24 August 1945
Afterwards he had the Officers down who were with him in his previous Camp at Fukuoka and after a few minutes of idle chat asked their opinion of the treatment they had received in this camp. The reply was that it was severely harsh and not in accordance with international practice, that Officers had lost an average of 5 Kilos in a very short time owing to the shortage of food and being forced to work daily, not only on hard work but for unduly long hours. The C.C. said he was forced to do this in order to make everybody fit. It seems to me he is beginning to get the wind up. All we are hoping is that such people as he are court martialed and shot; such being their just deserts.
The Dutch Interpreter says that the Japanese are definitely of the opinion that the planes will be dropping Red+ supplies tomorrow.
Got issued with a tin of fish flakes today and am going to try and keep them to take home as a souvenir.
The Wing Commander and Doctor have just come from a conference with the C.C. who states that the aircraft are expected to come from the south starting at 6 0/c in the morning and that they are expected to drop messages and foodstuffs.
Yellow P.W.s on black background have got to be painted on the roofs by 1600 hrs today and painted so that they can be read in four directions as allied planes will be passing over the camp daily from tomorrow and it is likely that they will drop messages, papers and other things by parachute.
He asked for a candid opinion of our treatment here and the Doctor said the regime had been unduly severe. The Wing Commander said our present treatment is what we should have had all along and that we had not been treated at all as Officer prisoners should be treated and referred to the severe beating of over 100 Officers not so long back for practically no reason what so ever, he also mentioned the fact that the guard also severely beat up some fellows last night for the heinous crime of sleeping on the ground just outside their hut because of the heat and an endeavour to get away from fleas for a time.
The C.C. denied all knowledge of these beatings and asked for full particulars in order that he could deal with the matter adequately (just bullshit) and promised that there would be no more beatings.