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Baxter 4
in Moji, Japan. One thousand two hundred nineteen American prisoners of the Japanese had perished on this epic voyage.
CAMP 5B AND THE RINKO COAL DOCKS
When the P.O.W.'s arrived at Camp 5B, the winter's first snow had already covered the ground, and the Japanese had no adequate housing for the additional 355 prisoners. At this time the camp commandant was Lt. Masato Yoshida, a small, squat, smartly dressed but ugly man whose appearance was not enhanced by thick horn-rimmed glasses and two or three steel-capped teeth. He could, when he wished, communicate With the P.O.W.'s in English. It was later proved that Lt. Yoshida had sold on the	Niigata black market food, medicine, and other Red
Cross supplies intended for	the prisoners. At	once	he ordered the	P.O.W.'s to
be marched two miles to the	docks at the Rinko	Coal	Company, where	they were
housed in a large barn with	no lights or heat.	The	prisoners were	given no
food that night and had to sleep on the half-frozen ground with only straw for cover. There were no latrine facilities, so each man had to find any space available for relieving himself. As over 70 per cent of these men suffered from chronic dysentery and many were too weak to help themselves, they could only defecate where they lay.
The American P.O.W.'s spent the first two days thus housed until adeguate wooden barracks at the prison stockade were completed. I was one of those prisoners .
At 1900 hours on October 12, 1943, we were marched from the Rinco coal docks back to Camp 5B. It had been a cold, wet day, and we had worked unloading coal ships and loading rail cars with coal for ten hours with no relief. Upon arrival we were assigned our quarters and given our evening rations of six ounces of steamed rice and one cup of cabbage soup.
The next morning was bitterly cold, with heavy snow. The P.O.W.'s were