1943 dragged slowly through. Our monotonous existence was taking its toll and we watched man after man, although not suffering from any serious physical complaint, slowly let himself go and eventually die. Whenever a sick person was transferred to the camp "hospital", his food was cut and he was denied the simple but welcome privileges of the "workers" - cigarettes, books, etc. Under such conditions, it can be understood why the percentage of deaths in the hospital was so high.
Our camp was divided into two parts, the British on one side and American POWs from the Philippines, Wake, and Guam on the other. We also had in the camp about 50 merchant seamen, who had been captured in the South Atlantic by a German raider, and put ashore into the hands of the Japanese, when the raider entered a Japanese port for refuelling.
There were roughly 40 to 50 of us in each room. Our only form of bedding was a double shelf about six feet wide, which ran the length of the room. This shelf, covered with straw matting, was where we ate and slept, each man being allowed only 22 inches of space. Each morning and evening "Tenko" (roll call) was held. We stood in one line round the room and when the Japanese Duty Officer and N.C.O. entered, we numbered smartly in Japanese - I say smartly, because if the Japanese officer was not satisfied, we were invariably struck over the head with a sword scabbard or rifle butt. One unpleasant incident occurred when a Japanese officer, whom we called "Abenei" ("Dangerous") flew into a rage and laid about him with his sword. When he had finished, the room looked like a battlefield, with blood everywhere, and over twenty men in one room had to be treated for injuries and cuts.
Nearly every week the Japanese guards would make surprise searches of the camp, and it was unfortunate for anyone who was found with forbidden articles, such as knives, diaries, records, etc., or goods pilfered from ships or docks. Yet it was surprising that in nearly every case, we were able to get advance information, that such a search was to take place and hide forbidden articles. It was easy for us to outwit the Japanese on these occasions, as they would only look in the most obvious places, and at times when we knew a search was likely to take place, we w ould hide our diaries, records, etc. in the firebox in the Japanese Guardhouse or hanging outside a window on a piece of string, and after the "raid" had been completed, would calmly retrieve them, when the guards’ backs were turned.