Recently I asked my Dad how the Maetsuycker was able to avoid being attacked by the Japanese - did she sail in a convoy protected by destroyers? The answer: "We sailed alone, at night, lit up like a Christmas tree".

How well did this work? Fortunately for the 196th Station Hospital and the ship's crew, the Maetsuycker made it through to VJ Day unscathed (if you don't count bumping into sandbars and docks and Mother Nature's little surprises like the '45 Typhoon!) but not all WWII hospital ships fared as well.

The following is from the web page : The Army Nurse Corps in World War II:

"Hospital ships operated under the terms of the Hague Convention which meant that those vessels could carry only military personnel on patient status accompanied by attending Medical and Transportation Corps personnel. The white hospital ships with large red crosses painted on either side were forbidden to carry cargo of any kind and were subject to enemy inspection at any time. Nevertheless, the Axis Powers did not always spare hospital ships, which were bombed in at least three different incidents. Army nurses were wounded when the Germans bombed hospital ships during the Allied invasions of Italy and Anzio. In the Pacific, Japanese pilots attacked the USS Comfort off Leyte Island in April 1945, seriously damaging the ship and killing twenty-nine people, including six Army nurses."