the jungle so the Japanese couldn't use the rifle.
“He took one step and fell flat on his face, so then he knew it was serious. He unbuckled his gun belt and tucked his .45 inside his pants. And then started pushing himself on his back with the one good leg through the jungle.”
[Narrator] Lt. Daly picks up the story from here:
[Lt Jim Daly] “After crawling some distance, Capt. Bob Roberts helped me get to place where they could get me on a stretcher. I was taken to a shelter where Dr. Kostecki cleaned and packed the wound with muslin and gauze.”
[Narrator] Capt. Roberts had likely taken Lt. Daly to one of three triage “clearing stations” just behind the front lines. At that time, a military medical history reads:
[History] “The attack developed quickly, with the result that the three clearing stations crowded with casualties were in danger of being overrun by the enemy. . . . Convoys of busses evacuated [patients from] the front, giving priority to stations nearest the front. . . . In all, more than 7,000 casualties were transported to rear areas during the period 2-7 April.”
[Narrator] Lt. Jim Daly was one of those. He wrote:
[Lt Jim Daly] “That night I was moved by bus part way down the mountain. I asked for food but fell asleep before I got any. The following morning, they moved a group of us by bus. We crossed the airfield at Marivieles at night during a bombing. The truck stopped and all that were able lay on the ground.”
[Narrator] Eventually the bus carrying Lt. Daly arrived at Bataan field Hospital #2, where the majority of front line casualties during this time went. In the 6 days before Bataan fell, the hospital went from 2,700 patients to 7,000. Part of the reason for the jump in numbers is that the Japanese severely bombed Bataan field Hospital #1 on April 5, and most the patients at that hospital were transferred to Hospital 2 just before Lt. Daly arrived.
General Ed King, who was over all Allied forces on Bataan, lamented:
[King] “Already our hospital, which is filled to capacity and directly in the line of hostile approach, is with within the range of enemy light artillery.”
[Narrator] Despite the hospital’s overcrowding, Lt. Daly did manage to receive medical attention:
[Lt Jim Daly] “After being x-rayed—standing on boards in front of an x-ray machine, Dr. Weinstein decided they could not operate but would put me in a cot. I asked one of the nurses, “When do you eat around here?’ On finding that I had not had food for two days she brought a small can of condensed milk that had been heated. She fed me while I lay on the operating table. The nurses were told to get out because the Japs were moving in and Dr. Weinstein finally put me in a cast. I can’t say enough for Dr. Weinstein who worked day and night in the hospital trying to help all of us.”
[Narrator] BTW – Lt Daly wrote many praises about Dr. Weinstein, but said he didn’t know what happened to the doctor after Bataan. But I can tell you … Dr. Weinstein was liberated from a POW camp in Japan.

Lt. Daly’s x-rays revealed a compound fracture in his right femur, which shattered the bone’s head and neck. So basically, the bone where his right leg entered the hip socket was shattered. From what I’ve gathered, Lt. Daly’s cast was a body cast of some sorts. It was imposing, and he was completely immobile while in it.
The nurses were ordered to evacuate the hospital on the evening of April 8, so probably a day after Lt. Daly arrived. The nurses didn’t want to leave their patients, one later recalled:
[Nurse] “We knew what we had to do—take care of these guys. And we were willing to do anything we had to do, to do it.”
[Narrator] However, in the end, all the nurses complied. Some were literally ordered to stop what they were doing, put down what they were holding, and leave. Another nurse recalled:
[Nurse] “Walking out in the middle of an operation with hundreds lined up under the trees waiting for surgery was devastating to me. This I have to live with for the rest of my life.”
[Narrator] Episode 25 tells the story of the nurses leaving Hospital 2 and how they nearly didn’t escape from Bataan.

The next day, Bataan fell. And a small group of Japanese infantry took command of Hospital #2 at 5 pm on April 9, 1942.
I have tried, but I have failed to find details of what hospital life was like after Japanese forces took over. And it’s something I’d really like to know.
I don’t want to be . . . insensitive, but, honestly, I am somewhat surprised that the Japanese didn’t just kill the hospital patients. Mere days before, they had deliberately bombed Hospital #1, despite the large, obvious red cross marking it. (See episode 22 for details on that war crime—and the Easter morning miracle that occurred during it.) Then think how servicemen who were ill while marching up Bataan were bayonetted, shot, or thrown into ravines. I guess, considering that treatment, it’s a little surprising the Japanese would continue care for hospitalized patients. Surprising in a good way.
The best description I’ve found of hospital life under Japanese control comes from Lt. Daly himself. Keep in mind he was absolutely immobile during his time there.
[Lt Jim Daly] “This was not a hospital as you know, but a [space] cleared out of the jungle. The Japanese left our doctors in charge after marching through our areas and taking watches, rings, etc. We got rid of notebooks, guns, and anything they would take, like knives etc.
“Conditions were very bad, dysentery was a way of life. The Japs took most of the medicine and one had to eat under the mosquito net to avoid malaria. [There were] day flying mosquitos [and] hoards of flies in area.
“At one time ants found their way into my bed and down inside my cast. They had to pour ether down inside the cast to stop the biting, then clean the bed. After that we placed cans of water under each bed leg to keep them from getting into the beds.
“The cast stayed on until July because the bones would not mend on the rice diet. Weinstein got me up and out in the sunlight. Two medical men took me out to an open spot to get some sunlight.”
[Narrator] Another part of hospital life would have been the almost constant bombardment from Corregidor Island. Once Bataan fell, Corregidor opened up its heavy artillery at the southern part of the peninsula. Bataan Death March survivors talked of Corregidor’s cannons hitting groups of marchers. And both Field hospitals were well in range of those heavy artillery guns.

Lt. Daly spent 2-3 months at the field hospitals after surrender. At some point he was sent to field Hospital #1. Here’s him describing his transfer off Bataan in June 1942:
[Lt Jim Daly] “We were moved by truck to Manila. This was a rough ride on the tail end of a truck. . . .
“We were transferred to Bilibid Prison, Manila, a condemned Philippine prison. It had been condemned for Philippine prisoners because of rats, bed bugs, cockroaches. We slept on concrete floors, but I was lucky to have a blanket. They removed the cast shortly after reaching Bilibid.”
[Narrator] Bilibid was the main hospital for American POWs during their captivity in The Philippines. It was overseen by Navy doctors captured on Corregidor Island in May 1942. Lt. Daly later credited those Navy doctors for his healing. His medical record adds more to his recovery story:
[Medical rec] “10 July 1942, the wound was healed, but bed rest was continued. In July 1942, He was allowed up on crushes. In December he was allowed to bear weight on the injured extremity. During this time, he was under supervision. Patient did very little walking, however, due to starvation diet and malnutrition diet as a POW. At the time he became ambulatory, he noticed his right hip was stiff. The right knee had very little motion. He did exercise, some weightlifting, was able to regain about 30 degrees of motion.”

[Narrator] In fall 1943, Jim’s family finally learned of his POW status, when they received a note from him, which read:
[Lt Jim Daly] “Wounded not seriously. Fractured right femur. . . . Hope you, dad, John, Grace and Dick are well. Say hello to Irene. Please write. Love to all.”
[Narrator] Again, I think we can see Lt. Daly downplaying his wound and condition to his family.
Also, at this time, his youngest brother Dick was in Parachute Infantry training in North Carolina. On the night of June 5-6, 1944, Dick parachuted into Normandy ahead of the D-day landings. In a letter home, Dick described it as “a few tough days.” Sadly, Dick died in Holland in October 1944, thus tragically proving his mother’s pre-war prophesy regarding the family’s last time being together to be correct. Dick’s wartime experience mirrored that of Easy Company, from the book and miniseries “Band of Brothers.”

Lt. Daly’s daily ration at Bilibid was mainly rice. Here’s his son Jim recounting a conversation about the food at Bilibid:
[Son Jim] “I asked more than once, ‘How can you still eat rice?’ And he said, ‘If it wasn't for rice, I wouldn't be alive.’
“But he said they got about a cup of rice per day. And they learned not to take the worms out of it cause they needed that protein.
“They would steal banana peels out of the Japanese garbage. Lay them out in the sun till they turned black and then powder it and put them in hot water. And that was their coffee.
“All these people just talk about their favorite recipes. Dad said he refused to talk to those guys. All they want to talk about is food, I don’t want to talk about food.
[Narrator] As the end of the war approached, the prisoners could see American planes flying over Manila, and the hungry POWs’ talk turned to the approaching “Yanks with tanks and steaks and cakes.” Also, apparently, after the war, some of the Bilibid POWs created a cookbook filled with their favorite recipes that they had talked about so much while imprisoned.

Lt. Jim Daly remained at Bilibid Prison for the remainder of his 2 years and 7 months of captivity. His injury and lasting ailments prevented him from doing hard labor that the Japanese used the able-bodied POWs for. Thus Lt. Daly wasn’t transferred to various POWs camps in The Philippines and in Japan as most others were.
One night in early 1945, according to Lt. Daly’s son Jim,
[Son Jim] “The Japanese set up a machine gun at the front entrance. And dad told his buddy, ‘Let's go back to sleep on the floor way in the back.’ He said, ‘We have our cots up here.’ Dad said, ‘I know but the machine gun is pointed in, not out.’
“They went and slept as far back as they could. When they woke up in the morning the Japanese were gone.
“And then, the Americans broke in and nobody knew who they were, they wore strange uniforms and strange helmets that they’d never seen. And had to do a little convincing that they were really Americans to open the doors.”
[Narrator] When the POWs inside Bilibid first realized that their Japanese captors had left, they locked the prison doors and even positioned their own guards to keep unwanted visitors out of the prison.
Around 6 pm on February 5, 1945, a rifle butt knocked a hole in one of the prison’s wooden shutters. The prisoners didn’t know if it was friendly Filipinos or angry Japanese guards.
As it turns out, American forces had completely surrounded the prison walls, and were trying to figure out what was inside. They had assumed Japanese forces but were surprised to find 1,200 POWs — 700 military personnel and 500 civilians, including women and children. The surprised liberators passed cigarettes through the prison bars as they announced:
[Soldier] “We’ve come to get you out!”
Almost 30-year-old Lt. Jim Daly was free once again.
Also freed with Lt. Daly were sailors John Burke (episode 9) and Henry Goodall (episode 14).
[Narrator] BTW -- American POWs in the Philippine Islands not recognizing and, at first, not trusting the American liberators was a common occurrence, as far as I’ve come across. When Lt. Daly and his comrades were imprisoned, they were wearing WW1-era uniforms and helmets and using WW1-era rifles. When the American liberators showed up in 1945, they wore newly designed helmets and uniforms.
I’ve put some pictures on Facebook and Instagram to show the difference. But if you imagine WW1 soldier images you’ve seen and compare them to the iconic WW2 American GI look – you can probably imagine the difference.

The Yanks and their tanks did in fact bring steaks and cakes – or at least more food than the POWs were used to. Lt. Daly’s son Jim shares:
[Son Jim] “They just started gorging themselves with whatever they had, and they throw up. And they’d go eat some more and got sick. Until the doctor's got to them.
“They got Red Cross food packages that the Japanese had been holding onto. One of them had raisins, and a bunch of the guys donated their raisins to a priest. So, he could let them ferment for a day or two so he could make wine to say mass.”

After the War & Legacy
[Narrator] 2 weeks after liberation, Lt. Jim Daly left The Philippines, finally bound for home. He first recuperated at a military hospital in Texas where his mother visited him. Jim’s son told me:
[Son Jim] “I know grandma went to see him in the hospital in Texas. And because they were so starved, I mean, dad had weighed 105 pounds. He was five, eight, a hundred and five pounds when he came out of prison camp. On his diet in Texas was two malted milks and two beers every day.
“Grandma and Grandpa did not believe in alcohol. I don't know where that came out of that Irish family, but they did not believe in that. Grandma chewed out the doctor who put beer on his diet. But they were just trying to get him to gain weight.”
[Narrator] After some time in Texas, Lt. Daly transferred to a hospital closer to home in Chicago. And this brought him closer not only to his family, but to his girlfriend, Irene, who had waited for him during the war.
[Son Jim] “Once he was in Chicago, he had to do physical therapy Monday through Friday. So as soon as he was done on a Friday afternoon, he would take the train home.
“In Chicago, they could go out on the town every night. There were nurses from the Philippines who were also at the same hospital. Basically, Sunday through Thursday night, he was out of the town, Mom said.
“So he'd come home on Friday. And she's ready to go out. And all he wants to do is stay at home at his parents' house and just hang out with mom. That always irritated mom a little bit. He got to see her on weekends. Sounds like almost every weekend he came home until he was discharged from the hospital in Chicago.”
[Narrator] And just hanging out at Jim’s parent’s home perhaps wasn’t all Irene may have been irritated about:
[Son Jim] “He came home and said he really hadn't had time to write, he’d been busy all week. And mom said, ‘Well, you had time to write to Mary Jo Smith in Montana.’ Dead silence. It was a friend of hers and she's like, “Oh, by the way, I heard from Jim Daly in Chicago.”
[Narrator] These stories aside, Jim and Irene’s relationship seemed to pick up easily after his return. They married in 1946, and the next year their son James E. Daly was born. (He, of course, is the son you’ve been hearing from throughout this episode.) The couple went on to have two more children.
Despite his desires to stay in the Army, Jim was retired 70% disabled in early 1947. Shortly after liberation had been promoted to Captain, thus
[Son Jim] “He got a pension as a captain. And at one point he appealed and pointed out that all the other officers his age were Lieutenant Colonels and Colonels and Majors. And the POWs only got promoted one rank. So he went from First Lieutenant to Captain. But there was really nothing he could do about it. So anyhow, he had intended to be a career Army officer.”
[Narrator] It always makes me sad when I hear about POW officers who spent their 20s training to be career Army officers only to spend 6 weeks to 3 months fighting on Bataan before being wounded and/or imprisoned – and once home had retire from their chosen career.
The Army no longer an option, Jim went to work for his father.
[Son Jim] “My grandfather was part owner of a wholesale upholstery company. They sold upholstery material. Dad went to work there on the city desk. And for him, it was ideal. Because he could get up and move around and get orders. He worked there his whole career.
“I found out years later, he had a brief stint at the post office. But a friend who later worked at the post office said it turned out they all resented the army guys coming back. They put them on the hardest physical job they could find like, lugging 50 pounds sacks of mail to the trucks. And I think he just couldn't do it.
“So he had a brief stint there and then went back to, it was called the Hardenberg company. And so, he worked there until he retired.”

[Narrator] Like most POWs, Jim brought home not-so-pleasant mementoes of the war – some psychological, some physical – that he had to work through.
[Son Jim] “Mother said when he first came back, he did have nightmares. And he wanted to buy a German 35-millimeter camera. And there was one in the newspapers, and he called the guy up. And the guy said, ‘Yeah, come on over.’ So Mom waited in the car. Dad came back to the car, and he was just ashen white, shaking like a leaf. Because he opened the door and the guy was Japanese.
“But later, I remember, in high school, if I had a doctor appointment downtown. I’d walk over and get a ride home with him. One day he said we're going to stop at this upholstery shop and drop off some material for this guy. He was friends with the guy who had been doing this for a long time. And the guy happened to be Japanese. Didn't bother dad then.”
“Many years later, and I'm talking, say, in the sixties, he noticed a lump above is knee. It was very pronounced. He went out to the veteran’s hospital. And they found it to be a bullet fragment. Over the years, he had several more. And what happens is the body encapsulated it, basically calcified around it, and they worked their way down his leg until they got to the knee and then started to protrude.”
“The other thing I remember growing up is that in his right hip there was a hole surrounded by skin, but about the size of my little finger, going up into his hip. It always fascinated me as a kid. That was the bullet hole. It never completely healed over. That hole was always there.”
[Narrator] Jim, however, didn’t let those physical ailments stop him from living life.
[Son Jim] “His hip ended up fusing solid. He got more flexibility in his knee. One leg was shorter than the other. He had shoes with a heel lift. So he still walked with a slight limp.
“But he could pretty much do everything that he had done before. He had to sit with his leg extended, and he kiddingly referred to it as his wooden leg. I remember some of my friends saying, ‘Does he really have a wooden leg?’
“He had to sit with it extended out, so when he drove, his right foot was up on the transmission hump, but he drove with his left foot.”
[Narrator] Real quick – this was back in the days of front bench seats and stick shifts.
[Son Jim] “He had a left gas pedal installed. Just a little lever that went up over and pressed on the gas pedal, which was to the right, because he couldn't bring this hip up to touch the gas or the brake. So anyhow, he drove with his left foot for many years.
“In Minnesota, they always asked you, do you have any physical handicaps? Just check the box. And when I was, well I was already a Deputy Sheriff, so back in the mid-70s, they called him up and said, ‘So you have this physical disability?’ And he told them what it was. And they said, ‘Well, have you ever taken a driving test since you came back?’ And he said, “Well, no.’ And they were like, ‘Well, you have to take one.’
“Dad's like, okay. So, oh, by the way, you have to take the written test too. So he got the book and studied and the passed the written test. And then of course, as a deputy, this was too good an opportunity to pass up. I said, ‘Dad, do you want me to take you out to practice driving?’
“I don't remember exactly what he said, but he wasn't too happy about the idea. And I said, well, just as far as you taking the test.
“So we'd drive up to the corner. And I said, ‘You know, you really didn't look long enough.’ ‘I looked both directions.’ ‘Dad, I'm just telling you that you did look long enough in both directions.’ Okay. We drive around a little bit. I said, ‘Dad, when you come up to that stop sign, you have to stop for the stop sign.’ ‘I stopped.’ ‘I know dad, but you have to stop just before the stop sign.’
“So he went, he didn't tell us he went, took the test, of course he passed it. But the only things that got marked off on were the two things that I had pointed out to him. As a son, of course, that's wonderful.
“The examiner asked him, “So what did you do when you're driving a stick shift, if you had to stop suddenly?” He said, ‘I just stepped on the brake. And then the engine killed and then I'd start over again.’ So he continued to drive.”

[Son Jim] “We went to a neighbor’s lake cottage for the weekend. And they were water-skiing, and dad said, ‘You know, I think I'd like to try to water ski. I used to snow ski a lot.’ And mom's like, ‘You can't do that. You'll break your leg.’ ‘No,’ he said, ‘I think I could do it.’ And mom is just, ‘No, no, you're going to break your leg. You can't. Don't even try.’ ‘Well . . . I just want to try it once.’
“So after a couple of times he got up. He brought him all the way around the lake to drop him back at the dock. And instead of dropping out, he dropped a ski and went back around once more on the lake on one ski, just to show that he could do it.”

[Narrator] 69-year-old Jim Daly died January 12, 1985, in Minnesota.
[Son Jim] “My dad died of cancer. It was a cancer behind his stomach, they kind of found accidentally while searching for what they thought was an ulcer. And he died 18 months after it was diagnosed. And they had told us the average person once from diagnosis lives 18 months. He had excellent care at the VA hospital. They partner with Mayo clinic and University of Minnesota hospitals. But, of course, we’re wondering, Could he have lingering effects from the malaria and all the other diseases that they had and it just weakened them.”
[Narrator] Jim rests at Calvary Cemetery, in St. Paul, Minnesota.
I asked his son Jim, “What is the legacy your father left his family?” He told me
[Son Jim] “I think the sense of peace. Mom was the business major who would balance the checkbook. And Dad would forget to enter a check. He said, ‘You know, we have food. We have a roof over her head. We're good.’ He was just very satisfied with life as it was.
“He and his brother were the Irish guys, willing to get into a fight. After he came back, he was just so calm. We're alive, that's all we need. I think I inherited that. Just a very peaceful man. And I think that's his legacy.”
[Narrator] In closing, I’ll leave you with the words of Jim Daly’s eulogy:
[Eulogy] “If you want to know the real measure of a man you might want to know how long-suffering he was; you should try to find out how patent he was in trial; you should try to learn how many people he comforted in their sorrow; how often he showed his strength by being meek; how many sick and suffering did he touch? If you want the real measure of a man, look at how deeply he loved and cared for his wife and children; look at how he cared about and treasured his friends. …
“Jim was all those things—and he enjoyed being all those tings. He let even the pain and suffering of nearly 3 years in a prison camp make him a better man; he made the ordinariness of life—hunting, fishing, visiting with friends, playing cards, working—and most of all, being with his family—shine like extraordinary virtue. It’s easy to take the real measure of Jim Daly.”

While Jim was healing in Bataan’s field hospitals, across a narrow channel on Corregidor Island, an Army nurse evacuated from Bataan boarded a biplane for a midnight escape to Australia.
But she never made it.

More on that next time.
This is Left Behind.

Outro
Thanks for listening! You can find pictures, maps, and sources about Jim Daly’s story on the Left Behind Facebook page and website and on Instagram @leftbehindpodcast. The links are in the show description.
If you enjoy this podcast, please subscribe so you’ll know when I drop a new episode and leave a review wherever you listen to podcasts.
Left Behind is researched, written, and produced by me, Anastasia Harman.
- Voice overs by: Jim E Daly, Tyler Harman, and Jake Herenberg
- Special thanks to: Jim E Daly, without whose efforts, this episode would not have been.
- Dramatizations are based on historical research, although some creative liberty is taken.
I’ll be back next time with a daring escape that didn’t go as expected.

Sources
1. 1LT Richard Anthony Daly (1921-1944) - Find a Grave Memorial, accessed 6 November 2023.
2. “2 St. Paul Soldiers among Axis Captives,” undated newspaper clipping, in possession of James E Daly, jpg version sent to Anastasia Harman October 2023.
3. Citizens' Military Training Camp - Wikipedia
4. “College Grad Held by Japs,” Clipping from a College of St. Thomas publication, date unknown, in possession of James E Daly, jpg version emailed to Anastasia Harman October 2023.
5. Daly Jim W, service record, in possession of James E Daly, JPG version emailed to Anastasia Harman October 2023.
6. Eulogy for James Daly, 15 January 1985, document in possession of Jim E Daly, PDF version emailed to Anastasia Harman November 2023.
7. Except of letter from Lt. Walter Daly, 45th Infantry (PS) to Irene Peterson, 6 March 1942, Bataan, PI, excerpt transcribed by James E. Daly, JPG version emailed to Anastasia Harman, October 2023.
8. James W. Daly, Military Record and Report of Separation, Certificate of Service, in possession of James E Daly, JPG version emailed to Anastasia Harman October 2023.
9. James W Daly entry, “U.S., World War II Prisoners of the Japanese, 1941-1945,” database online: Ancestry.com, Provo, Utah, 2010, original data: National Archives and Records Administration, World War II Prisoners of the Japanese File, 2007 Update, 1941-1945. ARC ID: 212383, World War II Prisoners of the Japanese Data Files, 4/2005 - 10/2007, ARC ID: 731002, Records of the Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor, Collection ADBC, ARC: 718969, National Archives at College Park. College Park, Maryland, accessed 6 November 2023; Daly James W, service record, in possession of James E Daly, jpg version emailed to Anastaisa Harman October 2023.
10. James Walter Daly, 23 April 1915, “Web: Minnesota, U.S., Birth Index, 1900-1934,” database online: Ancestry.com, Provo, Utah, 2015, original data: Minnesota Birth Certificates Index. Minnesota Historical Society. http://people.mnhs.org/bci/, accessed 6 November 2023.
11. James W Daily entry, “U.S., World War II American and Allied Prisoners of War, 1941-1946,” database online: Ancestry.com, Provo, UT, 2005, original data: World War II Prisoners of War Data File [Archival Database], Records of World War II Prisoners of War, 1942-1947, Records of the Office of the Provost Marshal General, Record Group 389, National Archives at College Park, College Park, Md., accessed 6 November 2023.
12. James W Daly entry, “U.S., Department of Veterans Affairs BIRLS Death File, 1850-2010,” database online: Ancestry.com, Provo, Utah, 2011, original data: Beneficiary Identification Records Locator Subsystem (BIRLS) Death File, Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, accessed 6 November 2023; James W. Daly, Military Record and Report of Separation, Certificate of Service, March 19, 1947, in possession of James E Daly, JPG version shared with Anastasia Harman October 2023.
13. James W Daly family, West St. Paul, Dakota, Minnesota, ”1950 United States Federal Census,” database online, Ancestry.com, Lehi, Utah, 2022, original data: Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, Population Schedules for the 1950 Census, 1950 – 1950, Washington, DC: National Archives, Washington, DC., Records of the Bureau of the Census, 1790 - 2007, Record Group 29, accessed 6 November 2023.
14. James Walter Daly (1915-1985) - Find a Grave Memorial, accessed 6 November 2023
15. James W Daly entry, 12 Jan 1985, “Minnesota, U.S., Death Index, 1908-2017,” online database: Ancestry.com, Provo, Utah, 2001, original data: State of Minnesota, “Minnesota Death Index, 1908-2017,” Minnesota Department of Health, Minneapolis, Minnesota, accessed 6 November 2023.
16. Jim Daly, handwritten notes and reminiscences about his war experience, in possession of James E Daly, JPG version emailed to Anastasia Harman October 2023.
17. John Dillinger - Wikipedia, accessed 11 November 2023.
18. Letter from Jim Daly to Nellie Petersen, 7 May 1941, in possession of James E Daly, jpg version emailed to Anastasia Harman October 2023.
19. Letter from Jim Daly to John Daly, 6 March 1942, in possession of James E Daly, jpg version emailed to Anastasia Harman October 2023.
20. Louis Morton, “Chapter 18: Trail 2 and the Pockets,” War in the Pacific.
21. Lt. Richard A Daly obituary, 25 Jan 1949, Page 17, Star Tribune, Minneapolis, Minnesota, online at Newspapers.com, accessed 10 November 2023.
22. Mary Ellen Condon-Rall and Albert E. Cowdery, “A Medical Calamity,” in The Medical Department: Medical Service in the War against Japan (Center of Military History, United States Army, Washington, DC, 1998), pages 37-39, online at https://history.army.mil/html/books/010/10-24/CMH_Pub_10-24-1.pdf, accessed 13 November 2023.
23. Quoted in Road to Corregidor, page 258-59, image, “Willibald Bianchi-Road to Corregidor P 258-259,” uploaded to Ancesty.com by user mschaffer69, Feb 2013, Willibald Bianchi-Road to Corregidor P 258-259 (ancestry.com), accessed 23 April 2023.
24. “They Get [Unreadable due to tear],” newspaper clipping in possession of James E Daly, jpg version shared with Anastasia Harman, October 2023.
25. William J. Daly Obituary, 27 Sep 1963, Page 26, Star Tribune, Minneapolis, Minnesota, online at Newspapers.com, accessed 6 November 2023.
26. William J Daly family, St. Paul Ward 11, Ramsey, Minnesota, “1920 Census | 1920 US Federal Census Records,” Database online: Ancestry.com, Lehi, UT, 2010, original data: Fourteenth Census of the United States, 1920 (NARA microfilm publication T625, 2076 rolls), Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C.
27. William J Daly family, St. Paul, Ramsey, Minnesota, “1940 United States Federal Census,” database online: Ancestry.com, Provo, Utah, 2012, Original data: United States of America, Bureau of the Census, Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940, Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1940, T627, 4,643 roll, accessed 6 November 2023.
28. Willibald C Bianchi entry, “Web: U.S., Congressional Medal of Honor Society Recipients, 1839-2012,”
29. “Wounded,” newspaper clipping in possession of James E Daly, jpg version shared with Anastasia Harman, October 2023. The clipping gives the date of the 21 of some month ending in R in 1943.