Unit diaries relating to service of Geoffrey W. Fennell - Wallet 2 - Part 4
The procession approached having first inspected the Camp Guards, who were all
dressed up in Marching Order. First came the Camp Adjutant, followed by
General Audo himself. He was really a fine figure of a man, well over 6 feet,
and broad in proportion. He had grey hair, rows of medals (including our own
of the Great War), spectacles, and a large moustache rather like Francis Joseph,
the old Austrian Emperor! Then came the Colonel Commandant, and an array of
Staff Officers, the tail being brought up by Warrant Officers. One looked rather
a nasty looking piece of work with gold cords hung at his shoulders and a
swaggering cavalry gait. All their uniforms were very smart but boots not so
good. The parade passed off without comment, and we fell in again in our huts in
two ranks on one side of the table.
The procession passed through and this time there was a large old boy wearing
General's badges at the back having a good look on his own. He looked like a
grizzled old boar! Then the Japanese Camp Staff were fallen in by the office,
and harangued by the gentleman with the gold cords, who appeared to be Chief of
Staff. He then gave them a sheet of paper to read, as if he was setting them
a problem. Groucher looked as if he wanted to run away, but Moonface was his
usual imperturbable self. The Commandant then arrived, let out a stream of
orders in Japanese and Air Raid and Anti Parachutists Drill followed. Roll Call
came next, and Groucher, the Orderly Officer, took so long that eventually they
told him to stop! We then went out and saw the General depart. Groucher, with
much shouting and screaming, indicated that Roll Call would have to be done again,
and this time was successful.
The final event of the day was that all boots had to be checked, and in future had
to be put into the boot room tied together in pairs instead of in bundles by
messes. The day actually ended with a joke on Groucher. One of the officers had
a match box, in which he kept odds and ends. He was sitting at the table with
the box by his side, when Groucher suddenly appeared. He pounced on the box and
let forth a stream of Nipponese, and was just going to hurry the officer to the
cells for being in illegal possession of matches when the contents of the box
was shown to him. He registered great disgust and contented himself by pinching
the new empty match box! “The tumult and the shouting" having died, and "the
Captains and Kings” having departed, we returned to the normal level of routine -
and so did the Rations!
Vegetable Gardens
On March 9th, the long promised start was made on a camp vegetable garden to be
made by the officers. We were quite keen on it and felt that the work would
be of some value instead of the purely manual labour we had been doing at
present. Plug Ugly marched us out to the Labour Camp where we drew shovels and
17.
changkuls and then went on to a long strip of grass alongside a large dried up
lake in which the men were working at this time, making a “Japanese Garden".
We then divided up into Mess Squads, and the job was to move the grass on top so
as to get at the earth to be dug up and made into beds. This work went on for
about 3 days, and we were shown by Jerry Mathews of the Signals how to do "Double
Digging". We formed up in lines across the plot and then started by digging a
trench about a foot deep, after which you were ready to start. You then dug a
spade's depth and put the soil and grass, if any, into the trench; then dug
another spade-full down and put the soil on top. By this means the ground was
really dug up and we all thought of the sweet potatoes, tomatoes and onions
which we were told were going to be planted athough we hoped we should be free
before they came up! The men's work consisted of draining parts of the basin
which had been flooded, and also bringing earth in baskets, and building a
mound in the middle, which was christened "Fujiyama"!
On March 12th there was a sudden hullabaloo during Morning Roll Call when the
Air Raid siren went. At first we wondered whether it was the real thing, as we
heard planes starting up on the aerodrome, but it turned out to be merely a
practice. Still it was cheering to us to know that the Japanese now considered
Air Raids a possibility in spite of telling us that all the Allied planes
had been destroyed long ago! Most nights were Black-out nights. The chief inconvenience
of these Air Raid practices was that it was part of the drill to
douse the cookhouse fires, and meals sometimes came up very late except on days
when we were on cold salad, which now consisted of white cabbage, ginger root,
beans, red pickled cabbage and yellow Chinese radish, which was really very good,
particularly if it coincided with a sugar issue.
About this time we got another issue of the Nippon Times about 6 weeks old, the
chief items being (1) Stalingrad completely cleared of Germans and the remainder
captured. (2) Russians landing at Novorisisk in the Black Sea. (3) Churchill
has conference at Tripoli with Alexander and Montgomery, and then went on to
Turkey with the Foreign Secretary, General Brooke, General Maitland Wilson, and
Navy and Air Force experts. (4) Japanese admit loss of air and manpower
superiority in the S. Pacific. (5) Large convoy left Gibraltar for the East.
In fact, very good reading!
After 3 or 4 days' work on the gardening patch, we were taken off it to put a
fence round the Nippon barracks and Cookhouse so it appeared that the Garden was
only a flash in the pan.
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Results of the Audo Inspection
In the middle of March a new system of Roll Call was started. Roll Calls at
7 am and 8 pm were abolished, and, instead, there was a roll call morning and
afternoon immediately after return from work. In addition to this, we were
liable to have a roll call at any time during the night and early morning.
At first the camp staff were very keen and chose hours like 23.30 and 04.15
but gradually they got tired of it and frequently we had one immediately after
Lights Out and no more. One great advantage of there being no Roll Call at
7 am was that it gave us extra time to get washed. At Roll Calls during the
night we were allowed to go back to bed as soon as our hut had been checked,
and early huts on the roster were frequently asleep again before the last one
had finished.
The general evidently asked questions about the Canteen, but unfortunately
Mr Seeto, the accounts officer, developed jaundice and so nothing could be
done until he recovered. However we were given some Bandmann Vitamin pills to
be going on with and also rice polishings, which were made up into a sort of
a mash, or else issued meat from the cookhouse. At present there were about
190 Beri-beri cases, and the number appeared to be on the increase. The
other chief item of note was that "Franky" was posted elsewhere and his
successor "Nicolas" appeared to be a much more human person. Franky's ideas
of PT for the sick will never be forgotten. (An Atrocity Form was filled in
against him) To talk of something rather more pleasant, there was an issue
of "Pineneedle Sauce" at a bottle a head. This was quite good and it tasted
like an inferior brand of Worcester Sauce; it went well with rice and put a
little life into the stew. It was also found that when mixed with tea, the
result was not unlike Bovril!
The Vegetable garden came to life again but we never went back to the first
patch. A bed was dug up alongside the fence by the office, and tomatoes,
cabbage, two types of beans, radishes and some flowering shrubs were put in.
"Nanny" Goat of the Signals was put in charge, and in due course the earth
brought forth fruit, the French beans particularly being good.
After this, the garden work was again consigned to oblivion as the Commandant
had decided that a large area of old garden on the far side of the exercise
ground was to be filled in and added to the exercise ground and the officers
were put onto this. As it would take years to do this, with baskets at the
Officers' trade union speed, a length of line was fetched up one Saturday
morning and laid down from the hillside to the new place, and about a dozen
trucks were brought up. The lines were very old and rusty, but were bolted
together by a long thin young gentleman with dark blue trousers but when it was
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completed there was an awkward curve in the middle, which we thought would cause
trouble.
It did! After lunch some trucks were loaded up with good soil from the bank
and the crews started to push them back. Sure enough, the first two got
derailed at the curve and "Plug Ugly" decided that the curve should be altered.
Our friend in the blue trousers turned up again and set to work in a terrible
atmosphere of garlic on which he had evidently lunched! The rest of us sat
about and drank tea! By the time the line was readjusted and the trip was
completed, the men had returned from work, and it was time to go in!
On Monday, playing trains was resumed, and the time passed very quickly. It was a
bitterly cold day, and there was danger at one time that a wrong precedent would
be established as to the number of trips that could be done - simply to get
warm! We were spared this in the afternoon as after half an hour it started to
rain and "Plug Ugly" was in such a hurry to get us in that he rushed up and down
numbering us himself, shouting "Hurry Up" and roaring with laughter! We began
to wonder though whether there was more in this truck work than met the eye, and
many were prepared to bet that before long we should be working with the men
possibly under the eyes of the contractor. Not that we objected to working with
the men, but we did object to being hired out to the contractor as coolies.
Sure enough, the following morning the officers and a large squad of BORs were
put on the job. It was a long hard morning and the number of trips required
did not in any way agree with what we had been told about our work being entirely
voluntary.
Before lunch Col Jephson asked to see the Interpreter, and told him that we felt
we had been let down on the subject of work, and that promises about the garden
had not been kept. He reminded him that we had been told that we could fix our
own hours of work, and that it would be confined to gardening, poultry farming
and the exercise ground whereas we had done everything from sheer manual labour to
emptying swill tubs! Now our hours were exactly the same as the men, who
unfortunately had to work even under our Geneva Convention.
The Interpreter must have passed these remarks on as when we came in from work,
all those under 30 were fallen out, and told by the Orderly Officer through the
interpreter that they were not working hard enough and were asked if they wanted
to say anything. A reply was given in much the same terms that Col Jephson had
already mentioned to the Interpreter, and our hosts did not seem too pleased.
Next morning after the men had gone to work, the officers were fallen in in 3 batches,
those under 30, 30-40, and over 40. The youngsters were put on carrying baskets,
the middle batch on shovel loading, and the old men on changkuls for levelling up
the earth as it was brought up. There was a feeling of tension in the air;
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there was only one short rest for a smoke, and there was no tea. We felt sorry
for Plug Ugly as he had done what he could to make things pleasant for us
heretofore, but was evidently obeying orders.
During the afternoon when we were alone with Plug, the Interpreter came out
and implied that he wanted to discuss the situation in an amicable frame of
mind. He said that the officers had been given coolie hats and working clothes
in order to save their ordinary clothes, and that the BORs had been attached to
the squad at Plug's request to help us with the harder work, and there would be
no question of treating us like coolies under the contractor. As soon as the job
was finished the officers would go back on the gardens. He also asked if we
preferred to do the job with baskets or go back to the trucks.
The officers had a short chat about it, and decided to take them at their word.
It was obvious that the job would take months if baskets were used, so the use
of the trucks was applied for. As a result of this, Plug Ugly looked much
happier, and I firmly believe that he thought he was doing the shokos a good turn
by bringing up the BOR squad, whereas the suspicious Shokos had put quite a
different construction on it!
Next morning there was quite a different plan. 40 BORs were put to work on the
trucks, all the officers except the over 40s were sent off to fill baskets and
dump the earth in the far end of the ground, while the over 40s helped the BORs
to tip up the trucks, and then levelled the earth. As soon as a strip had been
filled in, the rail was moved over and a new strips started. Actually this
arrangement worked very well. The BORs found the work much easier than their
present work, were allowed to talk to their hearts' content, and were away from
"the linnets". The officers liked chatting with the BORs and as the rests were
longer they felt they were doing them a good turn by getting them on the job, and
the place was being filled in far quicker than if they had been on it alone.
This is an example of the misunderstandings that sometimes occurred owing to the
language difficulty, and owing to the fact that the Shokos had every right to be
suspicious of any new innovaions, as they felt they had been definitely let
down as regards the voluntariness of the work. About this time, officers over 45
were excused work in the afternoons, but it was to be hoped that this would be
extended to others, as there were some younger officers who had been ill, and who
found the whole day's programme rather a trial. They were gradually coming round
to the idea that a half holiday on Saturday would be very acceptable - provided
that the Colonel Commandant didn't turn up! Moonface was all for it, and Plug
had no objections as he got off too!
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Red Cross Stores
During the first week in April the Interpreter came in all smiles, and told us
that in a few days he would have good news for us, and followed it up shortly
after by saying that Red Cross stores had arrived on the island, and were in
process of issue. He mentioned the following as being on the invoice, ham,
bacon, cocoa, butter, biscuits, milk, sweets, also clothing, socks and boots.
This all sounded almost too good to be true, and made out mouths water, and
our fat starved bodies shivered with anticipation. A ship must have brought them,
and it might mean Mail.
About tea time on Monday April 5th, a lorry drove up and caused much excitement,
as it was seen to contain cases of Bully, M&V and Cocoa, and some square sacks
no-one could recognise. On Tuesday and Thursday more arrived, and Capt Gibbons
RIASC who had been put in charge gave us the following details:
Monday Cocoa 560lbs Tuesday - Thursday - Total : 560 lb
Bully 1306½ lbs 2082 lbs 20½ lbs 3409 '
M&V 1140 lbs 720 lbs 48 lbs 1908 '
Personal parcels 14 94 452 660
Sugar 6000 lbs - 6000 '
Salt 1400 lbs - 1400 '
Boots 80 prs 317 prs 397 pr
On Thursday a meeting was held to make a plan for distribution, and it was decied
that one individual parcel per head should be issued on Sunday, if possible, and a
tin of bully should be issued at once. The main stores of Bully, M&V etc should be
spread out over 2 months. This would mean issues of 12 ozs Bully on Tuesday and
Sunday with 8 ozs on Thursday, Sugar a stew bowlful every Sunday, Cocoa, a ricebowful
every other Sunday and Salt as required. Naturally this was all Commandant
permitting!
Strange to say the arrival of the Red Cross coincided with an upward trend of the
rations. Two nights in succession there was fish for supper, in addition to the
evening stew, and later, a pork stew and curried veg stew on the same night. Try
as they could, they could not hope to compete with the Red X, but it may be that
it had sunk at last in Headquarters that it would be very bad propaganda for
Nippon in the future if we were to emerge all looking like skeletons!
On Saturday afternoon, in lieu of work, the officers were put onto the job of
opening up personal parcels for inspection by the Orderly Officer and the
Interpreter, and then repacking them; they were issued out on Saturday night. It
had been given out that all tins, containers and labels were to be handed in
by Tuesday evening so there had been much bustle fixing up bottles, mess tins and
any other form of containers available. All the parcels varied slightly, but
the following can be taken as a very fair specimen. The boxes were marked
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"Prisoners' Parcels British Red Cross and Order of St John War Organisation"
Kriegsgefaugenpost, London Y 21 April 1941 packed in Bermondsey. Comite
International Croix Rouge, Geneve-Transit Suisse." On opening the lid the following
articles were discovered:
- 10 oz tin of Tomatoes, Albert M Sisk & Son, Product of USA.
- 10 oz tin of Bacon, Redgate & Co, 52/4 Southwark Street, London England.
- 4 oz tin Farmers Wife Processed Cheese, Cow & Gate, Guildford, England.
- 16 oz tin Curried Mutton, John Hunter, Liverpool.
- Large sized tin Nestles Condensed Sweetened Milk.
- 12 oz Red Plum Jam, C E Morton.
- Tablet of unscented Soap.
- 2 oz packet of Tea, R Twining & Co Ltd, London.
- 1 8 oz tin Margarine.
10. 10 oz Meat Galantine, John Hunter, London.
11. & 12. 2 x 4 oz tins containing Sugar.
13. 1/4 lb tablet Rowntrees Plain York Yorks chocolate.
14. 3 oz tin Beef Paste Farne Brand, North Shields, England.
15. 1 packet Pascalls Butter Drops.
16. 1 Large Marmalade Pudding.
17. 1 tin Cheese Biscuits, Peak Freen.
What a grand sight for English eyes after our life of rice and vegetables! and
what a marvellous Easter present. There were other varieties of Jam, and other
puddings were Currant, Sultanas, Carlton, Apple, and Treacle. That night everyone
had a real good meal and went to bed and slept like proverbial tops. No words
can say what a benefit these stores will be. They were welcome enough in Changi,
but here out bodies are even more in want of fat and proteins, as we are doing quite
hard work.
On April 12th, two more lorries arrived with 3300 lbs sugar, 800 lbs Salt, 360
Personal Parcels, 280 lbs cocoa, 1150 lbs M&V, 1944 lbs Bully and 20 prs of boots.
There had been a lot of excitement counting up the personal parcels to see if we
should get one each, and there were loud cheers when our total was topped. Capt
Gibbons decided to make the next issue of Personal Parcels on the scale of 1
between 2 and for the last issue to break up the remainder into small lots and draw
for them so that each would get something. Meanwhile people had divided themselves
into groups of 2 to 4 so as to open one tin at a time, particularly over the bacon
and tomatoes, which obviously went together. Good meals were now a possibility,
and the following supper meal is a specimen: Ordinary stew, small fish stew, curried
mutton and rice, golden syrup and rice and marmalade pudding to finish up with and a
cup of cocoa! No meal in the West End could have been appreciated more! One
could still have cheese and biscuits. It was a pity all tins had to be handed in
by Tuesday, as some delicacies would certainly have been kept for birthday
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and wedding anniversaries.
Pigs, Postcards and Papers
On the afternoon of April 15th, eight little black pigs arrived in a lorry and
were duly installed in the stys, which had been built. BSM Wiggins had been
put in charge of the erection, and now became Director General of the Piggery
assisted by BQMS Thorburn. There was obviously not enough swill in the buckets
to feed them so a special issue was made from the Quartermaster - Lucky pigs.
Another postcard was issued making the third since capitulation. There was an
article in the Nippon Times saying that 700,000 letters had arrived in Tokyo
and were being sorted out by American and British officers. There appeared to be
some mismanagement somewhere as in many cases it was not known where the intended
recipients were interned, and there were camps in Japan, Taiwan, Korea, Manchukio,
and China. Still, one lives in hopes we may get at least on before release.
The next issue of Nippon Times also arrived. The spot news was that the Russians
had got back Kharkov, and Rostoff and were still going strong a month ago.
General Maitland Wilson had taken over the Middle East and had transferred his GHQ
to Beirut which points to dirty work in the Balkans, Italy or the Black Sea at some
future date. The papers also made much play on discord between us and the Yanks
but that was obviously wishful thinking.
Every Monday there was a serial called Singapore Assignment, written by the editor
of the Singapore Herald. He obviously hated the English, but his remarks about
Singapore before and just before the War were very interesting; there was also an
account of his experiences in an internment camp in the Purana Kila just outside
Delhi.
"Our special correspondent" had visited a PoW camp for British, American and
Dutch officers in the Itawi prefecture in Japan. They were employed on road and
railway making and working 7 to 8 hours a day. He was disgusted to see officers
of 6 feet in height carrying very small stones! Well! they couldn't teach us much
in that respect! He read some of their letters and noted that they only mentioned
their families and not their country. He thought this very selfish but he had
apparently not read the instructions that we were only to confine ourselves to
domestic matters. There were also photos of some American Flyers, who were being
punished for being brought down while bombing Tokyo. They had possibly not heard
of the Axis policy of Covent-tration or even Plymouth-tration for that matter.
About this time the Interpreter went round the huts and asked a certain number of
men to write a letter on what they thought of the officers, hoping no doubt to get
some propaganda value. The result was highly gratifying to the officers anyway
as we were told that the opinion [[?]] [[?]]
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shared the discomforts of the men, had done all they could to keep them cheerful
and consequently still held their respect and feelings of affection, even
though the officers no longer had control over them/. They tried again later but
got the same result. The treatment of the officers improved shortly after this so
the men had evidently done us a good turn.
Easter
Good Friday was celebrated with an abbreviated 3 hours Service. Easter Sunday
was a nice bright day, and a number of officers and men took Holy Communion. Wine
was of course unobtainable but Lt Issi had managed to get some wafers from the
town and had given permission for the cookhouse to make some biscuit to use when the
wafers were finished. Instead of the normal Easter offering, a whip round of
cigarettes was made, and the result was handed to Padre Pugh as a personal gift
after the service - which pleased him very much. His work since his arrival in
Taihoku had been invaluable and a great source of comfort to many. The afternoon
service was held outside and Bdr Mundy of 63/81 was baptised with Major Mackintosh
and RQMS Scotland as proxy Godfathers.
Vegetables again
The work on the exercise ground was at last finished and the men went back to their
former work. The officers were allotted two long strips East of the Exercise ground
and told to dig them up and get beds ready. No 1 and 2 Mess took the strip on the
river side, and No 3 Mess had the one near the hillside. No 3 Mess had good soil but
the other strip in places was like the parable of the Sower as it was distinctly
"strong ground"! However we were told that sweet potatoes would grow in anything,
and judging by subsequent results, we could not help agreeing!
Bank Holiday Monday was not observed as a holiday, and as there were a lot of beds
ready, the planting of sweet potatoes started. To plant, you take the cuttings, lay
them on their sides about a foot apart and shove in the ends. Two beds were
allotted to tapioca and one to sugar cane. (The tapioca came up in due course but
there were not signs of the sugar cane. Can it be that the stumps, about 6 inches
long, were eaten by the planters, before they reached Mother Earth!!) Some Maize
and French beans were put in as well.
The problem of watering was fortunately very simple for No 1 and No 2, though not
so easy for No 3. A small stream ran in the ditch alongside the plot and three
watering points were constructed with steps cut in the bank. The watering was
usually done in the afternoon period as it was quite pleasant forming a chain and
chattering about this and that. The only people who "bought" it were those at the
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end of the line who had to go up and down the beds with the buckets.
To help No 3, Col. Hennessey announced that he was a water diviner and produced
a forked stick to proved it! His rod was tried out and registered heavily over a
certain spot and a well was dug with very gratifying results about 16 ft down
and this depth also agreed with Col Hennessey's calculations! Mention should
also be made of a handsome lavatory or Banjo built by Capt Pearson and Lt Marsden.
They managed to make this job last a week and the result was a borehole complete
with throne, a bamboo fence round it and a grass roof! "Plug Ugly" took a great
interest in it and was invited to take the first seat as he was pretty "broad in
the beam". He agreed, and roared with laughter and said that the throne would
hold two people abreast if necessary!
On April 27th a national disaster overtook the camp. The Orderly Officer found
some cigarette ends on the bed spaces and elsewhere, and ordered that all smokes
should be handed in at once. We couldn't really complain as a good many no doubt
felt that they had been "asking for it" for some time. However they were all
returned on the evening of the 28th which also turned out to be the birthday of
the Nippon Emperor, and had been observed as a smokeless holiday!
Odds and Ends
There was a certain amount of excitement on the Thursday of this week. A lorry
drove up about supper time and deposited a European in white shorts and a blue
shirt. He was put straight into the guard room but a chair and bedding was taken
in. He went away first thing in the morning, but we could not find out anything
about him and he remained. a "Mystery Man".
Moonface had enquired whether anyone could play baseball and during the afternoon
he organised a practice and let Major Wheeler, who is a Canadian, take some men
out as well and a proper pitch was marked out on the exercise ground. These
practices became a regular thing on Sundays and two matches were played against
the Formosans led by Plug, who was an expert pitcher! The first was won, but
the second was lost. Thanks to the Red Cros we felt quite inclined for some
exercise and the skins of all ranks were looking much better.
Sunday May 2nd provided a terrible disappointment as there was no sugar issue! During
the week the beri-beri figures had shot up by 30 and the Japanese had come to the
idea that the sugar was responsible for it. Unfortunately our Doctors could not
prove definitely that it was not the case, and it was a fact that sugar contained
carbohydrates and it was possible that we had not enough vitamin B to compete.
The point was that we lost our sugar, but it was restored the following Sunday to
a teacupful, and our usual bowl the Sunday after without any ill effects.
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