the Japs finally consent to let us mark our graves, and allow 
 
our chaplains to hold burial services over the dead.
 
     One of my friends and barracks-mates, Lieutenant Commander
 
A. E. Harris, USN, became critically ill of malaria and dietary
 
complications. For four days he was unconscious, emitting an
 
occasional respiratory rattle which could be heard throughout the
 
entire barracks. During those four days we made every effort to
 
have Harris transferred to the hospital. Although there were no
 
medicines for him, he would at least have had the care of trained
 
doctors and hospital corpsmen. Permission to remove Commander
 
Harris was finally obtained on the fourth day, but he died while
 
being taken out of the hospital gates. Such occurrences were not
 
uncommon.
 
     Our contact with the Japanese prison officials was 
 
carried on by the camp commanders whom we ourselves had chosen
 
from among our most able senior officers. The job of these camp
 
officials was a hard and thankless one, for the Japanese interpreters
 
at the camp headquarters, usually non-combatants, were particularly
 
fond of slapping American prisoners on the slightest provocation,
 
or no provocation at all.
 
            The exporienoe of a National Guai-d lieutenant oolonol
 
who was executive officer of our camp is a case in point. I will
 
not give his name, as it would cause unnecessary worry to his 
family. On a visit to Japanese prison headquarters, he was struck
 
behind the ear with a heavy riding crop by a Jap interpreter, a
 
civilian. This injury was aggravated by another beating he received
 
at another camp to which we were later transferred. When I last saw