At last we were allowed to march back to where we had left our possessions. All was confusion and disorder. Some found that all was gone while others were more fortunate. I was lucky and managed to recover a few letters and photos as well as a cardigan sweater and my water bottle. Putting these on I was well dressed compared to most of the others. We were each given a small cotton work shirt and a suit of overalls or work clothes which were made of sacking. The pants fastened around the waist with a string and the bottom of the leg reached to my knees. A jacket with sleeves that came to my elbow completed the outfit. These clothes were obviously intended for Japanese workmen and were much too small. We made ludicrous figures and the whole scene would have been laughable if it were not for the tragic circumstances. We were dismissed and allowed to find our allotted place in the sheds.
Our huts were divided into a number of rooms by wood and paper partitions. Previously, Japanese miners and their families used these huts. Each room held about twelve prisoners however the low platforms that served as beds only held ten. The remaining two prisoners were forced to sleep on the dirt floor between the platforms. We were so closely packed that during the night it was impossible to move without disturbing the others.
Arriving in our room our little party sat or squatted on the platforms and gloomily commented on the situation. The frog-faced Sergeant and all his motley crew were roundly cursed by the more robust while others just sat in despair. The majority however were of the opinion that we could see it through. It would soon be summer and the war must soon end. We all knew the Jap now. We knew his weaknesses and how to string him along. Once we determined to do this we all felt a little better.
A block from the camp, the mine was a large hole running a mile down into the hill. That evening we saw the other prisoners come out of the pit returning from the days work in the mines. There were two hundred British and two hundred Malayan Dutch prisoners. It was an unbelievable vivid scene of tortured humanity. Half naked emaciated bodies black with coal dust. Bare foot and adorned in rags. Hardly able to walk with backs bowed. It was like view a procession of the living dead. These living skeletons paid no attention to us as they shuffled into camp dispersing to their huts, the ultimate in human misery somehow maintaining the power to live.
We were all shocked! I made a vow then and there that come what may I would not go down into the mine. I still had the will power to decide my own fate and this was the end of the road for me. I had enough! Life as these men now lived would be intolerable. I regretted that I had survived and endured so much only to end up in this hell hole called Sendai.
Later we learned that the Dutch miners were in much better shape than the British. This was explained that the British were the survivors of Singapore and had been sent to help build that infamous railroad along the peninsula through Indo China. They were riddled with malaria and other tropical diseases as well as severe malnutrition. The Japanese hated the British for their defiant stubbornness and unwillingness to cooperate. The Japanese had reduced them to dumb driven beasts, sick both in mind and body. Later when we spoke to them they told us it was only a matter of time until we would all die. They had seen thousands of their comrades die. They had heard no news from anywhere for years, no letters, no Red Cross parcels, nothing. We told them that Germany had surrendered and that Japan too would soon fall. They refused to believe us. They hated the Jap and lived to thwart him. Perhaps it was only hate that kept them alive.
We soon discovered that one of the Commandants for this camp was a white man, a Dutch Captain working under the Japanese. The camp cooks were also Dutch. Captain Reid and Lieut. Finn were able to negotiate a fair distribution of the available rations with the result that the British received a little more to eat.
We were given two blankets each, made out of wood and wool, and a porcelain bowl. Our eating utensils that had been taken away were now reissued but few got their own back. Our food was always the same, two small bowls of rice daily and on a good day some greens or a small bun of bread. Water was our only drink and it was a surprise to me upon my return to Canada that I preferred water to drink for quite some time. I am only just beginning to enjoy a cup of tea.
