up. As I started down the road in their custody, I met Colonel Byron Brugge,
from Wing headquarters, and asked him how he was. He was able to say 'Okay'
before the guard ordered 'No speak.' After blindfolding us the soldiers loaded
Col Brugge, Col Goldsworthy and myself into a truck that carried us into Tokyo
where we arrived about 2 A.M. From the speed of the truck and the time
consumed I would guess that I had landed about forty miles out of the city.

Immediately Japanese intelligence officers interrogated us as to our name,
rank and serial number. Although this was all the Geneva Convention allows,
they went on to request our home addresses and other information. When I
asked why they wanted this information, they said they needed it so they could
notify our families. This, of course, was never done. Then they asked me to sign
a paper which was written in Japanese. I signed, inasmuch as it was obvious I
did not know what it said. Next they stripped me and returned to me my shirt,
trousers, shoes and socks. This was to be my entire clothing twenty-four hours a
day for the next four months. Except when we were taken out for interrogation,
we were not allowed to wear our shoes or socks. Before daylight I was subjected
to a further severe interrogation about everything on Saipan. When I truthfully
answered many of their questions, stating that I did not know, they attempted
to force me to answer by slapping my face and by other minor abuse.

I was put in solitary confinement at the Kempei Tai (MP headquarters) in
a block of cells along with Col Brugge, Col Goldsworthy, Sgt Thomas M Goffery
and Cpl Harold O Schroeder. Four dirty blankets comprised my total furnish-
ings. Our food consisted of three meals a day of mixed rice and barley, with an
occasional small fish and infrequent watery soup for breakfast. Nothing was ever
heard by us regarding Sgt Goffery after his removal from his cell on 28th of
January. On 3rd of February, Col Goldsworthy and Cpl Schroeder were moved
to another Tokyo prison. I stayed in my solitary cell without ever going out
for exercise or any other purpose except almost daily interrogation until the
19th of February, on which date Col Brugge and I were transferred to a local
police station where we were put in different cell blocks. I stayed in this second
prison until the 3rd of April. There was one period, from the 4th to the 14th
of March, when I was placed in a Japanese military hospital where I had
slightly more of the same type of food and a little exercise. This hospitalization
was the result of my being so weak that I could not do even the little that was
required of me in solitary.

The next move was to the Omori prison camp. This was the headquarters
for some thirty prisoners of war camps in the Tokyo-Yokohama area and was
located halfway between the two cities on a sand spit projecting into Tokyo Bay.
At this camp we were listed as prisoners of war (special) and segregated into
two-thirds of a barracks with a separate compound. Col Goldsworthy and Cpl
Schroeder moved into Omori on the same date. All but four of the thirty-six in
the group were B-29 crewmen. The other third of our barracks contained
eighteen other "special" prisoners under charge of Lt Col Gregory Boyington,
Marine ace.

We were kept inside our special compound until the 15th of August and
then for the next two weeks we were allowed an increased amount of food and
medical supplies, including blood plasma and the privilege of mixing with the
other 600 prisoners in our camp. On the 29th, Navy Commander Harold E
Stassen took Col Goldsworthy, Cpl Schroeder, S/Sgt Harry E McGrath, Sgt
Harold T Hedges, S/Sgt Robert P Evans and myself off in 'LCIs' to the hospital
ship'Benevolence.' After eight days I was allowed to go out to Atsugi Air Field
where I 'bummed' a ride to Okinawa and then to Guam and back to Saipan,
where I arrived on the 8th of September. On the 12th of September, I was
in San Francisco and on the 14th in Tampa, Florida, with my family.

There are two other noteworthy items of my experience. On the 7th of
May we were allowed to start a small garden at Omori. This gave us something
to do and some light exercise. The most exciting moment of my entire captivity
was on the 9th of March when we were able to see the first night incendiary
attack of the B-29s on Tokyo. The flames from the burning city made it as light
as day and gave us all confidence that our liberation was not far off."