大象传媒

20/8/43 鈥� SHIRAKAWA

After short notice all the officers had to pack and were moved to Shirakawa camp which was about the centre of Taiwan. As there had been a case of cholera at Haito before we left we were quarantined for 13 days.

The huts were substantially built of timber designed to resist the occasional earthquake tremor (perhaps 陆 on the Richter scale).

The camp was already occupied by colonels and brigadiers, one RAF Commodore and one USA Lt. General. Most of the very top brass were, we understood, in a camp in Manchuria. Most of the colonels were US Army from the Phillipines. Some very odd creatures straight from a John Wayne film! The old boys spent their time playing bridge and when, from time to time, one player might trump his partners ace, it came to fisticuffs and rolling on the floor and their fellow officers had to separate them. One old colonel refused to have his hair cut and wore a queue!

For about the first year in this camp the regime was fairly relaxed. Generally we worked on the camp farm growing root vegetables, especially sweet potatoes. For the rest of the day we could read (there was a library), write or visit other huts. I used to enjoy visiting (not too often!) my Brigade Commander, Brigadier Backhouse 鈥� an unlucky man, he had 5 years as a POW in WW1 鈥� and Brigadier Gervais, who was our Divisional CRA (Commander Royal Artillery). Both men were very tolerant of a young subaltern!

Our rations, usually three meals a day, were rice and vegetable stew, sometimes with a little meat but generally not. The food was collected from the cookhouse by hut members in rotation. It came in cedar tubs and the oil from the cedar would leach into the food giving it an additional flavour.

On one of our working parties our path took us through a bamboo grove and we had to walk under a huge spider鈥檚 web. It must have been 7 feet in diameter and in the centre sat the spider, bright green and about 7 inches from toe to toe. The sun was glistening on the web and it was a magical sight.

There was a small hill just outside the perimeter fence and the working parties cleared it of weeds and grass. I think we had to sign ourselves out and back at the entrance guardhouse but we could go up the hill and sit and read or write, or just sit, without a Jap escort.

The Japanese started to pay us monthly (as per Geneva Convention) and I saved up enough to buy an accordion. I used to take it up the hill but although I had had years of piano lessons at school I did not make much headway with the accordion.

We received some Red Cross parcels and some letters 鈥� at Haito and Shinakawa combined I think I received 68, all about 50 words as required by the Japs. We could send one printed postcard a month with spaces to fill in 鈥� see example.

All the senior officers left the camp at the beginning of October 1944 and the regime became much more strict.

On 5th November, 250 other ranks who had worked on the railway arrived and stayed for three days. The only one from my battery was one Jim Dudley and we were able to exchange some news.

The air raid warnings became more frequent but we never heard any bombing or ack ack fire. When they started we were confined to our huts but later the Japs ignored them.

On 19th February 1945 we left Shirakawa for Japan and the following contemporary notes describe the start of our journey. The original notes were written in pencil on the backs of two letters, mostly in semi-darkness!

DIARY
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Resumed work 12/2/45. Daily air raids, rain and cold weather. Lined my own and Geoffrey鈥檚 jackets with white mice.

Withdrew heavy baggage from store Friday 16th. Order for inspection of storing again next day 17th, taken away in evening. Order to move on Monday 18th at 4:30. Sunday Comm. and Evensong. Lights out at 9:00pm.

Last minute issue of green tea and crystalised pineapple. Both very good but very difficult to carry, 2 meals of rice as haversack ration. Last meal at 3:30 and moved off 4:45 on 7 mile to march to Kagi. Better than I expected except for last mile. Time 3 hrs. Left Kagi 7:00pm arrived Taihoku 3am. RAIN. Marched 3 miles to Taihoku camp. Soaked through and very miserable . 66 crowded into tailors shop 20x25. Lots of straw and good food. A sleepless night. Had 8 blisters and raw on heel. Indian doctor had iodine and treated blisters. Wednesday reveille 5:00 move off 7:00. Feet not painful 鈥� just wet. Kept waiting 2 hrs in rain outside station.

Received sugar issue at Taihoku and heard latest news. Russians at Berlin. Allies at Breslau. Attack on Bonin Islands. Germany nearly finished. March back to station not at all bad. Rail to Kailung. Hung around and moved on board 6pm. Better ship but more crowded than last time. So 20 men in space 12 x 11 x 3鈥�6鈥� and some kit.

Centre of hold full of heavy baggage. 1 man broke his leg in hold. Arata very much changed. Geoffrey and I right at back of bay. Eat quite good haversack rations of rice and beans. Sailed 2am.

Thursday:

Scraped bottom about midday. Returned to Kailung; rest of convoy went on. Food quite good. Barley and/or rice and stew; pumpkins and fish tofu (i.e. fish and bean curd mixed and dried out). Very little water. Had touch of squitters. Charcoal worked wonders.

Friday:

Hand rolls and fish flakes for breakfast, barley and stew for other meals. Mail issued on board. I had 3, Geoffrey 2; very hot nights, little water 戮 pint. Managed to clean teeth and rinse face. Squitters better.

Saturday:

Still in port. Food same. Heavy baggage moved out of centre of hold. Small singsong in evening. V. Good. Down the mine composed by Trooper Smith of Lanarks. 鈪� pint of water. Why? We are tied to the keyside.

Sunday:

Food same. Changed places with Frith and Reardon. Now living outside bays. Colder but better. Leaving ship tomorrow. No water issue. Given 1 pint of sugar (loot) by Gunner Mawdsley. Very welcome. Wonder if change of ship is for the better. Hope cloudy weather continues to cover our journey. My heel much better. Lice abounding. This boat 鈥� Melbourne Maru took previous party from Shirakawa to Japan. Name of one of them written on beam + date. Evening prayers by Father Kennedy.

Monday:

No move as yet. Another day in port. No water issue.

Tuesday:

Moved ships today. New one larger and much more room. Geoff and I have bad bunks. Top tier of three and just under deck. Continuous dripping from condensation. Sailed midnight. Was on baggage party. A disgraceful business. Baggage just thrown overboard to quay 15 feet below. Several trunks fell into water. Lost my drawing box and Elizabeth鈥檚 portrait, very annoying. Managed to scrounge some water during changeover. Nip interpreter useless and senior officers non-operative. All organisation devolves on Australian and American and British junior officers. No water issue.

Wednesday:

Intveldt in cookhouse hence water issue. Ran into fog in evening 鈥� anchored. Condensation was trying. Shaved sidewhiskers.

Thursday:

Up anchored for about 6 hours then more fog so anchored. Sailing N.W. through islands and some unchartered reefs. John Hollick suspected meningitis. Great Nip flap. Threat to batten us down and cut off food if true. Have been loose all day. Eggy belching. One large lamp in middle of hold only lighting. Prayers by Bindeman (Australian Army Captain)

Friday:

Still anchored. Looseness better thanks to charcoal. Did an hour of banjo guard on deck and got rather cold. Eat too much rice and sugar at evening meal and looseness returned. Up anchored at 11pm and set off at good pace.

Saturday March 3rd

John Hollick died 11.30 last night. Very tragic after three years. Mist and fog lifted and have sailed all day through islands, course N.E. Are in Yellow Sea. Hope to arrive at Moji in two or three days. From now on only two meals a day. Getting colder. Up three times last night though slept a lot as well. Geoff鈥檚 looseness much better now.

Comment (cont)

We had an air raid or submarine warning at which the Japs bolted the hatch to the hold. Fortunately nothing transpired.
As we approached the mainland we sailed through many small islands, each with a tree, looking like floating Bonsai. In the midst of so much beauty it is difficult to understand the apparent brutal nature of the Japanese.
On the voyage each night before lights out, a prayer was said either by Father Kennedy CF (Chaplain to the Forces), or Capt TW Binderman CF (Non-Conformist) Australian Imperial Forces.

10/5/45
No. 12 Camp Miata village, Fukuoka Prefecture, Kyushu Island, South Japan

We arrived in this camp two months ago but it is only now that I feel sufficiently energetic to make any record of events. Sickness is the reason, both mental and physical, for this long lapse. My old enemy of Haito, chronic diarrhoea reasserted itself and until now I have not managed to throw him off. However, during the last five days I have been on half-day work and a course of sulphur grenadine powders and now I feel one hundred percent fitter and have my ability to eat back. I owe a lot to Geoffrey and George Hinton who inspite of my cursing them for their interference have killed the dangerous neurotic state I was slipping into and made me eat all my food. Without them the drugs and the rest might have had no effect. Since leaving Taiwan I have lost nearly nine kilos in weight bringing myself down to 49.6 kilos, 7st11lbs which for a man of my size is rather ridiculous. Now eating all my food and any more I can get hold of and with regular gentle exercise on the farm I hope to re-establish my grip on things and to increase my weight again, if only by two or three kilos.
So much for myself. Of our trip to this place I have written briefly elsewhere and the memory of it is anathema to me, the only bright spot of the daily round was that under the hold was a cargo of sugar and we managed to get our hands onto quite a lot of that.

On our arrival at Moji on 9th March we spent the night in a large hall, the temperature dropping below zero during the night. There were about 6 fires and these helped by enabling us to make tea but two sick men died of exposure and many of us had the seeds of upset stomachs sewn there. Also, some of us were unfortunate enough to get on to the baggage party but that is another story and I need no more writing to remind me of it. On the morning of the 10th we received haversack rations of pickles, rice and barley for breakfast and lunch. Very good meals in themselves but ice cold and consequently upsetting. After breakfast another baggage party! We left Moji at about 2pm by train and after 2 changes arrived at a station only 2 kilometres from the camp. This was an easy march. On arrival we received the usual welcome speech from the camp commandant, were told we would have our baggage inspected the next day, were arranged in groups of 14 and sent off to our billets which were brand new. Hot, really hot tea was served immediately, American Red Cross cigarettes were available and a really hot bath for everybody was ready. After these a meal of soup, soft rice, a dollop of salmon and butter, and coffee was served to us. American cigarettes were issued. Our happiness was complete. After the first few hours of arrival my memory of events is very mixed. Baggage inspection removal of pencils(!) and sugar for bread. Three weeks to recuperate in Red Cross every night; cold; inertia; hair cropping; late evening meals; then work on the gardens; the rivalry between Drost and Jefferson; the air raid warnings; Easter; hot water bottles; change of commandant for a weak or mad man who was a complete non-entity; thieving by goons; 101 officers leaving for another camp; baggage party.
We had a bad day when the other officers left. 49 of us were left and we had to carry all the leaving parties heavy baggage to the station. In the afternoon we had to fetch bamboo and then to tidy up the camp for an inspection the next day by a colonel.

End of diary notes
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Miata is a coal mining village and other ranks, mostly Dutchmen from the East Indies, went down the mine each day.

Officers worked, initially in growing vegetables round the camp but later on a farm which was reached by a short rail journey in cattle trucks. I remember spending one afternoon up to my shins in water in a paddy field planting rice seedlings.

We had a rest day every ten days. On one of these days everyone in the camp was turned out and made to walk up a hill to the entrance to a drift mine which we had to walk down in the pitch black until the guards thought we had gone far enough. We then sat for about 10 minutes before being allowed out and returning to camp. The guards said this would be an air raid shelter but several years later I felt sure that if the Americans had invaded Japan we would have been put into the drift mine and machine-gunned.

I had a return of diahorrea and a Jap doctor gave me a chit excusing me from work. When a Jap doctor next came he returned me to work but after a week my legs swelled up so badly that the wonderful Dutch doctor admitted me to the camp hospital. I stayed in either ward 1 (serious) or ward 2 (convalescent) until the end of the war.

Although Miata is roughly equidistant from Hiroshima and Nagasaki we were unaware of the dropping of the atomic bombs. About a week later, 15th August, rumours came with returning mine workers that the Emperor had made a broadcast surrendering. As there were no air raid warnings that night and no mineworkers or farm parties went out the next day we judged the rumours to be true.

We were no longer confined to camp and I took one or two short walks outside. The countryside was hilly and wooded but had a beauty very different from England. I came across a small village which the war seemed to have passed by. There was no antagonism and as there was a barbers shop I entered and was shaved by a lady barber! She used an unusual form of cut throat razor but fortunately she did not feel inclined to cut my throat.

At last transport arrived for people who were still in hospital, which I was. It is still a reproach to me that I never said goodbye and thanked properly the Dutch doctor to whom I owed so much. It was impossible to believe that we would never meet again most of those that we left behind to be evacuated later.

We drove to an airfield and boarded a Dakota. One pilot flew us over Nagasaki which was completely flattened except for one or two concrete structures. It suddenly came home to me that we had survived and were now on our way home 鈥� but that is another story!

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