H) The Rations

The Rations

By June, 1942, the Japanese appeared to realise that they had gone too far in their efforts to discover on how little the hated foreigner could keep body and soul together. They announced that they realised Europeans needed bread, and they issued a few ounces of flour per head daily. A little meat was also supplied. The rations, however, were still usually 1,000 calories below the recognised League of Nations minimum of 2,500 calories.

At the end of 1942 a Red Cross shipment from South Africa arrived. It was revealed later that the Japanese kept back some part of this, but what was received maintained a much better standard of life while it lasted, and by dint of great economy the shipment was spread over five months. Four ounces of meat a day was found to make all the difference between perpetual hunger and, if not comfort, at least resignation.

At the end of 1943 the Japanese announced that they had no more flour, and that no more meat or fish would be issued. The electricity supply was also cut off. From that time until well into 1945 the internees lived on rice and vegetables only, the latter 80 per cent of the gourd type – mostly water. Dysentery was often rife and any further loss of weight on that account could not be recovered on the utterly inadequate diet. Sanitation, cooking and other work of the Camp had to be carried out by the internees themselves, which was only possible by allocation to workers of extra food, deducted from the rations of the majority. In the last year, however, the Japanese allowed extra rations for a limited number of workers.