Our guards no doubt felt humiliated that they were reduced to playing jailers to a collection of women and children, so they treated us with utter contempt. They screamed abuse at the tenko if we failed to make our bows low enough. As we became thinner and dirtier, they appeared to stop seeing us as women. Their eyes showed they despised our tall, white, emaciated bodies, our swollen “rice bellies” and our protuberant bones. To them we were a pointless species, unsuitable as pets, but needing to be held as captives. We were a drain on their resources, a distraction from the true purpose of war and their unfulfilled need to be fighting-men, advancing the glory of the empire and the humiliation of the white man.
They beat us, tortured us, treated us savagely and did everything they could to
