Secret Diary of Dr. Robert Hardie 1942-45 (selected entries)
1-Aug-42 Ban Pong
Last night I had an extraordinary vivid dream that I was walking about the lawns round the ruined cathedral at Dunkeld. It was summertime and there were flowerbeds with great banks of flowers... I shall see them again I hope, perhaps before very long.
6-Aug-42 Ban Pong
Today Mitchell of the FMSVF died in hospital. He was a quiet individual, who never looked very robust. He had had a spell in Changi Prison with bacillary dysentery, but had been out and convalescent for 3 to 4 weeks before coming to Thailand. I had rejected him for the 'mainland' party when I went through the list in Changi; but pressure was put upon me by Brigade to pass as many people as possible.... I feel now, of course, that I ought to have been more positive he should not come; but it was difficult to be positive in such circumstances.
10-Sept-42 Ban Pong
This monotonous life continues. Our roll-call parades at dawn and dusk are now held inside camp, on the muddy space between the huts and the western fence. Here we stand twice a day for a quarter to half an hour while the local mosquitoes attack us. New cases of malaria and dengue keep coming in. Skin diseases multiply daily and the means of treating them are at vanishing point.
20-Oct-42 Kanchanaburi
We have been in camp a week now and have got something done to make the place more sanitary. But the men were packed like sardines in their huts - each man literally has a space of about a foot wide (by 6 to 7 feet front to back) on the ramshackle bamboo platform. Sleep and cleanliness was almost impossible for them.
8-Nov-42 Kanchanaburi
Eight battalions (detachments of 600) have now come up from Singapore via Ban Pong, which they found a nauseating sea of mud and floodwater. Ban Pong is almost entirely a sick camp - the sick left behind by our original detachments, and the sick left enroute by these new parties coming up. The conditions there are unbelievably squalid - water a foot deep in the hospital huts. Ian and the medical officers with him are having a bad time.
25-Dec-42 Kanchanaburi
Today is a whole holiday by courtesy of the Japanese. Special meals are being cooked in the cookhouses, and Hajji Marsh, Ian, Duncan and myself are cooking a special meal in Ian's lean-to - omelettes, pancakes and some chicken. There was some carol singing last night and this morning. One can't but feel a certain melancholy at spending Christmas in this depressing camp. An almost intolerable sense of oppression and futility overcomes one at times, as month after wasted month passes. At this time, of course, one thinks much of home, and one realise they must be going through a period of anxiety. And there are many at home who have yet to learn that their relatives out here are already dead.
27-Apr-43 Tarsao
There is a fine view down the river from the bank near the POW cookhouses. A biggish bungalow is being built in the Japanese camp for, it is said, a Japanese general. The POWs who are building it take all the live bugs and lice they can find in their huts (and they find plenty), put them in matchboxes and let them out in the bungalow.
13-Sept-43 Takanun
After (surprise search on 29-Aug-43), I was afraid of another, so hid this diary temporarily. The alarm has now passed so I resumed it. The rail laying party reached this camp six days ago and has passed on upwards. The track is now being strengthened and titivated. Captain Gordon of the Argylls, who walked down here the other day from a camp 10-12 km higher, passed three skeletons and two decaying Tamil corpses on the way. Food supplies here are better than they were - we get some fresh vegetables and even occasional fruit and eggs.
24-Nov-43 Takanun
This "F-force", about 7000 strong, came up from Singapore last May, and even then 40% of them were unfit; but the Japs in Singapore insisted on their going up to Siam, and said that they were not going to a working camp so it would not matter. They were turned off the train at Ban Pong and had then to walk all the way up to Nikki by jungle tracks, a distance of 260 km. ... The Jap (doctor) actually said 36 men could not march further, and gave a certificate to that effect. But when the British officer took the certificate to the commander of the Jap guards who were conducting the party, the guard commander refused to pay any attention and broke some of the officer's fingers with a heavy bamboo for his insolence in putting the certificate forward.
4-Dec-43 Takanun
Four letters today, two from mother, one from Margaret Cameron (with news of a god-child on the way) and one from Duncan. Mother's letters dated 21 September 1942 and 15 October 1942, Margaret's 28 September 1942, Duncan's 26 July 1942. They have taken a long time in coming.
5-Sept-44 ChungKai
The fifth year of the war ended two days ago, and that night we heard again the droning of aero-engines and the faint rumble of bombs somewhere. Hope is strong that this sixth year of war will bring our captivity to an end. It is said that leaflets have been found along the river, obviously dropped by aeroplanes; they are said to claim that the war in Europe is going well for us. One is reported to have in large letters a final exhortation, "Hold On! We are coming." This fills us with hope.
9-Jan-45 ChungKai
Two more postcards (25 words) and three letters - one of them dating from 1943. The others belong to March-May 1944. These really are quite recent!
17-Aug-45 Tamuang
Yesterday, after several days in which rumours were quite subdued, there were great comings and goings. Ishii went off, they said to Bangkok, excitement grew, a small party was brought in from another camp, who said they had heard the Japanese were giving in ... then a high Japanese officer arrived and was closeted with the Jap officers in their camp. Finally, RSM Edkins was called across to the Japanese office and briefly informed that the war was over and that we would now come under our own discipline. Edkins came straight across to the hospital area, where a concert was in progress, and made the announcement to the audience. There was a tremendous burst of cheering. The National Anthems of Britain, Holland and the United States were sung, and then "Abide with me". One's emotions were almost numb, after such long suppression of hopes and fears. One could hardly realise the moment for which one had waited with desperate but such doubtful hopes had come at last. It was over: we were free again, and would soon be in touch with the outside world, home. It was almost impossible to grasp: one just felt numb, rather shaky and rather inclined to sob. ^^^
