Eventually Poulin was transferred to the mainland in Japan where he worked in Shinagawa, a POW slave camp. Poulin spent the next three and half years in a Japanese POW camp near a remote harbor where he unloaded supplies from freight trains.
"We were just far away enough from Tokyo that we avoided the bombing raids," said Poulin. 'So I survived three and half years working everyday, sometimes 12 to 14 hours a day. I weighed 145 pounds when I went into the military and the day I returned stateside I weighed 82 pounds."
So how did Poulin survive as a POW? "It wasn�??t easy because if you got sick and couldn�??t work they just killed you," said Poulin. "I was sick all the time as were others but we just toughed our way through it."
"We were only served three bowls of rice a day, along with some hot tea," said Poulin.
"But we outsmarted them, we learned to steal from them, and on occasion we would get something more substantial to eat, but after having had my fingers and hands broken while I was POW I was struggling."
Poulin remained a POW until August 1945 and the surrender of Japanese in September. Lawrence was imprisoned for at least 1,227 days, one of the longest durations of captivity recorded.