Louie experiences horrific situations in his first week in Kwajalein, dealing with hunger, dehydration, lice, medical experiments, and smothering heat, with guards who humiliate and beat him. He loses his dignity, which is essential for hope, and thus he loses “his will to live” (140).

Louie again hears the singing voices from the cloud on the raft. They give him a little hope, and he prays “intensely” in response. He carves his name along with the list of marines on the wall.

Louie is taken to be interrogated. He provides the Japanese soldiers with partial information, carefully deciding what they must already know and what he needs to keep to himself. Eventually, he tells them about the locations of the American airfields and planes, and he is given food and soda. However, he lies, using the plywood airfields he and Phil had seen earlier on Oahu and pretending they are real.

Through it all, a soldier named Kawamura who guards their cells befriends Louie and Phil. He asks Louie if he is a Christian, then begins coming to them and learning English from them. He even defends Louie, beating a man who hits him.

After 42 days on Kwajalein, on August 26, 1943, Louie and Phil are transported to Japan to be put into a POW camp.