Some records say the camp was opened in November 1942 with 300 Australian POWs arriving in December.  The winter of 43-44 about 60 Australian POWs died.  In 1944 conditions in the camp were improved.  In June 1945 about 400 US, British, and Dutch POWs arrived. The debriefs below give arrival dates of early February 45, 2 March 45, 15 May 45, and 18 June 45.

. The senior officer of the American POWs at Naoetsu, John A. Fitzgerald, USN, commander of the submarine USS Grenadier, lists 698 POWs on VJ Day. That included 348 Americans, 231 Australians, 83 British, 187 civilians (US), 38 Dutch, and 1 from New Zealand. Other POW debriefs offer similar numbers. These numbers come from debriefing forms in NARA files.

Those debriefs offer the following information about conditions at Naoetsu:

Japanese Camp officials: 1st Lt Ishigawa camp commander, Sgt Watanabe (the Bird) senior NCO, Sgt Aoki, Sgt Kobiaslu (sp?), interpreter Pvt Kono, Homma civilian mess supervisor. The interpreter was called very cruel and brutal. Watanabe, Aoki, and Kono called "plain, downright inhuman fiends. The worst specimens of mad-men I have ever seen in my life." by the senior American NCO William B Ganci, CPO USN from Canaan, Connecticut. Major David M. Kirk said this, "Sgt Watanabe was the evil genius of this camp...He would have spells when the slightest infraction, imaginary and real, would draw drastic punishment." The interpreter Kono would use "clubs, shovels and the like rather than his fists."..."All this with the smiling consent of Lt. Ishikawa." Watanabe had been at Omori and came to Naoetsu in March 1945 with the POWs transferred there. One of Watanabe's rules was that any POW with dirty shoes had to lick them clean.

Location: On the west coast of the main island of Honshu, northwest of Tokyo, due north of Nagano, about 75 miles south of Niigata. The camp was located on the mouth of a river on the SE shore of the bay.

Medical care: Japanese sergeant Aoki was in charge of medical care. POW comments about medical care: "(1)Aoki knew nothing about medicine. Nicknamed Gila Monster. (2)Arrogant and very free with blows and punishment. A man had to be almost dead to be excused from work. (3)No medical attention unless you couldn't walk. Our doctors asked for medicine, they would get beaten. Also men with beri beri and other diseases that could hardly walk were beaten (by Sgt Aoki) for asking for a rest pass.(4)The POW population included an American and Australian doctor, American dentist, and about four corpsmen. They were allowed to do almost nothing."

Food: prepared in a galley by POWs under Japanese supervision, carried to barracks in buckets and served there in the individual sections, no tables. POW comments about food: "(1) about 600 grams per day of barley and beans (sometimes). Quantity and quality inadequate. (2)Varied from 500 to 700 grams dry rice daily. A little less than a pint of watery stew with each meal, sometimes dry fish or seaweed substitute. The rice was a mixture of barley and kori usually. Stew could be anything from a few greens to a fair portion of dog or beans or bean curd. (3) One loaf of barley flour bread, no yeast, about 8 oz boiled barley and millet, no seasoning, about two ordinary size soup bowls per day. Boiled kelp and soybean soup. Boiled without seasoning. Lousy, rotten, and tasteless as far as the bread and barley go, but the soup was like sucking your own nose. (4) 300 grams rice, millet, barley mixed/man/day. Small amts. meat (dog, horse, etc) occasionally. Some vegetables mostly daigon or large woody radishes. Bread one meal but flour and water only. Generally all things boiled of necessity but occasionally (1 or 2 a month) fried. Quality was usually poor. Wormy and rotten much of the time." (5) "...we were served an awful red grain-Korean millet, I think-along with dried ferns and seaweed...The seaweed was pulled straight from the ocean and boiled, turning the water into a goop the consistency of snot."

Barracks: One two story wooden building (apparently more barracks were being built at the end of the war) about 40 feet high with apex roof. Approximately 120 feet long by 60 feet wide. Few windows, windows heavily barred. Roof tin or tile, sides covered in tin. POW comments about the barracks: " (1) Just like Granddad's barn. Heavily timbered. (2) concrete 1st floor, tin sides and roof, wooden 2nd floor, few windows and small, beam supports. No double walls, board partitions, each section aisle in middle and double-decked on sides. (3) rough hewn boards for partitions. (4) stalls with small platforms for sleeping. (5) 2 stories of cubicles on each side of aisles upper and lower platforms." Apparently each of the two stories had upper and lower platforms for sleeping.

Latrines: best description from Charles P. Samson, Major USA, from Corvallis, Oregon. (rank may be rank after the war). "Latrines adjacent living quarters, concrete pits at back of barracks. Concrete floor, urinal trough one side, concrete pits other side wooden covered" (typical Japanese straddle type). "Emptied by syphon to river and solid matter hauled out in carts." Heavy rains caused the pits to overflow onto the latrine floor.

Size of compound: about 2-300 feet by 3-400 feet, also described as about 3 acres. Surrounded by wooden fence about 10 feet high topped by barbed wire.

Bathing: was in the river or at the factories where the POWs worked. In the camp there were only spigots to draw water into buckets for bathing. Most bathing was done at the factories in cement tubs. At the steel mill these tubs were 12 ft long by 4 ft wide. Those POWs who worked in the camp and not at the factories were allowed to bathe at the factories every 10 days.

Work: officers did administrative work, worked in gardens, odd jobs, on occasion unloaded coal from ship as punishment. Enlisted worked in factories in Naoetsu - steel mill, carbide factory, unloaded ships, barges, trains (usually coal being shipped to factories) POW comments about work: " (1) the worst imaginable conditions, much beating-exceptionally harsh treatment-very hard strenuous work-day and night shifts. (2) conditions were very poor, hard work in rain or snow. Two 12 hour shifts night and day. Very old equipment. (3) dangerous and difficult. Heavy and hot work when undernourished and sick." Some describe 9-10 hour work shift, some 12 hours. POWs worked 7 days a week. Every 5th day they had to change shifts, so one shift worked through two shifts to make that change occur. There was one mention of 2 days off work each month. POWs worked for the Shinetsu Chemical Plant, Nisso Steel Industry, Joetsu Transport Company, and the Naoetsu Bay Transport Company. A POW described unloading coal from ships..."The job was not only dirty but dangerous...when swells came in, the ships rose and fell on the break. We'd approach on heavy barges and have to jump onto rope netting to climb aboard the ship." Next the coal was carried on their backs in wicker baskets up a hill to waiting train cars. The baskets would weigh as much as 100 pounds and they would have to walk on a short wooden plank. People would fall and the drop was about five feet.

Mail: POW comments: "(1) a few, by lot, allowed to write about once a month, mail received once or twice per month. (2) No mail was sent but could be received if the interpreter felt like distributing it. (3) Usually none sent. Small amounts of mail came in but much was not distributed to the men. Some few cards and radiograms sent. (4) I didn't receive any mail while there. I was allowed to write 1 postal card. (5) Very capricious. I sent one, maybe two messages from Naoetsu. One was broadcast and delivered via a recording from a monitor station in USA. Sgt. Watanabe distributed incoming mail to individuals according to his whim. Balance delivered after VJ day. (6) Varied. Later stages could write letter a month. However, it was a farce, since little of it actually was sent."

Treatment: POW comments: "(1) Sadistic, varying with prisoners and guard. (2) We were all beaten on slightest provocation, got little food. (3) Beatings occured every day of individuals and groups. (4) Underfed, continually hazed, physically beaten, occasionally fair but very seldom. (5) Very bad, even worse than in Osaka, which was bad enough. (6) Deplorable, beatings frequent and in general maltreatment. (7) Treated very brutally. Were beat and humiliated on inspection night and morning by Japs. (8) The worst of any camp I had been in. (8) Of all the camps I was in, this was the worst in every respect. Bilibid, Pasay School, Clark Field, and Omori.

Clothing: the senior American officer offered this comment - "scanty and seldom, on VJ day much clothing received but too late." Another officer stated "No regular issue. Driblets came in but less than 10% of men had sufficient."

Religious Facilities: None

 Go to the link below to read narratives done as part of a project in the state of Washington to record the experiences of POWs.  Ken Marvin, a Wake Island Marine, gives a very descriptive and educational account of his time at Wake, Woosung, and Naoetsu.  It is long but worth every minute of your time.  I had a great talk with Ken on the telephone on 4 Jan 03 and then with LeRoy Schneider and his wife Cece on 5 Jan 03.  Ken and LeRoy helped put together the list of names above.

Copy and paste the following:

www.wwiihistoryclass.com/education/transcripts_pow_marine.html

.Then click on POW category, then scroll down to Marvin, Kenny and Sanders, Jacob.