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.

Q. But was it not a fact that on that occasion the ship’s crew and the prisoners of war cooked separately?

A. The prisoners of war lost every cooking utensil and that was why we could not cook separately, fortunately the ship’s crew could maintain some of their cooking utensils and those cooking utensils were used for all.

Q. Then did everyone on board have the same food?

A. Yes.

Q. What happened after the Asaka Maru went aground?

A. After that we were rescued by two Coast defence ships and we were taken to Keeloon, one of the ports in Formosa . . .

Q. What kind of a ship was the Hakusan Maru?

A. The Hakusan Maru was a passenger boat.

Q. Did the Hakusan Maru sail by herself or did she sail in a convoy?

A. She sailed in a convoy . . .

Q. What part of the ship did the prisoners of war occupy on board the Hakusan Maru?

A. All of them were accommodated in the passengers cabins.

Q. What was the sanitary arrangement?

A. It was a passenger boat, therefore it had a perfect sanitary system. It had individual lavatories.

Q. Any special compartment given to the sick?

A. Yes we had special sick rooms for the sick.

Q. Were they allowed to make use of the decks of the ship?