The work site was a very dangerous place to be. The ground was soft and easy to
dig, but for that reason the tunnels were very unstable. A cave-in could happen at
any time. Fortunately only one serious accident happened when Harry Irvine's leg
was broken when the roof caved in on him.
Some of us were sent out to cut trees for props to shore up the tunnels. On the
grounds of the University of Hong Kong, with primitive Japanese saws that cut on
the pull stroke, we cut some beautiful ornamental trees and hauled them back to
the work site.
The logs were bound together and erected at the mouth of the tunnel in a
ramshackle frame. It didn't look very professional and no doubt would not have
been very effective in the event of a cave-in.
The tunnels went straight into the hill for about thirty feet, then drifted to one side
at ninety degrees for another twenty or so feet, then straight in again.
The purpose of this zig-zag pattern was probably meant to confuse any intruder,
but the effect on us diggers was nothing less than uncomfortable and very
dangerous.
Conditions at the end of the tunnel were bad. It was hot and there was very little
air. Five minutes there was the most a man could take.
The lighting system was primitive, but enough to cast a dim glow at the end of the
five-foot-high hole.
Tunnelling
Sunlight
A mirror was set up at the mouth of the tunnel, reflecting light in to the first corner,
where a second mirror caught the reflected light from outside.
At the next corner, a third mirror caught whatever light was reflected from the
second one, and directed it to the work face.On a bright, sunny day, it was
somewhat effective, but on a dull day you can understand that it left a lot to be
desired.
Using a pick to scratch down the earth was backbreaking in that low hole, and
wearing only a fandochi, the heat was intolerable. The loose earth was carried out
in baskets, coolie style, to be dumped out side the cave.
I could never understand how a "coolie" with a bamboo pole  across his or her
shoulders, with a basket at each end of the pole, could carry as much as two of
us. I found that, in my weakened condition, one basket of earth,filled to the brim
on a pole between me and another POW, was all that I could take.
You'll get used to it!
Things in the "lines" had more or less stabilized by this time. Perhaps we were
getting "acclimatized" to conditions, but hunger and disease in the form of beri beri
and pellagra still persisted.
Roll call was still taken regularly twice a day, but on top of that we were
frequently called out in the middle of the night, sometimes in pouring rain, on some
pretext or other.
Usually it was because our captors suspected that there was a radio in the camp,
or that someone had concealed a pair of wire-cutters. The sick, the halt, and the
blind were not excused these parades, but that provided us with an excuse for the
sick person carry a small stool to sit on while roll call was being taken. Strangely
enough, the Japs permitted this.
News from the Real World
We  had in our camp, some survivors of a Dutch submarine that had been
captured in the vicinity of Java. Some of these men were geniuses. They always
seemed to have a radio which they had built in the camp.
They were able to make a radio out of the merest bits of junk they were able to
find or something they were able to make to substitute for radio parts.
Sometimes they were found out, and I remember specifically, a huge Dutchman
who was severely bloodied because he had been found in possession of that most
illegal of objects, a radio.
The Dutchmen discretely shared the news they managed to pick up on the air
waves, with a select number of fellow-POWs, because to broadcast it in camp
would probably have resulted in a surprise search, always a dangerous situation.