Having been incarcerated in the Japanese prison camp at Los Baoñs (the Philippines) for three and a half years, Merchant marine William T. Mitchell gleefully explained what it was like to reacquaint himself with his own country all over again. In matters involving American pop-culture, he had some catching up to do – he had to learn about jive-jargon and bobby-soxers, accentuating the positive and baked beans with built-in sodium.
“Many a night at Los Baoñs when no one cared if the sun ever rose again, we longed for some of this American nonsense.”
