Note 38 — Chapter XXI · Westward to the Sea

Doubtless, some of the unwillingness of the Japanese service troops to serve on the front lines was due to their physical condition. When the 1st Division arrived on Leyte on 1 November it brought with it enough food and ammunition for one month, and by 1 December this supply was exhausted. On 3 December an additional one-half month’s supply was brought in at Ormoc; but this was destroyed or captured by the 77th Division in its advance. Consequently after the 1st of December all Japanese troops on Leyte “were on a starvation diet and had to live off the land.”38 The 1st and 57th Infantry Regiments were the principal sufferers. The men were forced to eat coconuts, various grasses, bamboo shoots, the heart fibers of coconut tree trunks, and whatever native fruits or vegetables they could forage. When the troops received orders to withdraw to the west coast of Leyte, “they were literally in a starved condition, ... many instances occurred in which men vomited seven to ten times a day because they could not digest some of the food due to their weakened stomachs.”39