Canton Prison - Worse

Deplorable. Deplorable. Now Stanley Prison wasn't a very great place admittedly, but Canton, it was just strictly deplorable. Both the accommodations, the cells, and the conditions generally, and the food. It was just absolutely deplorable.

Interviewer: Were you confined in your cell or were you allowed to work?

We were confined to the cell, we had no work to do, we were permitted to go out maybe once or, every two or three days to wash out of a basin that they provided us with, but that was, that was it. We did not work, no. We had to sit and face the wall entirely all day long.

Interviewer: During this period of time, did you receive any medication for the various diseases that you men were....

No.

Interviewer: What do you remember about the Japanese guards that were there at Canton Prison?

They were extremely cruel also. Again, they had quite a number of Chinese prisons, prisoners and they certainly, I shouldn't say treated, mistreated the, the Chinese, but they gave us the same sort of treatment, in fact, for a year. If we were caught doing something that they thought we shouldn't be doing or standing up instead of sitting or sitting down with our knees crossed or, you know. But no, they were, they were pretty cruel.