Food
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As expected from an internment camp, food was scarce and was a constant thought permeating all prisoners' minds. The Japanese often made promises which they were unable to keep about the arrival of care packages or increased rations.
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The camp was almost entirely populated by white expatriates- British, Canadian, American, and Dutch, many of whom had been quite well-off before the war and ate large quantities of food. They struggled to adapt to the meagre rations and developed diseases related to vitamin deficiencies and other deficiencies (which will be expanded upon later.) An oversight, or perhaps a deliberate choice, by the Japanese was to force a rice diet on the prisoners. This caused widespread constipation and diarrhea. The quality of the food was also very poor in general.
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The food queue at Stanley
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Along with rice, a typical prisoners' diet consisted of vegetable water, turnips, beans, fish, and occasionally meat, bread, or tea. Flour was sometimes sent in to make bread. The rice itself often contained dust, mud, and rat droppings. Meat was almost always water-buffalo with mostly bone. The fish provided was mostly conger eel, which often came frozen but had already decomposed before freezing. Vegetables were never fresh.
B. W. Thompson, a POW in Sham Shui Po camp, often reported food rations which were meant to last years but ran out in weeks. His daily report of meals in his diary shows the great importance of food in the camp. He also often mentions 'ration parties', where prisoners would draw straws to allocate food.
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A recurring theme throughout was the promise of better food which never came. Despite the abhorrent food situation in the camps, this was nothing compared to the food situation in Nazi camps. Far fewer died from malnutrition compared to the Nazi camps for three main reasons:
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1: Food was always provided, no matter its quality. There was a relatively large variety of food compared to Nazi camps.
2: Prisoners could exchange goods through a black market.
3: The Japanese did not strictly limit extra food. Prisoners could grow their own food and bargain with and bribe guards.
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