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Baxter 3
a registered head nurse in charge of surgery at a prominent hospital in Albu-guergue, New Mexico.
The Taga Maru left Formosa (as dated by the ship's log) on September 29 and docked at Moji, Japan, at 1800 hours, October 8, 1943. Of the 400 prisoners incarcerated in the aft	hold, only	355 remained alive.	These haggard
survivors of the Taga Maru, enlisted	men	of all U.S. services, were sent to
Camp 5B, Niigata, Japan, arriving on October 9, 1943.
HELL SHIPS
The understand fully the	mental	and	physical horrors of	such an existence,
one must visualize in graphic	detail	the	P.O.W. experience.	There were many
"hell ships" that left the Philippines in late 1942 through 1944, and treatment of the prisoners was consistently ruthless and inhumane.
There were no markings on the ships to indicate that they carried American P.O.W.'s. The Japanese in a last desperate effort to enslave the prisoners even further subjected them to American submarine and naval air strikes. During these engagements 75 per cent of these Japanese ships with their human cargoes were torpedoed, strafed, and sunk to the bottom of the sea. Records on these vessels are documented in the National Archives, Washington, D.C. (Pacific Theatre, 1942-1945).
Of the three most infamous "hell ships"?the Oryoku Maru, Enouro Maru, and Brazil Maru (weighing anchor at different dates in early December, 1944, with a total of 1,619 American prisoners of war)?only the Brazil Maru managed to escape the American submarines. In its wake, from the Gulf of Lingayen to Takao, Formosa, to Moji, Japan, were strewn the corpses of over one thousand prisoners of war, and none was afforded the privilege of dying with dignity.
Of the original 1,619 P.O.W.'s aboard the Oryoku Maru, Enouro Maru, and Brazil Maru there were only 400 survivors when the Brazil Maru finally docked