John C. (Jack) Littig took time off from his education at the University of Colorado to visit his parents (his father was an Army major) who were stationed in the Philippines.  Jack liked the Philippines and decided to stay.  He met and married Bettina, a British subject living with her parents in Manila.  Jack and Bettina lived well in Manila; they had a son; they had a nice home; they had servants; they were at the center of Manila’s social life.  Jack received a commission in the Navy Reserve.  As war clouds gathered in the summer of 1941 Jack moved his wife and son to San Francisco.  He then returned to the Philippines on active duty. 

Captured on Corregidor in May 1942, Jack was among those American captives taken by barge to Manila and marched to Bilibid prison.  On the march along Dewey Boulevard, he passed by Bettina’s parents’ home overlooking Manila Bay.  The parents, Bettie and W.G. (Steve) Stevenson (who were then still free but were soon to be interned by the Japanese), were standing on their lawn, watching the forlorn procession of prisoners struggle toward Bilibid in central Manila.  Though neither marchers nor onlookers were allowed to communicate, they exchanged signs of recognition.  This was the last time Jack would ever see or be seen by his family.  

From Bilibid, the group was soon moved by rail and by march to Cabanatuan, where they spent the next two and a half years.  During this captivity, Jack and his mother-in law Bettie Stevenson (then interned with her husband Steve at Santo Tomas) exchanged written messages.  Some of these messages were preserved through the war at Bettie’s great personal risk (since their discovery by the Japanese would have resulted in her death).  These preserved notes exist to this day.  This message traffic was facilitated by loyal Filipinos and a German Catholic priest who ultimately was beheaded for his involvement in this and other smuggling efforts on behalf of the Americans at Cabanatuan. 

As American forces advanced into the Philippines in late 1944, most Cabanatuan internees including Jack were trucked back to Bilibid.  In mid-December Jack and more than 1600 others were crammed aboard the Oryoku Maru which sailed to its sinking in Subic Bay.  Found unconscious by other prisoners, Jack was transported by raft to the shore.  He was held at the Subic Bay tennis court and soon after was trucked to San Fernando Pampanga where he and other prisoners were held in a movie theater.  He died in that theater on December 22, 1944, never regaining consciousness after the sinking of the Oryoku Maru.   

Lt. Commander John C. Littig’s body was taken from the theatre in a carabao cart, and was never found in the post-war searches conducted by US forces.   

After the war, Bettina married Oryoku Maru survivor Commander Douglas Fisher.  Bettina’s parents (Bettie and Steve Stevenson) survived their Santo Tomas ordeal and after their liberation settled near Bettina in San Francisco. 

(Tribute provided by John S. Littig, JSLittig@aol.com)