resonating ring that not only echoed with sound, but later was to be a signal for grief and pain as underneath it became the punishment centre. Here underneath it inmates, myself often included, would be forced to stand for hours on end, or even worse on occasions be made to kneel on the hard floor. On the sound of the bell ringing at dawn, we would rollup our beds, get dressed quickly and stand in line down the corridor. The guard would come and shout “Banjo!” and then in Japanese shout ‘ichi’ or 1, ‘ni’ or 2, ‘san’ 3 etc. Each one would then shout out in response in Japanese their own respective camp number which was printed on a small 2 “ wooden oblong slab that we wore round our necks continuously . Mother was numbered ‘75’ & I was ‘76’!. We were then free till 7 for washing cleaning etc. and at 7.20 went to the dining room for breakfast, watery tea and a bun. Then the boring day would commence and drag on, with endless talking, chess etc till finally a further roll call and lights out at 9.00 pm. After about a week we gradually became aware of what a desperate situation we were now in, having to endure a regime that revelled in cruelty, harshness and intolerance which was in stark contrast to the fairly benign conditions of the Germans, who being a Christian Western Power, had thought processes and a culture similar to our own. Here we had instead a ruthlessly authoritarian regime that revelled in orders and rules. There were for a start some 130 camp regulations which would be implemented to the very letter by routinely harsh punishments such as slapping, kicking on the shins, or being made to stand motionless in the main hall outside the guards room for hours at a time. In severe cases they would make prisoners kneel for a hour or two on the hard floor, so that the pain became so numbing with the blood flow restricted that one would cry with pain, and when released finally from the ordeal one could barely move. These punishments were regularly and savagely carried out with the sole and express purpose of breaking our spirit, women included so that we would become little better than cowed animals. Even children such as myself aged 11 and others such as Howard Guy who was two years younger were no exception, and we all regularly had to endure “punishment” stands on average for an hour or two, or otherwise half an hour kneeling on the hard floor. This happened about once a week or fortnight for trivial offences such as not bowing low enough (kiri) when meeting a guard or not being deferential enough.. Men and women were kept permanently separate for the same reason, in order to break their spirit. During the first 20 months of captivity husbands and wives were only allowed to meet in the main common room five times to just converse with each other. To the Western mind such treatment today seems totally incomprehensible, as it was to us then, but all one could do when powerless was to just put up with the regime, grin and bear it, be buoyed up by ones inmates’ loyalty and solace and not allow the devils to win by us buckling down. During the first week each internee was interviewed by the commandant and details such as nationality, sex, race, occupation etc. were all painstakingly entered in a book. Also prisoners were ordered at the same time to hand over all ornaments containing gold, silver or platinum. So each had to forgo and yield over treasured possessions such as wedding rings, ear rings, brooches etc. Mother was glad that she had nothing, all her family trinkets being held, wisely she hoped in the German Embassy. We were soon to discover during that first year, not only did we have a ruthlessly unpleasant and arrogant Commandant, but that his unpleasantness was compounded by the Interpreter who was a Japanese American named Mr Midorikawa who had lived most of his life in San Francisco and loathed Americans like poison. Although there were none in our camp, the British were the next best thing, and so when

Page 3/9 Next