In 1943, I had infectious hepatitis for about ten days and turned a
bright yellow accompanied by severe nausea and vomiting. Every time
someone would mention "food," I would run to
the window and retch. It seemed this happened about every five minutes
during the day, as prisoners rarely talked about anything else. The
individual would apologize for mentioning food, but it would be only a
short time before it was the subject again.
Scurvy: There were several widespread epidemics of scurvy; we could
stop these quickly if and when we could persuade the Japs to get a
lime or two for each captive.
Diabetes Mellitus: When I entered camp, I was worried about diabetes
mellitus, because there was no insulin or other medicine available to
treat it. Ironically, starvation solved the problem.
The blood sugar never got up high enough to produce any symptoms.
Red Cross Packages: Just before Christmas in 1942, 1943 and
1944, the laps issued one or two Red Cross food packages, each of
which contained seven pounds of food. After the package in 1942, the
camp mortality fell miraculously from forty deaths daily to one or two
a month.
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