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[JOHN THURSTON]

I wrote the foregoing peice sort of in Broadbrush strokes as I had not been able to find my copy of "In Search of The Awa Maru". Nontheless I have some details in fornt of me now.

The name of the second work was "Ghost of War: The Sinking of the Awa
Maru and Japanese American Relations"

The sinking of the Awa Maru was by the USS Queenfish under the command of Cmmdr. Charles Elliot Laughlin on the night of April 1, 1945, the same date as the first landings on Okinawa.

This author beleives that the sinking was due to 'Procedural Errors" " the skipper failed to realize that his patrol zone included the path of the returning 'mercy ship' (emphasis mine) ."

Many ships, in fact, carrying POW"s were sunk or attacked by American Submarines and Aircraft.

I book that I do recommend, on a slightly vared topics is "The Marines of Autumn" by patrick "Brady Bill" Brady iwhichtouched upon the death of Marine Prisoners of war in ships sunk by american Naval Forces.

Almost none of the ships attacked carrying US prisoners bore any warning or markings, nor were the vast majority of such ships "float plan's" registered and approved by Geneva and the United States.

Why was such care taken in this instance?

Well, the Japanese had made little effort to ship relief supplies to POW and internee camps in the Phillipines or on Mainland China-and those who were protected and carried supplies to the camps were alleged to have carried war materials to Japan on their return trips.