A. When our medicines were insufficient we were supposed to use the ship’s medicines. When I approached the Ship’s master on that occasion the Ship’s master told me that the Chief Purser was in charge of the medicines and he asked me to consult with the Chief Purser and make use of the medicines accordingly. Usually the prisoners of war Medical Officer would ask the interpreter and the interpreter would report to me and I would tell the Chief Purser and get medicines and handed it over to the prisoners of war medical officer. But I found that method to be too troublesome, so I made arrangements for the prisoners of war Medical Officer to approach the Chief Purser directly and get the medicines directly from him. When the ship was anchored at Manila there was an occasion when I went to the Manila POW camp and received some medicines from the camp.

Q. Who supplied food for the prisoners of war?

A. Food was supplied from the Anchorage Command.

Q. Who fixed the qualities and quantities of food to be supplied?

A. The Anchorage Command also.

Q. As ship’s commandant did you not have any authority to fix the quantities and qualities of food?

A. I did not have the authority to fix either the quantity or the quality but I was allowed to make requests for improvement.

Q. Did you not have any complaints from the prisoners of war relating to food during the voyage?

A. There was no formal complaint but they were saying that the food was not palatable.

Q. Did you find it necessary to improve the food for the prisoners of war?

A. Yes I did.

Q. Then what did you do in order to improve?

A. I approached the Chief Steward of the ship to improve the food condition but he told me that he received certain limited quantities from the Anchorage Command and he had to prepare the food according to the instructions given and he couldn’t do anything . . .

Q. What were the conditions of the prisoners of war during the typhoon?

A. During the typhoon the prisoners of war were accommodated in the ship’s crew cabins and in the saloons. For 3 days they could not have any sleep, they seemed to be very tired and depressed.

Q. What was the food condition when the Asaku Maru went aground?

A. All the ship’s equipment, cooking utensils, were washed away and we could not have food for two days. But we collected all the foodstuffs available on board the ship and managed to have some food.

Q. What do you mean by everyone on board [Editor’s note: the counsel referring to an earlier response from Lt. Takeo in response to a question about whether prisoners and crew ate and cooked together]?

A. When I say everyone on board that means, the ship’s crew, prisoners of war and the Japanese.