7 August 1945

Well we certainly got a shock with the rice this morning for both breakfast and mid-day meals, the amount we got was little more than what we were getting for breakfast previously. I guess tonight's meal will be just as noticeable for its scarcity as well.

By the sound of the rumbles there was a devil of a lot of stuff dropped somewhere this morning. Got another portion of rice today and with the short ration it was doubly welcome.

The Military Police were around the Camp today, whether this portends that they might be taking over in the future remains to be seen.

There is a rumour that we are going to have all bread soon instead of rice and bread as at present.

Rice was very short again tonight and no soup.

We had a typical finish (Japanese) to what would otherwise have been a fairly decent day.

After Roll Call all English Officers were made to stay behind and soon afterwards the fireworks started. It appears that during the day the Wing Commander tried twice to see the Camp Commander directly in order to make a complaint about the shortage of food.

We were told that under no circumstances should complaints be made directly to the C.C. but should go through the Cpl. or some other N.C.O., and in any case they would not allow the complaint to go to the C.C. and, in fact, after the way our countries had treated the Indians, Filipinos and other inhabitants of the South Sea Islands, we had no cause to expect any better treatment. We were, he said, being treated far better than we were treating the natives.

He added that we were not entitled to make complaints and that if we had complaints to make they should be made through him, but, he warned us that if we did make any complaints about food, beatings or taking of cigarettes by the Guard etc we would get a far heavier beating up than we were going to get tonight; in fact it was possible we would be beaten to death, to put it mildly, we were not in any way superior to the Eastern Races but were in fact lower than anything on earth.

This sort of thing went on for at least a good half hour. The Wing Commander pointed out that there were a number of Officers who had made no complaint whatever and were good workers and that he should be the one to be punished.

The Cpl said that as he had promised everyone a beating it must stand.

We were then made to raise our right arms to show that we understood and we had to keep the arms up straight otherwise we got a real good crack from one of the Japanese satellites.

After a bit we were made to raise both arms and it was the devil of a strain having to keep them up for about 10 minutes. After this we had to get down on our hands and toes, and then the real beating began with full swinging blows from heavy poles. We were sure sore afterwards .

He said that if we worked well and refrained from complaints and acted as Officers should act, our conditions may improve.