This text was obtained via automated optical character recognition.
It has not been edited and may therefore contain several errors.

---

Baxter 17
totally destroyed.
LIBERATION
After three and one-half years of rumors and more rumors, false hope, and then despair, it was extremely difficult	for	the prisoners to accept the fact
that the war had really ended. They did	not	need to	be	taught again the "rudiments of God," for each man who survived	the	agonies	of	hell which were the
infamous attributes of Niigata's Camp 5B	did	so only	by	his deep faith in those
rudiments.
We had not worked since August 2, 1945, and now were no longer brutalized or forced to bow and salute the	Japanese soldiers and	guards.	Most importantly,
Red Cross food parcels were now	freely distributed.
On August 10 the camp interpreter, Sgt. Shiga, informed Major Stewart that two Japanese cities had been totally destroyed by powerful bombs and over 200,000 civilians had been killed. On this same day Lt. Kato requested an audience with Major Fellows (the senior American officer in charge of the P.O.W.?s) in his (Kato's) quarters and officially confirmed to him	that	the	war was over.
Kato then bowed and surrendered	his sword to Major Fellows	and	placed himself
and his garrison under his command.
On August 12, 1945, Commander Harold Stassen (former Governor of Minnesota) was flown into Camp 5B with his staff from a naval carrier and formally welcomed the ex-prisoners of war back into the armed forces of the United States. Commander Stassen then ordered his chief petty officer to lower the Japanese Rising Sun and to hoist the American colors. The only sound in the stillness of that moment 48 years ago was the gentle flapping of the flag as it fluttered to and fro, as if to wipe the tears from the eyes of 550 weeping men, at last returned to freedom.
Stassen then expressed his concern for the safety of the camp and requested