An American POW writes in his diary as he sits in a Japanese prison camp. His shorthand skills are rudimentary, but he writes as many words as he can in shorthand so the guards can’t read it. Day after day after day, he writes about food … what kind of food he gets; how much; when is the next time he will get food. Year after year, for four years, he writes.
The diary is often subjected to inclement weather, but both it and its writer are liberated from the camp at the end of the war in 1945 and make it home. Here’s an excerpt from his October 28, 1944 entry. The image is poor because it suffered moisture damage. The translation is written below the image:
TRANSLATION: Got to buy some stuff with the proceeds from the canteen: some sugar &
flour. Story is that the galley is going to make gravy with the flour &
sweet spud jam with the sugar. Only question is when. Evening soup had some corn–
starch with the greens. – & no beans in the rice. Got a salt issue. –
I’m in the path of the hurricane hitting FL today, so expect to lose power any time. I’ll check back to respond to any comments if and when I can.