The Long Dark Road

EPITAPH FOR BARRY, From the "Long Dark Road"
by Brig. Gen. Wm.E. Brougher

"NOTE: Colonel Barry, Ordnance Dept., USA, died at Tarlac, Philippine Islands, the first of our group to die after we left Camp O'Donnell."

Angels wept and turned aside
To hide their tears when BARRY died.
Forlorn event - aye, thrice forlorn
A man to love and freedom born
Must come to die in bondage here,
Bereft of all that he held dear.
"In line of duty!" Write it down,
No hero wears a brighter crown.
God comfort those who now must wait
With anxious hearts to learn his fate.

VOICES OF CHILDREN, From the "Long Dark Road"
by Brig. Gen. Wm.E. Brougher

"NOTE: Close beside the walls of prison camp a Japanese school was located. The children sang a great deal in supervised groups. In many nations today the hates that lead to war are being fostered in the lives of children and perpetuated in their songs.

Karenko Prison Camp, Taiwan
24 September 1942

Beyond the walls of prison camp
    The children laugh and sing;
What floods of tender memories
    Their merry voices bring!
The voices of my little ones
    Still ring in memory's ears,
An echo from the silences
    Of distant land and years.

In alien tongue beyond the wall,
    On hostile ground out there,
The hostile young sing hostile songs
    With venom in the air.
God sends the gift of little ones
    In love and peace to dwell,
But fiends are teaching trusting tots
    To sing the chants of Hell.

What monstrous incongruities--
    This world's unhappy state--
When poisoned lips of innocents
    Are taught to sing of hate!
Oh God! Be kind to little ones
    And guide them from above,
Protect them from mistakes of men
    And let them sing of love.