To increase the gloom and depression that had settled over us, a mammoth balloon hovered over the camp. Printed in large fire-red print across its huge surface were these words: SINGAPORE HAS SURRENDERED.
Just in the event we had missed the above cheering news, we were further plagued by leaflets dropped from the sky bearing the same glad tidings. A giant victory parade, complete with marching and singing soldiers, tanks, trucks, and other vehicles passed our camp. Thank God, we could not see it! It was bad enough to hear!
The camp hospital was filled with gastro-enteritis, bacillary and amoebic dysentery cases. A health campaign was started by our doctors to improve the sanitary conditions in the camp.
Since we were almost eaten up by loathsome flies, anti-fly campaigns were accelerated, and all sorts of home-made booby traps for flies were invented.
Adult education classes were started in astronomy, Spanish, Tagalog (the dialect spoken in Manila), Russian, Japanese, English, mathematics, and many other subjects.
A bridge tournament was in session, and the second-floor corridor of the Big House was filled with serious players night after night.
A requiem mass was said yesterday for the three executed men at Santo Tomas chapel. After today, internees will no longer be permitted to worship at the chapel.
A large truckload of Filipino workmen came in today, and as they passed us they grinned sympathetically and held up two fingers a la Churchill fashion.
The workmen immediately proceeded to put up barbed-wire fences between us and the Seminary building which contained the chapel and housing quarters for the Spanish priests. The barbed-wire fence also cut off the ball diamond. Bit by bit, more ground was taken away from us. More rules were enforced.
From reading between the lines of the Nishi-Nishi, and from stories we heard from our people who had been out on passes, we learned that the Axis nationals weren’t too happy either. They were beginning to awaken to the fact that the great “Co-prosperity Sphere in Asia” did not include them. “Asia for the Asiatics” was another mumbo-jumbo term with no true meaning. It was Asia for the Nipponese, and no one elsel