Hatch covers above came crashing down into the bilge, dropping many prisoners thirty to forty feet below. There were screams, cries, groans, and oaths! The air was filled with dust and dirt. Wounded were soon being dragged into our improvised hospital; many with fractures, shrapnel wounds, all covered with dirt.
Just as we were getting the wounded cases moved into the hospital and the dysentery cases out, back came the planes. When it was over we had lost several of our doctors. Col. Riney Craig, Major Mack Williams and I were the only doctors still active. We removed the clothing from thirty dead to give to those still living. No food! No water! Open hatches aggravated the bitter cold night.
Jan. 10, 1945: We worked on the wounded all morning. In the afternoon my attention was called to a shrapnel-made gash in the forward bulkhead of our hold. I looked through into the forward hold and witnessed the most horrible sight of my life.
There were three hundred mangled Americans piled some three deep the result of a direct bomb hit. At the sides of the hold, a few wounded were sitting and standing dazed and motionless. The Japs had no compassion at all they would not let us enter the forward hold to help in any way.
Jan. 11, 1945: Finally, two days after the bombing, several masked and white robed Jap soldiers gallantly descended the ladders into our hold, and painted mercurochrome on minor wounds. They would not look at the serious wounds.
The Japs wound not enter the forward hold. Only God knew what suffering was going on there. Jap laborers pounded wooden
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wedges into the holes in the sides of the ship. Water in the forward hole was up to the flooring.
The night was bitter cold; my feet had lost all feeling. There were
endless groans and screams from the wounded and crazed.
Jan. 12, 1945: Forty-five bodies in our hold were tied to lines to be lifted to the deck. I can never forget the grotesque positions some of the bodies assumed as they were raised. Then the winches lifted 150 bodies out of the forward hold and placed them on a scow beside the ship.