USS HOUSTON CA 30
“The galloping Ghost of the
By
Peter Winstanley
Web Site: www.pows-of-japan.net
STENING,SAMUEL EDWARD LEES Surgeon Lieutenant Commander (Medical Officer)
HMAS
Sam Stening
was born in
By late February 1942, the Japanese
had captured
HMAS
On 14 February 1942,
Just before midnight, a vessel was sighted.
When challenged she proved to be a Japanese destroyer and was
immediately engaged. Shortly afterwards, other destroyers were sighted to the
north and the armament of
By this stage,
Most of
An account of part of Sam Stening’s time from the
sinking of the Perth to his time in Serang on the
island of Java is covered (as well as the written word can do) in the book Proud Echo by Ronald McKie.
In Proud
Echo it is said that Sam Stening suffered a
fractured skull at the time of the sinking.
The following is an extract from the respected text Medical Middle East and Far East by A.S. Walker:-
…Many of the more severely wounded
did not survive the ordeal of the hours in the water, which was covered densely
with fuel oil. Surgeon Lieutenant S.E.L.Stening R.A.N. who was wounded, was amongst those saved: they were
picked up by a Japanese destroyer and transferred to the Somedong
Maru, on which they were imprisoned for a week. After
some days a Japanese Army surgeon came with two assistants and good equipment,
and with the help of Stening and a petty officer
dressed the wounds, though insufficient dressings were left for after
care. Some 300 men were then taken to Serang in trucks, where they were kept in the gaol and cinema. Only after ten days were the medical
officers released from the gaol cells. Stening had only a
dressings forceps and scissors and very few dressings with which to work, and quite inadequate drugs to treat the dysentry and malaria which soon beset the 600 men in the prison
compounds. After a month
,during which two deaths occurred, Stening and
twelve other officers were taken to
In 2006 I (the compiler of this article) had email contact with a survivor
from the USS Houston
On March 1st., 1942, I was picked up by a
Japanese Whale Boat and taken to a Japanese repair ship. There were five or so other American prisoners
on board. I was taken to their "sick bay", had some shrapnel removed
and joined the other prisoners. We were
questioned by their captain. We
were fed and treated well. We knew
nothing. Time elapsed (don't know how
much but somewhere around a couple of hours) and the ship was torpedoed. I put my trousers on (inside out) and went
over the side. At this point I was again
picked up and joined Dr. Stening on the Jap
destroyer. I did not meet or talk
to him. Topsides of the Jap destroyer was covered with prisoners
- English, Australian and as far as I know one American (me). My experiences were similar to the first page
of the reference letter.
I was imprisoned in the cinema in Serang,
Java. We were required to sit cross legged and my immediate associates were
English. I distinctly remember asking
one of the English gentlemen what he did in civilian life. He told me he was a "
My English friends took me to see Dr. Stening.
Dr. Stening had offices (outside) and in back of the
cinema not far from an open latrine. Dr.
Stening removed more shrapnel using a razor blade as
a scalpel. Again I remember requesting
something to smoke during surgery. Dr. Stening told them to give to me only after he was
finished with the work at hand. I spent the remainder of the war in
bicycle camp in
In 2007 Sam Stening’s
brother Malcolm Stening provided me with the
following account (next paragraph) of his brother’s time in Java and
“They left Batavia on the night of the 28th February after refuelling, and soon sighted a large enemy force north of Sunda Strait, Houston was hit and took fire; Perth was also
hit and, all ammunition being expended, the order “abandon ship” was
given. Severe damage continued to be
inflicted on
Captain ‘Hec’ Waller, a sick man with
jaundice from gallbladder disease, went down with his ship on the bridge. In
Sam reports: “About 240 men,
including myself, were picked up from the sea by destroyers and other ships and
transferred later to the Somedono(sic) Maru. A Japanese army surgeon and two assistants
arrived next day and I helped them to tend the wounded, removing shrapnel,
dressing wounds, treating eyes damaged by fuel oil and resplinting
a compound fracture of a leg. S.B.P.O.
Cunningham, S.B.A. Mitchell and P.O. Telegraphist
Fowler also helped. The instruments and
dressings provided were good and two days after additional small supplies of
dressings were obtained, but thereafter nothing more was forthcoming. After a week the men in the Somedono Maru were transferred
either to the civilian gaol or to the cinema at Serang in Java.”
We had to sleep on bare concrete.
Hygiene, when it existed at all, was of the primitive form, and although
orders were obtained for a minimum of sanitary precautions, it was almost
impossible to ensure they would be carried out.
The average diet consisted of cold rice and a green
vegetable and occasionally small pieces of fish or meat, with certain
additions for the sick, which were obtained from Dutch internees. Cooking conditions were filthy. The galley was never cleaned and was traversed
by a water channel used as a sewer.
Permission was later given to construct an oven for baking bread and for
two open ranges. Medical care was at
first completely lacking. Then one day a
Japanese army surgeon came and did some dressings – the first attention some of
the prisoners had had. After an interval
dressings were done for several days by a Chinese and a Javanese doctor. These local doctors also made a sincere
effort to obtain any drugs or dressings which were requested. Lieutenant Burroughs, an American naval
medical officer, was released from his cell to help, and for several days I too
was allowed to help. Finally, Lieutenant
Burroughs was ordered by the Japanese to attend to all men in the gaol, and I the men in the cinema.
In the cinema were 600 prisoners, servicemen of different
nationalities. They slept on bare
floors, and used the seats as fuel for cooking.
They had no water for washing, and no proper sanitary arrangements. Later a pit latrine was dug alongside the
sleeping quarters, the only available space, near which the cooking and boiling
of water was also done. Efforts to
improve conditions failed at first because of lack of materials, but after a
time field kitchens were erected. I saw
at least 100 to 120 men at the daily muster.
A Chinese doctor attended too, and C.P.O. Bland, a cook, gave invaluable
assistance. I tried to arrange for all
the sick to be sent to the local hospital.
After some weeks I succeeded in having two transferred, but as they
received no attention other than what could be given by two American cooks sent
to prepare their food, their condition may have been worse than before.
Some of the men both at the gaol and in the
cinema were suffering from severe injuries.
One rating had a wound involving the posterior tibial
artery: he was operated on successfully
by an American medical officer with a Japanese army surgeon giving the anaesthetic. Other
men had to submit to surgery without an anaesthetic
and carried out with the only instruments available: a pair of scissors and a pair of forceps,
both rusty. Under these conditions
shrapnel was removed and a sequestrectomy
performed. Men who were in the water
when the already sinking Perth was struck by further torpedoes showed evidence
of thoracic or abdominal blast. All but
one recovered, but very few facilities existed for treating them or others who
became ill while at Serang. Malaria was prevalent. As the only clothing many men possessed was a
loin-cloth it was impossible for them to take precautions against the bites of
mosquitoes, and while there was a small amount of quinine for treatment, none
could be spared for prophylaxis.
Dysentery and diarrhoea were also rife and,
with only charcoal to treat them, soon reached epidemic proportions. There were two deaths. During my months stay there were no further
deaths, despite the conditions.
On 5th April 1942 I was taken with four other Australian
officers from
In November 1942 an emergency medical party was sent from Zentsuji to Moji to attend to the passengers of a Japanese
transport, the
Despite the bitterly cold weather, none of the sick had winter clothing, and our party quickly covered them in our own warm
overcoats. The patients were then
transferred by junk to the
From October 1943 to June 1944 I was senior officer and the only allied
medical officer in Oeyama camp. This camp was on Honshu Island near a nickel
mine, in which the inmates, clad in thread bare garments, carried out heavy
work in rain and slush; when they returned to camp at night, wet to the skin,
they had no change of clothing. One gang
worked for more than a week up to the knees in icy water. Work bosses pushed the men to the limit of
their endurance, and often the sick were forced to work, thus contributing to
the death of many of them. Food though
good at first soon fell off in quantity and quality. The lot of the workers was improved by the
medical officer’s decision to give them 360 grams of grain ration daily,
although this meant cutting down the ration of resting men to 250 grams, plus
what additions could be spared. These
difficult conditions were lightened by the arrival of the Red Cross food in
December, almost a parcel to each man.
However, the unaccustomed food, added to the extra for Christmas
supplied by the Japanese, upset many of the men. In March more Red Cross supplies arrived but
most of those set aside for the sick were retained by the Japanese, who also
kept some of the general supply for the camp until a successful appeal was made
to the camp commander.
In June 1944 the Japanese doctor produced a ration scale of 3,700
calories for the workers and 3,400 for resting men. However, as most of the items on the scale
were never received regularly, the actual figures were well below this. As hunger increased the men in the camp
became more difficult to handle. They
would steal from each other and from the Japanese and these later thefts, if
detected, led to severe punishments. In May
1944 I was empowered by the camp commandant to take control of the discipline
of the camp and all the punishments. On
the whole, this system worked well.
Hygiene was rigidly enforced by the prisoner’s own administration. Notwithstanding, diarrhoea
was rife: it frequently became a chronic
and was often a terminal event. As was
to be expected, malnutrition was prevalent, particularly beri
beri with or without oedema. Thoracic and abdominal effusions occurred,
and often followed the administration of sulphonamides,
even in a low dosage such as 1 gram daily for two days. “Painful feet” resisted treatment, and skin
affection, due to local conditions, were very common.
Taisho camp was also in the
At the time of my arrival a Sergeant Nakate
was the camp commandant, and the prisoners were treated well. When he was replaced by Sergeant Kakuia harsh and capricious treatment became the rule. All Japanese, including civilians, were given
licence to indulge their sadism,
men were punished, often severely, for minor offences or for no offence at
all. One man was stripped and made to
stand in the open with the temperature below freezing point. A Japanese sergeant then threw buckets of
water over him after first breaking the ice from the tops of the buckets. The sick were often ordered to work and
appeals on their behalf by the medical officer were mostly disregarded. Conditions improved from November 1944, the
improvement being coincident with the beginning of air raids over Honshu Island
and especially over Osaka itself. A
never to be forgotten sight was the flight of American heavy bombers over Osaka
in broad daylight, and later the big fire in Osaka, when incendiaries also
rained on the camp. As the confidence of
the Japanese was sapped, so the prisoners gained heart. The food supply both
legal and illicit increased, work decreased and the Japanese officers began to
live at the camp.
On 17th May the entire camp with the exception of a few men
who were sick or otherwise useless to the Japanese moved to Takefu
about 70 miles to the north-east of Osaka.
From 17th May until the end of the war there were 167
Australians from Taisho and 33 Americans from Umida
in Takefu. I
was the only medical officer there, and in fact the only officer. As was perhaps unavoidable in a camp of mixed
nationalities, there was occasional friction.
Work in the nearby carbide factory was heavy: there were many accidents and increasing
numbers of men failed in health through being driven incessantly on inadequate
rations. Though Red Cross food was in
the store, it was not forthcoming when requested, and, in May, June and July
1945, the food ration was reduced; it was further depleted by the thefts of the
Japanese camp staff. As at other camps,
sick men were often forced to work.
Intervention on their behalf was sometimes successful but more often
than not led to a worsening of their plight.
Punishments were frequent and I too suffered many indignities. One barbarous form of punishment was popular
with the Japanese. A man would be forced
to kneel on bamboo with crossed legs; another bamboo would be placed behind his
knees, and a 4 gallon can of water on his thighs, which he would have to hold
still without spilling. This would continue
for as long as an hour and a half. One
man after suffering this punishment had to be carried back to camp, and was
unable to walk for four hours. In one
respect, however, Takefu was an improvement on other
camps: once the prisoners had returned
from work and had entered their sleeping quarters they were usually left
alone. They did not suffer the mental
strain of incessant intrusion by the Japanese looking for trouble and
distributing punishments. There were few
serious illnesses in this camp but skin diseases caused by the chemicals with
which the men worked were prevalent.
Some medical supplies were available having been brought surreptitiously
from Taisho, and though the Japanese took Red Cross supplies to their quarters,
they allowed modest requisitions to be filled, usually after furious argument:”
The following is copy of an
article from the Medical Journal of Australia of 1 June 1946 page 773.
Permission to reproduce the article has been given. The article is titled EXPERIENCES AS A PRISONER OF WAR IN JAPAN By S.E.L. Stening
“My ship was sunk shortly after midnight of February 28, 1942. The survivors were in the oil-covered water
for anything from seven to fifteen hours, and for this reason most of the
severely wounded failed to live through the night. A Japanese destroyer rescued many, who, on
reaching the destroyer’s deck, were stripped and searched. The oil-soaked clothing was immediately
jettisoned. Thus we began our
prisoner-of-war life, quite naked, but well covered with oil, some wounded, but
with no dressings or instruments at all.
After a day in the destroyer we were transferred to a prison ship. Over 300 men were crammed into one hold, and
here we lived, ate, washed on two occasions, slept and tried to care for the
wounded and sick. Some materials were acquired
from the Japanese, but my entire stock of drugs, dressings and instruments
fitted into a cardboard shoe box.
However, owing mainly to the sterilizing effect of the fuel oil and salt
water, most wounds remained clean during our week on board. There was only one death; this was from
ruptured viscera caused by a torpedo explosion near the man in the water.
From this ship we were taken to a town in western Java, jeered at by
the native populace en route. Here about
half were lodged in the local native gaol and half
were housed in the cinema. The gaol was of concrete, and we found it very difficult to rest
on these concrete slabs, without clothing or pillow. The medical officers were locked behind the
bars and could do no medical work for ten days, during which time of the
hitherto clean wounds became septic.
After ten days my daily duty took me, barefoot, on a hot tarred road, to
the cinema about a third of a mile away, where I did a daily “sick call” for
well over 100 men. Dressings and
medicines were extremely scarce. I had
one pair of dressing forceps and one pair of scissors, and with these I had to
remove shrapnel and do other minor surgery.
For treating dysentery and diarrhoea there was
a half-kerosene tin of magnesium sulphate and a small
supply of charcoal. Malaria soon
appeared, and for this there was a bottle of some 200 tablets of quinine – this
for some 600 men. Food was in
microscopic amounts twice a day, but was supplemented by those few who had
negotiable currency.
There were only two deaths in that so-called camp in the four weeks
during which I was there, and then twelve other officers and myself
were taken to
Soon after this, in May or June – that is, three or four months after capture
– deficiency diseases began to appear.
Some men developed oedema and some developed
signs of pellagra. The latter complaint
was most intolerably itchy, weeping eczema of the scrotum. I can assure that a summer can be most
uncomfortable when one is suffering from that complaint.
It was while we were in this camp that we were told that we were not
prisoners of war, but still the enemy, the only difference being that we were
not unarmed, and that we would not be prisoners until we entered a recognized
prisoner-of-war camp. We were treated
accordingly.
We became prisoners officially when we had the great good luck to be
sent to the next camp. There were many
medical officers in this camp, both American and Australian; but only two
Americans were allowed to practice.
After some two months’ rest and recuperation here, a special party of
doctors and orderlies was hurriedly organized and sent to the west to the
relief of prisoners brought to
For the next few months our small party of eleven travelled
in several other camps for like emergencies.
Train travel was quite interesting.
The Japanese civilians never interfered with us, and our guards always
made sure we had a comfortable seat by forcibly ejecting the appropriate number
of civilians. Touring
This camp was originally one of 200 men, but another 100 arrived in
January of the next year. The men began
their sojourn in
Diarrhoea.
Diarrhoea soon became almost universal.
It is certain that a considerable proportion of the prisoners suffered
from chronic bacillary and amoebic dysentery – about 30% of those in the camp,
I should judge. But it should be noted
that I was never able to do more than inspect the stools and the patient, so my
figures may be quite wrong.
As I have said, diarrhoea became universal,
and this was the commonest type: it was
a diarrhoea directly related to diet, especially a
diet containing an excess of indigestible matter – for example, soya beans, wheat, or a species of partly hulled rice known
as “rubber rice”. The men were starving
hungry and used to eat leaves and grass, berries and acorns, with dire
results. Such a meal lay heavily in the
gut of the consumer, and after four or more hours he would begin to feel
“bloated” and to eructate huge quantities of foul gas. Diarrhoea soon
followed, and before long the sufferer was dehydrated, weak and suffering
agonies from colic. The stools consisted
of about a litre of brown fluid containing much
undigested food, sour-smelling and bubbling merrily from fermentation. One could usually tell the exciting factor of
the attack by inspecting the stools, for much matter was excreted unchanged.
In treatment, a preliminary dose of castor oil if available gave
excellent results, while magnesium sulphate prolonged
the attack into the second week. The
drug of choice was “Carbarsone”, one capsule being
given once or twice a day for two or three days. The sulphonamide
drugs – sulphaguanidine, sulphadiazine
and sulphathiazole – were also efficient even in as
small doses as 0.5 grams twice a day.
The diet was reduced to a minimum; but meat and fish were never
withheld even in the most severe case.
It seemed so important that each man should have his last milligramme of protein that I encouraged the patients to
eat their meat or fish in the hope that some at least might be retained.
The attacks of diarrhoea aggravated any
existing vitamin B deficiency and often precipated an
exacerbation of clinical beriberi.
The Deficiency Diseases
In this camp of 300 men, I had under treatment at one time (May 17,
1944) 209 suffering from beriberi, 156 suffering from pellagra, 120 suffering
from defective eyesight, and eight suffering from nerve deafness.
Beriberi
All the 209 men suffering from beriberi had oedema
of mild or severe grade. In some of
these cases the condition could not be distinguished from starvation oedema, but since this condition appeared to pass slowly into
the final stage of wet beriberi, I did not try to dissociate them. A tremendous quantity of vitamin preparations
was needed to treat these men, so, since there was only a limited supply, the
drugs were rationed according to the severity of the disease.
In my experience the presence or absence of reflexes meant little in
the diagnosis of beriberi. Some of the
most severely affected patients I saw, who died by drowning in their own
fluids, had a positive reflex until a few days before death.
Bradycardia was the rule, pulse rates below 40 per minute being common. Any sudden rise in pulse rate was of bad
prognostic significance; but men sometimes died with pulse rates of less than
30 per minute.
Blood pressures were always low, the lowest being 88 millimetres of mercury, systolic, and 64 millimetres, diastolic.
The severest cases of beriberi appeared after an attack of diarrhoea or pneumonia which had been treated with sulphonamide drugs.
The effect of all the sulphonamide drugs, even
in as small dosage as one gram per day for two days, was to cause an
exacerbation of the oedema, usually after a latent
period of a week. Sometimes this
exacerbation was pronounced, with oliguria, anasarca, ascites and
hydrothorax. I considered then that the
cause was combined liver and kidney failure from the toxicity of the drugs
used; but I now know that the cause is the destruction of the intestinal
bacteria and subsequent failure of certain vitamins.
In treatment huge doses of thiamine hydrochloride up to 120 milligrammes per day (50 milligrammes
by intramuscular injection) had only slight effect. Other means tried to promote diuresis were the use of sodium caffeine benzoate, “Salyrgan”, urea, “Scillaren” (a
preparation of squill), digitalis and hot kidney
packs. All these had little effect.
Restriction of the intake of fluids, even to total prohibition, until
the tongue was dry, brown and cracked, gave good results. Salt restriction was unnecessary, since we
rarely had any salt. A diet rich in
protein was tried; eight to twelve ounces of canned meat product with 130 grammes of bread and a little fluid gave the best result of
all in the only case in which it was tried.
Unfortunately supplies were not enough for another case.
Paracentesis abdominis and paracentesis
thoracis were performed frequently. The loss of protein in this form of therapy
was serious but unavoidable.
In this camp of which I am speaking over a period of eight months,
there were 41 patients with ascites, nine of whom
died; of these 41 patients there were 21 who were subjected to paracentesis abdominis, of whom
nine died. There were nine subjects with
pleural effusion, of whom one died; while of the four men who underwent paracentesis thoracis, none died.
My most severe non-fatal case was that of Canadian, who was in hospital
for over six months with anasarca, hydrothorax and ascites. This man
ran the gamut of all treatment, including huge doses of thiamine, riboflavin
and nicotinic acid. He suffered paracentesis abdominis more than 40 times,
over 161 litres of fluid being removed; 300 millilitres of fluid were also removed from his
thorax. This was the case in which the
high protein diet was so successful. The
patient was oedema-free when last examined.
Pellagra
The most prominent symptoms of pellagra that I saw were as
follows: glazed tongue and angular stomatitis; dark, fish-scale skin; eczema of the scrotum;
defective vision; painful feet; diabetes insipidus
and polyuria; mental deterioration.
Now the syndrome of “painful feet” may be present without other signs
of pellagra. This syndrome presents with
burning, tingling, shooting pains and numbness in the toes, feet and legs, and
occasionally the hands. This condition
led to much misery, sleeplessness and even death from pure exhaustion. Relief was found from exposure to cold, and
so these men used to sleep, in winter, with their feet poking out from under
their blankets; they walked barefooted on frozen ground and soaked their feet
in icy water. The result was gangrene,
analogous to the “trench foot” of the last war.
The skin of toes, whole toes and even feet would become gangrenous and
separate after a period of months. Of
the 200 men in camp, no less than 85 were affected in some degree in the months
of December, January and February.
The loss of sleep from the “painful foot” syndrome was much diminished
during the winter months, since most of the men had partly frozen feet with
complete anaesthesia almost to the knee. There was no way of avoiding the frozen feet,
since the men had to go to work; many had no socks, their boots had worn out,
and they were wearing Japanese canvas and rubber boots which remained wet until
the snow and slush of winter had passed.
These men had to work in snow and water, exposed to icy winds, with little
clothing and poor food for all that dreadful winter. Finally, when rubber knee boots were provided
late in February, it was found that many men were too weak to lift one foot
after the other in them, and so they had to revert to their smaller, wet, canvas
boots.
In that camp, out of 200 original workers, 36 or 18% lost their lives
from exposure, diarrhoea and malnutrition, including
one man who froze to death under eight blankets.
Another symptom of pellagra that I should like to mention is the frequency
of micturition and enuresis which occurred. Diabetes insipidus
is stated to be a symptom of pellagra, and these men certainly had it. A diet of soup, boiled grain and tea supplied
a sufficiency of fluid, which was eliminated gleefully by efficient
kidneys. The men’s bladders became
increasingly sensitive, and it was no uncommon thing for a man to get up and
pass urine fifteen times in a night.
Some men found it impossible to hold their urine until they reached the
latrine, and they eventually reached a stage when they passed their urine in
bed through sheer exhaustion. As these
men slept in every stitch of clothing they possessed, all their clothing,
blankets and mats became wet, smelly and sodden with urine. Punishment was their lot when this state of
affairs was discovered on inspections.
You can imagine the feelings of the Japanese when a urine-soaked
sleeping mat produced a fine crop of mushrooms early in the summer.
Comment
I have mentioned only a few of my experiences; other camps were similar,
and so I close, hoping that I have given you an idea of my last visit to
*Read at a meeting of the
Post War Dr Sam Stening resumed his life as ………………………………………….?
This
account was compiled by Lt Col Peter Winstanley OAM
RFD JP and has been assembled from a number of sources,
hence sometimes there is repetition of the information. The compiler makes no apology,
he just wanted the story to be told.
Did Sam Stening marry etc? When did he die?