Evening star., 1945-07-20

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officers were put in the mailroom
and we received firm orders that
we could not talk"
Wounded Left on Island.
They we're not given any blan-
kets until they neared Yokohama,
when the weather became quite cold
There were no sanitary facilities in
the room, and they were not al
lowed to wash. The lights were kept
burning all the time.
The Japs left all of the American
wounded and some key personnel,
such as utilities operators, on the
island
The ship arrived at Yokohama
on January 18. Just before they
reached this port they were re-
quired to turn In all watches, rings,
money and any means of identifica-
tion. They were informed that if
any of these articles were found
on them later they would be shot.
After some of the top officer per-
sonnel and certain enlisted men
were taken off the vessel it pro-
ceeded to Shanghai, where it ar
rived on January "a. The prisoners
were taken to a camp at Woosong
and put In quarters in which
shelves built in the wall served as
beds. There were l28 to each room,
with 80 shelves on each of the four
walls. The room also had a table
and bench for eating.
Buy Powdered Eggs.
I'VE received a small bowl of rice
twice day with some vegetables,
mostly cabbage, and some carrots, .
1t. McAlister said. Every third meal
we received small piece Of meat
If we were lucky. At first, we had
Chinese cooks, but they carried off
some OF the food and we asked If we
couldn't have our own cooks, and
this request was granted"
The prisoners were assigned vari-
Gus duties while they were in the
camp, most of them engaging in
farming.
They were paid $50 a month in
Central Reserve Bank money. 1t.
McAlister said it required $4,000 of
these dollars to equal one United
States dollar. 1t. Kinney pinted
out that $40 would buy 10 Chinese
cigarettes, which are made mostly
of seaweed.
There was little else on which tc
spend the money. Sometimes they
could buy peanut butter in the can
teen. But most of the money which
they received was pooled to buy
powdered eggs for those who were
ILL., On the whole, the health of al
of the prisoners held up pretty good
1t. Kinney said.
The Red Cross supplies which ar.
rived from time to time helped, the
officers said.
Captured Men Sentenced.
There we're others in the group
who attempted to escape and those
who tried and were caught were
charged with deserting from the
Japanese Army and were sentenced
TO 10 years in Jail.
During the early days in the
prison camp" 1t. Kinney said, "the
Japs gave us news saying that they
were doing pretty well. They gave
us newspapers and a radio. We
heard over the radio of the first air
attack on Tokyo. Although the
Japs kept insisting that they were
doing pretty good, we felt that they
wehe having bad time. They told
us that our forces had been beaten
off the Solomons and later we heard
that they had beaten our forces
further up in those islands. We
figured from that that the Ameri-
cans were progressing. Subsequently
they stopped the newspapers and
then came in and took the radio
ostensibly to make q check to see
whether it had shortwave on it.
But they never brought it back"
Asked If they had drawn any pay
since they had returned, 1t. Kinney
replied: ''We had to draw pay in
order to eat in Washington. Both
officers drew between $4,000 and
5000 back pay.
1t. Kinney has passed physical
examination which showed that he
is fit to fly. He says he wants to
get back To settle a few scores.