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Hello: my name is Kyle Thompson of the 2nd Battalion, 131st Field Artillery in Second World War, taken prisoners by Japanese.

When Java fell March 8, 1942; we had three ship rides under the Japs:

October 11, 1942, boarded Dai Nishi Maru in Batavia and sailed to Singapore, arriving October 16; moved by metal boxcars on train from Singapore to Penang, Malaya;

On January 12, 1943, loaded on Mojo Maru and sailed from Penang in company with the Nitimei Maru and a small escort vessel;

On January 15, 1943, Allied bombers located the small convoy 48 miles off Moulmein, Burma, sinking the Nitimei Maru and damaging the Moji Maru, the latter containing all the Americans who were in this convoy; some Dutch and perhaps others lost when Nitimei Maur sunk, but no American casualties.

These were the only hell ships the bulk of American POWs captured in Java cruised on.

Later 18 Americans of our group (including survivors of USS Houston, American heavy cruiser sunk 03/01/42 off coast of Java) perished when Allied submarines sunk Jap ship (idenity unknown) enroute to Japan (location unknown) on June 24, 1944.