12 September 1945

One of the fellows got a note from one of the party that left yesterday for Fukuoka.
He says that roughly 250-300 are being evacuated daily by plane at the present time as they only have 4 planes overall that they can operate. They are widening out an aerodrome on which the B24s and B29s can land and hope to have it ready in a few days, when they expect to evacuate 1,000 a day. It should not be many days now before we leave this land of exile, barbaric cruelty, fleas, filth, starvation and misery.

Quite a number have left in odd parties from various camps and it seems that our journey will be Okinawa, Manilla, then onto Honolulu and the US, hoping to complete within 36 hours. I won't grumble if I'm lucky enough to get a journey like this as it should mean that one should reach England within a week from starting from here.

Weighed myself this morning and went 53kg an increase of 2.5kg since the 8th. I have been told that the W.C. has stopped the daily issue of beer and will only allow one bottle every 3 or 4 days as he says it is not good for the men. By doing this he is more likely to drive the men into buying harmful drinks from outside.