burma railway prisoners of war list

In 1943 Dutch prisoners were sent to Thailand where they suffered the same hardships as other Allied POWs. A railway route between Burma and Thailand, crossing Three Pagodas Pass and following the valley of the Khwae Noi river in Thailand, had been surveyed by the British government of Burma as early as 1885, but the proposed course of the line through hilly jungle terrain divided by many rivers was considered too difficult to undertake. The list contains over 1700 names and is particularly interesting as a record of the decimation, by disease or untreated wounds, of prisoners working on the Burma-Thailand railway. List of Australian Army Medical Corp Officers on the Burma-Thailand Railway A FORCE To Burma May 1942 D FORCE To Southern end of line March 1943 DUNLOP FORCE To Southern end of line January 1943 F FORCE To Northern Thailand April 1943 H FORCE To Southern end of line 1943 L FORCE Deployed in medical support of natives August 1943 Malaria, dysentery and pellagra (a vitamin deficiency disease) attacked the prisoners, and the number of sick in the camps was always high. A Bill Aldag Fergus Anckorn Charles Groves Wright Anderson Ken Anderson (politician) Harold Atcherley B Henri Baaij Edmund W. Barker Theo Bot Russell Braddon Jim Bradley (British Army officer) Gerard Bruggink C John Carrick (Australian politician) Johannes Gijsbertus de Casparis Forde Everard de Wend Cayley Fred Chadwick Jack Bridger Chalker To avoid a hazardous 2,000-mile (3,200km) sea journey around the Malay peninsula, a railway from Bangkok to Rangoon seemed a feasible alternative. [48][49] In the foreword to Charles's book, James D. Hornfischer summarizes: "Dr. Henri Hekking was a tower of psychological and emotional strength, almost shamanic in his power to find and improvise medicines from the wild prison of the jungle". Records of Naval Operating Forces, RG 313. More than a third of these men and women died in captivity. The newer steel and concrete bridge was made up of eleven curved-truss bridge spans which the Japanese builders brought from Java in the Dutch East Indies in 1942. Estimates vary but the number who worked on the railway was possibly as high as 18 000. He was one of Dunlop's 1,000 the men under commanding . The working conditions were appalling. The largest of these is at Hellfire Pass (north of the current terminus at Nam Tok), a cutting where the greatest number of people died. Troops from the 7th Division embarked on the HMT Orcades arriving at Batavia from the Middle East in early 1942 in a last-minute effort to defend the Netherlands East Indies from Japanese attack. ARTICLE 30. At Chungkai War Cemetery and Kanchanaburi War Cemetery in Thailand now rest those recovered from the southern part of the line, from Ban Pong to Nieke - about half its length. The remains of United States personnel were repatriated. Another thirteen letter parties, L to X, soon followed, taking the number of British working on the railway at the end of 1942 to around 20 000. The first cut at Konyu was approximately 1,500 feet (450 metres) long and 23 feet (7 metres) deep, and the second was approximately 250 feet (75 metres) long and 80 feet (25 metres) deep. Subcategories Grid List There are 23 products. Omissions? In all, over 8000 of these men and women around 35 per cent would die during captivity, more than 2800 of them working on the ThaiBurma railway. On 24 June 1949, the portion from Kanchanaburi to Nong Pla Duk (Thai ) was finished; on the first of April 1952, the next section up to Wang Pho (Wangpo) was done. By far the majority of British POWs nearly 29 000 of them were sent to Thailand. Abstract. During its construction, approximately 13,000 prisoners of war died and were buried along the railway. Labor furnished by prisoners of war shall have no direct relation with war operations. Aside from the classic British-American film in 1957, Bridge on the River Kwai, the struggles prisoners of war endured in Burma and the making of the "death railway" became a "forgotten war" - it got lost in the Western Front's heroics and the ugly truth about the horrifying gas chambers found in the Nazis' prison camps. description Object description. They were set to work building a camp at Nong Pladuk which would form a base for future groups of POWs. The Japanese Army transported 500,000 tonnes of freight[citation needed] over the railway before it fell into Allied hands. On 8 December 1941, Japan invaded Thailand which quickly surrendered. The two curved spans of the bridge which collapsed due to the British air attack were replaced by angular truss spans provided by Japan as part of their postwar reparations, thus forming the iconic bridge now seen today. The total length of miles, the total number of bridges over 600, including six to eight long-span bridges the total number of people who were involved (one-quarter of a million), the very short time in which they managed to accomplish it, and the extreme conditions they accomplished it under. Thinking back, she recalls the Australian man who made a great sacrifice to aid her and her fellow prisoners of war. Most of the railway was dismantled shortly after the war. It was built from 1940 to 1943 by civilian labourers impressed or recruited by the Japanese and prisoners of war taken by the Japanese, to supply troops and weapons in . BBC News Bob Reynolds spent four years as a prisoner of war in Burma and Taiwan. A copper spike was driven at the meeting point by commanding General Eiguma Ishida, and a memorial plaque was revealed. This is ironic, since for most of the war in the Pacific Changi was, in reality, one of the most benign of the Japanese prisoner-of-war camps; its privations were relatively minor compared to those of others, particularly those on the Burma-Thailand railway. One factor was that many European and US doctors had little experience with tropical diseases. The defendants were charged with crimes against Western prisoners of war and civilians and with crimes against local people. More than 250 miles of railway, from Thanbyuzayat in Burma to Ban Pong in Thailand, remained to be constructed, much of it through mountainous country and dense jungle, in a region with one of the worst climates in the world.The Japanese aimed at completing the railway in 14 months, or at least by the end of l943. In contrast, only 4000 Australians were captured by the Germans and Ottomans in World War I. Java was the place where the second largest group of Australians was captured. Memorial sites along the route of the railway include the Kanchanaburi War Cemetery, where nearly 7,000 Allied dead are interred, and . Education Zone | Developed By Rara Theme. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. It gives a narrative and pictorial account of life in POW camps north of Australia during World War II. Life in the POW camps was recorded at great risk by artists such as Jack Bridger Chalker, Philip Meninsky, John Mennie, Ashley George Old, and Ronald Searle. When the Japanese conquered much of South East Asia in late 1941 and early 1942 they captured more than 50 000 British military personnel. The dawn ceremony was held for the prisoners of war (POWs) who were forced to work and died on the Burma-Siam railway during the Japanese occupation. By late spring 1942, with the surrender of Allied strongholds in Singapore, Hong Kong, the Philippines, and the Dutch East Indies, an estimated 140,000 Allied prisoners of war had fallen into Japanese hands. Parts of the abandoned route have been converted into a walking trail.[28]. In Saigon, the Brits accused Aussies of exaggerating conditions on the Railway. This was the same time at which Australians in A Force left Changi for Burma. utilisation of prisoner of war labour in japanese prisoner of war camps. When you got back to your sleeping platform you only had a tin of water to wash your feet. Work began at both ends of the rail line in June 1942. The longest and deepest cuttings in the railway occurred at Konyu, some 45 miles (72 km) northwest of Kanchanaburi, Thailand. The railway track from Kanchanaburi - photographed in 1945. [70], The bridge was made famous by Pierre Boulle's novel The Bridge over the River Kwai and its film adaptation, The Bridge on the River Kwai. In October 1942 a similar-sized group of British POWs left Singapore for Thailand and were employed around Kanchanaburi and on building the steel bridge at Tha Markam which would later become known as The Bridge on the River Kwai. Most recruits were in their twenties. Those who stayed behind were accommodated in camp "hospitals" which were simply one or more crude jungle huts. Thereafter work on the railway consisted of maintenance, and repairs to damage caused by Allied bombing. Death Railway . After the railway was completed, the POWs still had almost two years to survive before liberation. These were men from the 7th Division who had been brought back from the Middle East to help defend the Netherlands East Indies (now Indonesia) from the Japanese attack in early 1942. Japanese Medical Orderly. The Japanese kept no records and it was impossible for anyone else to do so, nor were the graves marked, but between 80,000 and 100,000 perished. The overwhelming majority of Allied POWs were from Commonwealth countries; they included approximately 22,000 Australians (of whom 21,000 were from the Australian Army, 354 from the Royal Australian Navy, and 373 from the Royal Australian Air Force), more than 50,000 British troops, and at least 25,000 Indian troops. [34] Approximately 90,000 Burmese and 75,000 Malayans worked on the railroad. Only the first 130 kilometres (81mi) of the line in Thailand remained, with trains still running as far north as Nam Tok. Such extreme mortality was experienced by Australian and British prisoners of war (POW) forced to build the Thai-Burma railway during the Second World War. Used with permission of the author, Lilian Sluyter. Since the Netherlands East Indies had been under Dutch control for centuries, the Dutch POWs included not only Europeans but Eurasians, who had acquired full civil rights, and indigenous soldiers, including Sundanese, Javanese, Menadonese, Ambonese and Timorese. The two parties met at Nieke in November 1943, and the line - 263 miles long - was completed by December. Khwae was frequently mispronounced by non-Thai speakers as kwai, or 'buffalo' in Thai). Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. Conduct Unbecoming : The Story of the Murder of Canadian Prisoners of War in Normandy. The Japanese had been surprised by the reaction of world opinion against their treatment of prisoners of war, and there is evidence that they began to feel apprehensive about the heavy casualties of 1943, and made efforts to counteract their reputation for uncivilised treatment of prisoners. The final route was between Bangkok in Thailand and Rangoon, Myanmar (Burma). Map Created by Philip Cross July 2000. On 16 January 1946, the British ordered Japanese POWs to remove a four kilometre stretch of rail between Nikki (Ni Thea) and Sonkrai. Altogether, some 35,000 parachute and glider troops were involved in the operation. [25][26] After the accident, it was decided to end the line at Nam Tok and reuse the remainder to rehabilitate the line. For example, a group of 400 Dutch prisoners, which included three doctors with extensive tropical medicine experience, suffered no deaths at all. The Burma Railway, also known as the Death Railway, the Siam-Burma Railway, the Thai-Burma Railway and similar names, was a railway between Ban Pong, Thailand, and Thanbyuzayat, Burma, built by the Empire of Japan in 1943 to support its forces in the Burma campaign of World War II. Download Ground News for free here: https://ground.news/megaprojectsSimo. The remains of the notorious F-Force camp in Thailand. The first contingent of British to work on the ThaiBurma railway was sent to Burma (now Myanmar) from Sumatra in May 1942, as part of the 500-strong Medan Force. All of that makes this railway an extraordinary accomplishment."[20]. In due course the inevitable happened - a cholera epidemic broke out. New options were needed to support the Japanese forces in the Burma Campaign, and an overland route offered the most direct alternative. Approximately 13,000 prisoners of war died and were buried along the railway. The Death Railway is only one of the names describing the Japanese project built in 1943 to provide support to its forces during World War II. It is open to general traffic from Ban Pong to Kanchanaburi, about 33 miles.Japanese communications depended upon a long and exposed sea route to Rangoon via Singapore and the Strait of Malacca, and a road (quite unfit for prolonged heavy traffic) from Raheng through Kowkarelk to Moulmein. Alternatively, search more than 1 million objects from [100], A preserved section of line has been rebuilt at the National Memorial Arboretum in England.[101]. Altogether, some 35,000 parachute and glider troops were involved in the operation. More than 22 000 Australians were taken prisoner in the Asia-Pacific region in the early months of 1942. "[38], The first prisoners of war, 3,000 Australians, to go to Burma left Changi Prison in Singapore on 14 May 1942 and journeyed by sea to near Thanbyuzayat ( in the Burmese language; in English 'Tin Shelter'), the northern terminus of the railway. Part II: Asian Romusha: The Silenced Voices of History", "Distances between camps on the Burma-Thailand Railway", "Last Man Out: A Memoir of the Burma-Thailand Death Railway", "Stolen Years: Australian prisoners of war The BurmaThailand Railway", "The Thailand-Burma Railway, 19421946: documents and selected writings", "Tamarkan, Tha Makham 56.20km - Thailand", "Forgotten Sikhs of the Siam -Burma Death Railway", "The lies that built The Bridge on the River Kwai", "Old China Hands, Tales & Stories The Azon Bomb", "Aerial photograph of Kanchanaburi, Thailand during a raid by Allied aircraft including", "Thanlwin Bridge (Mawlamyine), longest and largest in Myanmar, emerges to serve interests of State and region", "Railway of Death: Images of the construction of the BurmaThailand Railway 19421943", "Birma-Siam Spoorweg en de Pakan Baroe Spoorweg. The Burmese had welcomed the invasion by Japan and cooperated with Japan in recruiting workers. The 75th anniversary of the infamous Thai-Burma Railway built by World War II prisoners of war will be marked today. Around 90,000 civilians died, as did more than 12,000 Allied prisoners. As well as these deaths, Japanese civilians were nearly 10,000 lost at sea in this attack and Australia lost about 2800 soldiers to American operations. Although it was often possible to supplement this diet by purchases from the local civilian population, men sometimes had to live for weeks on little more than a small daily ration of rice flavoured with salt. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). Towards the end of the war there were also casualties from Allied bombing raids. The Dutch formed the second largest contingent of Allied prisoners of war on the ThaiBurma railway, after the British. The name Changi is synonymous with the suffering of Australian prisoners of the Japanese during the Second World War. [13], Estimates of deaths among Southeast Asian civilians subject to forced labour, often known as rmusha, vary widely, because statistics are incomplete and fragmented. Only the devotion skill and enterprise of the prisoner of war medical staffs saved the lives of thousands and gradually evolved an organisation which could control disease and mortality. Includes Changi, the Burma-Thailand Railway, Sandakan, Timor, Ambon, Rabaul and Japan, and the prisoners who died . In March 1944, when the bulk of the prisoners were in the main camps at Chungkai, Tamarkan, Kanchanaburi, Tamuan, Non Pladuk and Nakom Paton, conditions temporarily improved. My Dad is not with us to tell his own story although he did keep a diary . BURMA-04_roster (WO 361-2204) - British and American POWs at Burma Camp 6, later IV. The second largest group of prisoners more than 2700 were captured on Java. The larger number of British deaths overall reflects the fact that there were simply more British working on the railway than Australians or Dutch POWs. The British people were now resigned to the fact that Hitler had to be stopped by force. This is particularly true on Anzac Day (April 25), when Australians pay tribute to those who served and lost their lives during war. The Prisoner of War Management Office (Furyo Kanribu) The Prisoner of War Management Office (Furyo Kanribu) was established by the Minister for the Army on 31 March 1942 as an additional office to deal with the treatment of POWs. Lt Col Coates the greatest doctor on the Burma Thailand Railway. Steve White-do-not-use. [33] Other documents suggest that more than 100,000 Malayan Tamils were brought into the project and around 60,000 perished.[35][36]. The barracks were about 60m (66yd) long with sleeping platforms raised above the ground on each side of an earthen floor. Extracts from a report on a search carried out by an officer of the Army Graves Service, 6th to 22nd December 1948. The Japanese hoped to capture the Indian region of Assam, with the intention of using it as the base for an insurrection under the Japanese-backed Indian revolutionary leader Subhas Chandra Bose. The notorious Burma-Siam railway, built by British, Australian, Dutch and American prisoners of war, was a Japanese project inspired by the need for improved communications to maintain the large Japanese Armv in Burma. Deel 8 De tragedie van de Birma-Siam Spoorweg", "The Railway Man: Australian keeps legacy of Thailand's 'Death Railway' alive helping relatives of POWs gain closure", Captive Audiences/Captive Performers: Music and Theatre as Strategies for Survival on the Thailand-Burma Railway 19421945, Works of Ashley George Old held by the State Library of Victoria. Though medical consequences of war attract attention, the health consequences of the prisoner-of-war (POW) experience are poorly researched and apprec . Sidi Barrani, on the Mediterranean coast in Egypt, had been occupied by the Italian 10th Army, during the Italian invasion of Egypt (9-16 September 1940) and was attacked by British, Commonwealth and imperial . [68] In February 1943, 1,000 Dutch prisoners of war were added to Tamarkan. A former British Army officer, who was tortured as a prisoner of war at a Japanese labor camp during World War II, discovers that the man responsible for much of his treatment is still alive and sets out to confront him. The wooden bridge was reused for pedestrians and cars. The Burma Railway, also known as the Siam-Burma Railway, Thai-Burma Railway and similar names, or as the Death Railway, is a 415 km (258 mi) railway between Ban Pong, Thailand and Thanbyuzayat, Burma (now called Myanmar). [3][4] Thailand was forced to accept an alliance,[5] and was used as a staging point for the attack on Singapore. [9] On 23 June 1942, 600 British soldiers arrived at Camp Nong Pladuk, Thailand to build a camp to serve as a transit camp for the work camps along the railway. More than one in five of them died there. [42][43] Workers were moved up and down the railway line as needed. ARTICLE 29. Among the Allied POWs were some 30,000 British, 13,000 Australians, 18,000 Dutch, and 700 Americans. These became more and more frequent when, towards the end of October 1943, trains full of Japanese troops and supplies began to go through from Thailand to Burma. IWM collections, This media is not currently available. [62], Workers in more isolated areas suffered a much higher death rate than did others. Navy and the auxiliary forces of the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army. During this time, prisoners suffered from disease, malnutrition, and cruel forms of punishment and torture inflicted by the Japanese. On 17 October 1943, construction gangs originating in Burma working south met up with construction gangs originating in Thailand working north. About 60,000 were sent to work on the railway; 13,000 of them were Australian. He served 11 years. Throughout the building of the railway, food supplies were irregular and totally inadequate. [61], Weight loss among Allied officers who worked on construction was, on average, 914kg (2030lb) less than that of enlisted personnel. [74] Repairs were carried out by forced labour of POWs shortly after and by April the wooden railroad trestle bridge was back in operation. Under Australian legislation prior to 1943 conscripts could be used only for the defence of Australian territories. Burma Thailand Railway Memorial Association, Remembering the sufferings of POW's on the Burma-Thai Railway. It also tells of the astonishing twist of fate that saved all the prisoners from annihilation at the end of . Elsewhere in the Pacific some 10 000 British, Canadian and Indian troops were captured when Hong Kong fell in December 1941 and further 5000 in the Netherlands East Indies (now Indonesia) in early 1942. Second, the occupation of Burma would also put Japanese armies on the doorstep of British India. It is also known from a study of the Australians who joined the army in World War II that they were generally young and unmarried. Other parties were employed on cutting and building roads, some through virgin jungle, or in building defence positions. Although working conditions were far better for the Japanese than the POWs and rmusha workers, about 1,000 (eight percent) of them died during construction. He was taken to Ambon and apparently died in 1944 on board ship returning from Ambon to Java, After the war he was officially reported to have died on 6th September 1944 and buried at sea. One of the earliest and most respected accounts is ex-POW John Coast's Railroad of Death, first published in 1946 and republished in a new edition in 2014. Human hair was often used for brushes, plant juices and blood for paint, and toilet paper as the "canvas". Contact our Media sales & Licensing team about access. The Americans were called the Lost Battalion as their fate was unknown to the United States for more than two years after their capture. [30][33], In early 1943, the Japanese advertised for workers in Malaya, Singapore, and the Dutch East Indies, promising good wages, short contracts, and housing for families. To supply their forces in Burma, the Japanese depended upon the sea, bringing supplies and troops to Burma around the Malay peninsula and through the Strait of Malacca and the Andaman Sea. [73] Bad weather forced the cancellation of the mission and the AZON was never deployed against the bridge. [78][79], In 1946,[89] the remains of most of the war dead were moved from former POW camps, burial grounds and lone graves along the rail line to official war cemeteries. Some 30 000 of these prisoners of war later worked on the ThaiBurma railway. [23][24] The money was used to compensate neighbouring countries and colonies for material stolen by Japan during the construction of the railway. The map shows the significance of the building of the Thai-Burma railway by the Australian prisoners of war to Australia because it shows where the POWs were located whilst being prisoners. Most of the camps were right alongside the railway track and some were near bridges and other vulnerable points. A great deal of equipment was improvised by the medical officers and orderlies, and food and medicines were clandestinely obtained. A total of 50,000 troops were captured at one time there."He then got moved to Malai POW Camp 1 in Thailand, and transferred to Camp 2 to build the Burma Railway."He was liberated in 1945 . The full year membership runs from August to the end of July the following year. The Burma Railway, also called the Death Railway, was built between Ban Pong, Thailand and Thanbyuzayat in Burma, put together with a ready supply of labour in the form of. [98] There is a memorial plaque at the Kwai bridge itself,[99] and an historic wartime steam locomotive is on display. Finally, on 1 July 1958, the rail line was completed to Nam Tok (Thai , 'waterfall', referring to the nearby Sai Yok Noi Waterfall) The portion in use today is some 130km (81mi) long. From late 1942 more than 13 000 Australians were sent from Singapore, Java and Timor to work on the ThaiBurma railway. Cruelty could take different forms, from extreme violence and torture to minor acts of physical punishment, humiliation, and neglect. Some have even brought wives and children. 321 relations. [45], The prisoners of war "found themselves at the bottom of a social system that was harsh, punitive, fanatical, and often deadly. Prisoners of war from Java (Williams Force, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel J. M. Williams, and Black Force, including 593 Australians commanded by Lieutenant Colonel C. M. Black) travelled via Singapore and thence to Moulmein, arriving in Burma on 29-30 October 1942. Records of Allied Operational and Occupation Headquarters, World War II, RG 331. [44], The construction camps consisted of open-sided barracks built of bamboo poles with thatched roofs. by Howard Margolian. RM 2CYBAYN - Military personnel and people attend a dawn memorial service for soldiers who died during World War Two on ANZAC Day at Hellfire Pass in Kanchanaburi province, Thailand, April 25, 2015. His account of the conditions and suffering endured by his fellow prisoners and himself makes for the most extraordinary and disturbing reading. Published by Marsworth. They had very little transportation to get stuff to and from the workers, they had almost no medication, they couldnt get food let alone materials, they had no tools to work with except for basic things like spades and hammers, and they worked in extremely difficult conditions in the jungle with its heat and humidity. The Burma Railway, also known as the Death Railway, the Siam-Burma Railway, the Thai-Burma Railway and similar names, is a 415km (258miles) railway between Ban Pong, Thailand and Thanbyuzayat, Burma (now called Myanmar).It was built from 1940 to 1943 by civilian labourers impressed or recruited by the Japanese and prisoners of war taken by the Japanese, to supply troops and weapons in the . More than 11 percent of civilian internees and 27 percent of Allied POWs died or were killed while in Japanese custody; by contrast, the death rate for Allied POWs in German camps was around 4 percent. [30] Other nationalities and ethnic groups working on the railway were Tamils, Chinese, Karen, Javanese, and Singaporean Chinese. Coast also details the camaraderie, pastimes, and humour of the POWs in the face of adversity.[47]. On 26 October 1942, British prisoners of war arrived at Tamarkan to construct the bridge. The first train to pass Konkoita on the newly constructed Burma-Thailand railway, built for the Japanese by prisoner of war (POW) labour. Over 60,000 prisoners worked on its construction, the majority of whom were British, and some 20% died before release in 1945. WAR Graves - Burma - Siam Railway On 6th December 1948 an expedition consisting of an officer, one Siamese interpreter, two police guards, one cook and one general duties coolie, left Kanburi for Takanun by motor boat. Railway Construction Camp - Kanya, Thailand. The Burma Railway, also known as the SiamBurma Railway, ThaiBurma Railway and similar names, or as the Death Railway, is a 415km (258mi) railway between Ban Pong, Thailand and Thanbyuzayat, Burma (now called Myanmar). An Australian memorial is at Hellfire Pass. The cuttings at Hellfire Pass became known as the speedo period, after a solecistic command shouted by Japanese guards and engineers to their English-speaking prisoners. ", "Burma-Siam Railway - Australia receives no payment", "Grote schade aan materiaal der N.I. The prisoners were sent to various destinations throughout the Pacific and Southeast Asia to provide forced labour for the Japanese army, journeys that carried with them a taste of the nightmare to come. The Burma Railway, also known as the Siam-Burma Railway, Thai-Burma Railway and similar names, or as the Death Railway, is a 415 km (258 mi) railway between Ban Pong, Thailand and Thanbyuzayat, Burma (now called Myanmar).It was built from 1940 to 1943 by civilian laborers impressed or recruited by the Japanese and prisoners of war taken by the Japanese, to supply troops and weapons in the . Nearly 15 000 were captured on Singapore in February 1942 and over a thousand on each of Ambon, Dutch Timor, and New Britain. The construction of the railway is a heartbreaking story of forced labor, with more than 60,000 Allied prisoners of war . Over 22 000 Australians were captured by the Japanese when they conquered South East Asia in early 1942. Brought up by barge on the Kwai Noi river, or by lorry on a road which was merely a converted jungle track, a consistent service could not be maintained by either method, and rations were nearly always below even the Japanese official scales. 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