The hard way
The diary of the inhabitant of a notorious POW camp reveals shocking breaches of the Geneva convention while highlighting the incredible ingenuity and resourcefulness of Allied soldiers Major Vic Ebbage was a Colonel with the Royal Army Ordnance Corps, serving in Hong Kong in 1941, when his garrison was attacked by the Japanese Army. He was captured and taken prisoner to the notorious Hong Kong death camp, Shamshuipo, where he was held from December 30, 1941 to August 1945. His story is an extraordinary one of survival against all the odds, as well as a story of how a group of men worked together to improve conditions in the camp for their fellow prisoners. They were offered nothing by their captors but the constant command to "improvise," which they learned to do by recycling salvaged materials into everything from homemade nails, cooking pots, and plates, to surgical instruments, beds, and nesting boxes. His diary demonstrates how individuals can work together in an almost unimaginable adversity to improve life for their fellow people, and how imagination and innovation can flourish in even the worst conditions. This story is a model of care, humanity, and inventiveness.