Their fate was now in Japanese hands. Like most Americans, they had been indoctrinated to view the “Japs” as an inferior race. Stories of Japanese atrocities, of staggering brutality, were legion by this point in the war. It was therefore all the more distressing and humiliating to be taken prisoner by them. “There was a lot of worry,” recalled Floyd Caverly. “You didn’t know what to expect from them.”1Caverly spotted dozens of Japanese sailors lying on the deck, many of them with severe burns and other injuries—survivors from the previous night’s onslaught. How long before they realized that the Americans fished from the water were responsible for their injuries and the deaths of so many of their comrades? Caverly calculated that the Tang had sunk five ships the previous night—more than enough to justify savage revenge.2The Japanese promptly tied up the survivors. Their arms were pinned to their chests and their wrists were bound together. Then they were made to sit down on the port side of the main deck.3 Badly injured Japanese were just a few yards away.
