Meat was one teaspoon per month

Quartermaster Sgt. Colin Alden Standish, DCM, described his three years and eight months as a Japanese prisoner of war:

“The Japanese worked the two prisoners all day and in the afternoon tied their hands behind their backs and sat them on the side of a deep gully. They then bayonetted the two and kicked them down into the gully. Neither died immediately and the Japanese came down and killed Cusner.”

“Food was very short and medical supplies-non-existent. For a time we averaged only 13 ounces of food per day. Meat was one teaspoonful a month. When anyone went to the hospital or was sick in camp, the man’s ration was cut in half, so we had to give part of our rations for the hospital, which was a wooden hut.”

“(The Japanese) decided to teach me a lesson as they had been stealing POW rations and were afraid I would report them. They beat me up and made me stand with a three-gallon pail of water in my hands stretched out in front of me. When the pail would go down they would beat me up again.”

“We lost a lot of men due to starvation and we had to cremate them ... the body was put on the ground and the slabs piled around it, then the whole thing was put on fire. Sometimes it was very hard to get the fire going. The burning produced a very black smoke. ... I can still remember the smell.”

“Our workday started at 5 a.m. and lasted until 7 p.m. when the men got back from the factory ... You also had to supply the number of Pows that were asked for to go to work.

“This was almost impossible as you had to send out men with malaria and high temperatures.”

“Our food has only been rice, potato tops, weeds, occasionally fish heads and guts [in] hot water. On Sept. 1, 1945, “You ought to have seen the boys when we got the first bread … even the U.S. Marines cried when they watched [the Canadians] eat.” Also on Sept. 1, 1945, “At last a free man and not having to write what [they] tell you to write.” In Guam on Sept. 12, 1945, to my great-grandparents, “I’ve only had one letter from you since 1942.” Excerpts written by Colin Alden Standish in personal letters and in Grant Garneau’s The Royal Rifles in Hong Kong: 1941-1945. Sherbrooke: Progressive Publications, 1980