a.m. Outdoor roll-call
Diary pages from this date
((Following text not dated:))
Rosary Hill sung to be cut out. Rice supplied only. Other food cook your own in basement
Upstairs burgled. We didn't know. Bag of rice and charcoal worth Y5,000. We now sleep worse.
Alerts almost daily during December. Mostly daytime.
Heavy rain early am.
Another new officer arrived. Supposed to be an ex R.C.Padre.
Roll-call 8.30am weather cleared, colder & overcast.
Paper up to 80sen.
Tokyo raided early 30th Nov. No Euro news.
Pork 88Y per catty in town. 2 oz Suk yin issued Y7.
Painted name on Mary’s suitcase aft.
Oil 4oz & sugar 1.09oz issued.
Water on.
North’s notes tell us that air-borne troops landed in Baden in the Black Forest & that at some points our troops are about 60mls inside Germany. The pipeline from India to China is now in operation.
Lorry arrived with fresh fish & canteen gear.
Notes:
2/12/44 - 1¢ ((Cattie)) Oil from Lim (99.20) ((Not paid for))
- 24" Stove Pipe 20.-
4/12/44 - Jeng came with 5¢ ((Catties)) Peanuts worth @ ¥80-00 p. ¢ = ¥400.- ((Not paid for))
6/12/44 - Rec'd Fred's Remitt TT ((Telegraphic Transfer)) to Sarah of Oct. ¥200.- only rec'd today.
11/12/44 - Baked Biscuits for Bea with Dover Stove, using 5¢ Coal. Worked fast well also roasted 4 lots peanuts one lot peas + boiled stew, rice, 6 pots water for bath
Supporting information:
My 26th birthday.
In the middle of the night there was a BIG BANG, which the camp decided was a raider blasting a gun emplacement on the hillside on the other side of the bay.
Outside roll call therefore no Mass.
George Wright-Nooth spots a new face among the Japanese calling the morning roll. Suzy Potts tells him that he's a Roman Catholic priest who the police call 'Father John' and that he's done good work for 'our troops in other camps'. 'This may be so' notes Wright-Nooth with a degree of scepticism.
But as he learns later any scepticism is unjustified. The new 'face' is that of the interpreter Kiyoshi Watanabe, a Lutheran (not RC) pastor, usually known as 'Uncle John'. Without ever betraying his country in any way, this man constantly risks torture and death to bring practical, emotional and spiritual aid to the defeated.
Source:
George Wright-Nooth, Prisoner of the Turnip Heads, 1994, 227
See also entry for December 25, 1944