Yuzan Maru

Brazil Maru

Oryoku Maru

Yuzan Maru

Brazil Maru

Oryoku Maru

    Prisoners of war, as well as Japanese troops, were usually housed in two tiered wooden shelves built along the sides of the upper and lower cargo holds, and on the steel floors.  Conditions were extremely crowded for Japanese troops and often worse for POWs.  It was common to place 500 POWs in one level of a single hold, and in some cases, almost twice that many were confined in the fetid, dark, holds.   The holds were unventilated.  In the tropical heat they were sweltering.  In winter, when traveling to Japan, they were freezing. 
 
     Sanitation was almost non-existant.  Sometimes the prisoners were allowed to use the few wooden benjos hung over the sides of the ship.   Relatively healthy men could wait in long lines to climb the ladder to deck, but those sick with dysentery were unable to climb or wait.  Often, the prisoners were denied access to the deck and forced to use small overflowing waste buckets.   Dysentery spread rapidly as waste flowed into the spaces were men lay, eat, slept, and died.

    Food, and especially, water, were in short supply for the POWs; but the crews and guards were not restricted in its use.  On the Brazil Maru the men never received more than one-half cup per day, and often went without any at all.  On many ships men traded valuables, such as rings, with guards for small amounts of water.  Others licked condensation off the ship's side.  Men were driven to steal water from others, and in some cases, kill, in crazed attempts to quench their thirst with blood.   Of many horrors aboard, the lack of water was the most terrible--and deadly.