220
DONALD C. BOWIE
arrived in January dated from the United Kingdom in July 1942, though the first card I received from my wife arrived in April 1943. In return, officers were allowed to write one card each month of 50 words to the United Kingdom and 25 to other destinations. The frequency allowed was less in the case of other ranks but all cards had to be collected in my office and handed over by me. Naturally I paid no attention to any limitation on the ration allowed and I handed over all that I received. Our people were very cynical about the chances of our cards ever getting to their destinations though some undoubtedly did so. I have no idea what proportion of cards ever arrived home.
In July I published to the hospital a Japanese offer for 20 persons each month to prepare messages to relatives to be broadcast. Of 29 people who asked to use this opportunity, 20 eventually wrote out the messages they wanted sent. A month later 13 persons including one officer had messages accepted but I never found out if any message was in fact transmitted. I still have the original yellow poor quality sheet of paper on which the Japanese conditions as regards the offer were set out by them, and it reads as follows:-
1. American
Canadian Australian
Qualification in Broadcasting
2. Faithful in task-High Officer and Prominent Man.
3. Your self-condition Health only and
Most worry on very important thing you want to know.
4. 20 Persons monthly.
Most people in hospital were reluctant to believe that messages of this kind would ever be despatched.
Early in 1943 we were required to place a card in a holder on each bed giving the name of the occupant, and a descriptive notice in Japanese was placed at the entrance to each ward. About this time, too, the Japanese put pressure on me to remove the concrete baffle walls protecting the ground floor wards on the harbour side, and we complied with their orders though we made the removal process a prolonged one. We thought that these protective walls might be as useful in protecting us against American bombs as they had been against Japanese attacks. In fact we suffered no real ill-effects from their removal, but all these moves fitted in with my conception of a general Japanese plan to make the hospital a show-piece for visitors.
220
DONALD C. BOWIE
arrived in January dated from the United Kingdom in July 1942, though the first card I received from my wife arrived in April 1943. In return, officers were allowed to write one card each month of 50 words to the United Kingdom and 25 to other destinations. The frequency allowed was less in the case of other ranks but all cards had to be collected in my office and handed over by me. Naturally I paid no attention to any limitation on the ration allowed and I handed over all that I received. Our people were very cynical about the chances of our cards ever getting to their destinations though some undoubtedly did so. I have no idea what proportion of cards ever arrived home.
In July I published to the hospital a Japanese offer for 20 persons each month to prepare messages to relatives to be broadcast. Of 29 people who asked to use this opportunity, 20 eventually wrote out the messages they wanted sent. A month later 13 persons in- cluding one officer had messages accepted but I never found out if any message was in fact transmitted. I still have the original yellow poor quality sheet of paper on which the Japanese conditions as regards the offer were set out by them, and it reads as follows:-
1. American
Qualification in Broadcasting
Canadian Australian
2. Faithful in task-High Officer and Prominent Man. 3. Your self-condition Health only and
Most worry on very important thing you want to know. 4. 20 Persons monthly.
Most people in hospital were reluctant to belive that messages of this kind would ever be despatched.
Early in 1943 we were required to place a card in a holder on each bed giving the name of the occupant, and a descriptive notice in Japanese was placed at the entrance to each ward. About this time, too, the Japanese put pressure on me to remove the concrete baffle walls protecting the ground floor wards on the harbour side, and we complied with their orders though we made the removal process a prolonged one. We thought that these protective walls might be as useful in protecting us against American bombs as they had been against Japanese attacks. In fact we suffered no real ill- effects from their removal, but all these moves fitted in with my conception of a general Japanese plan to make the hospital a show- piece for visitors.
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