Cassie DePeckel

There's little Dorothy can do except keep checking the time, counting down the final minutes.

Meanwhile, yet another train of Japanese troops rumbles by, and the interminable wait continues.

As she listens to the men whimper in the heat and gasp for air behind her, it feels like the guards don't care if all the prisoners make it to Los Banos alive.

A nagging fear grows in the pit of her stomach.

Maybe they aren't on their way to a prison, but rather a death camp.

Chief Nurse Laura Cobb sits on a bench near a wooden building at the Los Baños prison camp.

She inhales deeply, taking in the scent of flowers and fresh bananas.

Los Baños smells better than Santo Tomas did, at least.

It's 7.55 a.m.

on May 16, 1943, Cobb's second day at Los Baños.

It's been a rough transition to her new home.

After a seven-hour train ride in overpacked boxcars, the prisoners finally arrived at the camp.

But instead of being shown to a building, everyone was forced to sleep outdoors.

Mosquitoes nearly ate them alive.

In the morning, Cobb and a few others confronted the camp commandant.

They informed him that failure to provide shelter violated their rights under international law.

And unlike Sadaki Kanishi back at Santo Tomas, this commandant heeded their concerns.

The nurses were given a dorm, while the men were told to sleep in the gymnasium until the barracks were built.

This left Cobb optimistic that she and the nurses made the right choice in transferring here.

Plus, the campus has a real infirmary, the building behind her.