Unusual Foods

In Sham Shui Po, every blade of grass in the camp disappeared. Pet dogs and regimental mascots that had followed the men into camp were eaten. The POWs snared wild birds for food and snakes were considered a delicacy. The Chinese inhabitants of Hong Kong were hungry too. Each evening the wire around Sham Shui Po was electrified, and there would be a dead dog or cat in the wire every second or third morning. The current would be shut off, and hungry Chinese waited for the animal to be taken off the wire and thrown out, when they would pounce on it. One man came across the body of a large black cat lying on the rails in Niigata, cut in two by a train. “We immediately exclaimed ÔHere’s something for the soup. ’ If you didn’t know what it was you might have thought it was rabbit. “ A week later, the Japanese foreman dragged into camp the body of a police dog; a POW skinned it and cut it up, at which the foreman took both hind quarters and walked off with them; inevitably, the Japanese guards ended up with all the best meat. Late in the war, the men in this camp were given a collection of old horse heads and other bones to make soup. They found that it made very good soup. “We make soup with them twice then send them on to another camp. We also got 50 or 60 large snakes for soup. I detest the darn things. One time we got wheat, barley, rye and some millet and now only rice. “

In the Philippines, Dr. Calvin Jackson recorded a series of poignant entries in his diary as he hand-fed his pet chicken, Cordelia, on one occasion splinting her broken leg. When ultimately he was forced to eat her, eight months later, he preserved the bone with the healed fracture. It is uncertain whether this represented affection for the chicken, pride in his veterinarian skill, or both.

Ft/Lt. R. D. Millar, who spent his captivity in Java and Sumatra, noted that in at least one camp, a form of food supplementation was carried out that many, less starved, might consider disgusting. Some men caught maggots in the latrines, washed them, fattened them on rice, and ate them to get the extra protein. “Believe it or not, IT IS A FACT” (emphasis in original).

Internees developed the same capacity as the POWs to eat nearly anything; those who failed to do so often failed to survive. Fastidiousness about food disappeared. “Prisoners pushed flowers, grass, weeds, dogs, cats, rats, snakes, grasshoppers, and snails down their gullets, where desperation plus the force of gravity carried it to their stomachs, the stomachs hurried it on to intestines, which hurried it on to the next place. The following day, we, as gardeners, passed it back to the potato beds. Somewhere along the yards of irritated mucous membrane we received the impression that we had had a meal. “

The impact of long-continued hunger was profound. George Orwell saw its ravages amongst starving tramps between the wars: “Hunger reduces one to an utterly spineless, brainless condition, more like the after-effects of influenza than anything else. It is as though one had been turned into a jellyfish, or as though all one’s blood had been pumped out and lukewarm water substituted. “

A Canadian medical orderly, thinking about the departure on a draft of many of his comrades, summed up the general position in the camp and in himself:

Another draft left today, which leaves only a thousand in camp. .. . Food here is getting worse. 3/4 oz bully per man. Hot feet are getting bad again, mine kept me awake until 2 a. m. yesterday. .. . Can only read with one eye; this is very common due to vitamin deficiency. The men’s spirits are remarkably good.

Particularly in the two decades before World War Two, diseases caused by poor nutrition had been studied in various parts of the world. Many of the studies were in the Far East where, among the poorest inhabitants of China, India, and other countries, diseases such as beriberi and pellagra were endemic. What many of the investigators concluded was that whereas each individual disease could be shown to have a specific cause — for example, insufficient thiamine in the diet causes beriberi — the overall cause of these diseases was poverty.

In a very real sense, this generalization applies to the prisoner-of-war cosmos as well. Within this world the prisoners were in general desperately poor. But there were exceptions. The well-to-do, relatively speaking, included the officers, cookhouse personnel, non-smokers, men with special skills needed in camp, and men who had local contacts to supply supplements of food and materiel.

The economy of the camps was artificial. The fundamental necessity, food, was rigidly controlled by the Japanese. But in terms of effect, this circumstance might be likened to a major drought striking an area with consequent hunger and onset of nutritional disorders among the poorest, first, while those better off lived on stored surpluses or were able to purchase food. In the POW camps of the Far East, the drought was general and lasted three and a half years.

The POW medical officers clearly anticipated problems with vitamin deficiencies. Long before these attained their full epidemic proportions, yeast-containing substances were being concocted at Sham Shui Po and given to the prisoners regularly. According to A. J. Alsey, this seems to have been a weekly event: 21 April 42: “Medical Officer’s Inspection. Yeast Parade at 12. “ Then, 28 April 42: “M. O. Insp. at 11: 15 followed by yeast Parade. The yeast is certainly stronger now. Our rice thieves get a public smacking from the Japs. “ Yeast contains thiamine and other B-complex vitamins in varying amounts.

Excerpt from Lying Down in the Ever-Falling Snow: Canadian Health Professionals' Experience of Compassion Fatigue by Wendy Austin, E. Sharon Brintnell, Erika Goble, Leon Kagan, Linda Kreitzer, Denise J. Larsen, and Brendan Leier

The Icy Wall of Compassion Fatigue

Compassion fatigue deeply affects the relationship between the health professional and the patient. Rather than having a relational connection and attunement to the patient, the professional feels unable to reach out and connect with those in his or her care. Perceived failure in repeated efforts to make a difference in the suffering of others seems to create a form of indifference in the health professional. Veronica says compassion fatigue feels like indifference to her: It doesn't matter what is going on. It doesnrt affect you in any way, and it should. People's pain . .. misery . .. suffering should affect you. It's not normal that it doesn’t affect you. It’s not normal that you can see someone in severe agony and then go have your lunch as if nothing has happened. “Indifference” originates in the Latin word indifferentia, meaning “not differing, making no difference . .. of no consequence, not particular, careless. ”30 Bill, a psychologist, describes his experience of this: You have a hard time getting up in the morning; you really don't want to go to work. You might start showing up late for appointments; you don't prepare a lot for your appointments. You don't have a lot of hope; you wish sessions would go faster. When the patient before you is in dire straits, the compassion fatigue is particularly evident. Bill gives an example from his own experience: If you see someone who has killed their own child, the clock really stops. There is not much you can say to someone who has killed their own child. .. . What can one say or do? The horror of such a situation can entirely overwhelm the compassion- fatigued therapist.

Veronica believes she could definitely recognize compassion fatigue in a colleague. She thinks of someone with whom she works who to me is very pent up. She will curse, and she doesn't make chit-chat or small talk. She doesn't take interest in other things. She is always straight to work. She comes to work looking a bit disheveled or she looks tired sometimes. When I first met her, she was very warm and friendly, and now she is cold.

As we explored in this study what compassion fatigue is like, we examined images that seemed to capture it. Images—sculptures, photographs, paintings—of a person who is overcome, collapsed, and whose arms appear to have lost all strength seemed to catch the pervasiveness of the fatigue. 31 When the health professional can no longer reach out and enact a compassionate response toward his or her patients or clients, it is as if there is a coldness, an icy wall in the way. It is a progressively thickening wall that blocks one's presence to the other.

An icy barrier to family relationships can also form. For those who work in intense and demanding environments, it may often be difficult to leave work and relate to the less profound concerns of a family member. It can be difficult to act as if the choice of new wallpaper matters very much when one has just left a patient who has been told he cannot be cured. One health professional noted that she would try to listen to her husband's concerns about technical problems at work but that it took effort. Though she kept to herself thoughts of I'm thinking of someone who is dying of cancer, while your statistical analysis doesn't work out, such thoughts colour the empathy that otherwise would be there for him.

Justine, a social worker, was offered insight into the personal impact of compassion fatigue by her husband. He told her: Before [you had counselling for compassion fatigue] I would say something and you would just jump all over it or you wouldn't answer me or you'd be so preoccupied with something. You were so sad. And so, I just kind of stopped talking about anything that was important.

Lucille, an occupational therapist, says that compassion fatigue changed the way she interacted at home with her children. When it starts carrying over to your children who don’t know any better . .. I realized there was something going on. She knew she needed to be able to focus on their everyday concerns and to have patience helping them deal with them. Lucille eventually left her position.