Singapore’s war heroine, Elizabeth Choy was imprisoned by the Japanese after being suspected of helping British internees. For 200 days, she was locked up in a small cell, where she was tortured. She recalls life in the cell.
"I was put into a cell only 10 by 12 feet (4m by 5m) big. There were more than 20 people crammed inside. Packed like sardines, we knelt from morning till night. Some of us suffered serious sores on our knees.
I was the only female among them. Inside the cell was a tap and underneath it, a hole meant for toilet purposes. There was no privacy to speak of -- our daily business was conducted there in full view of everyone.
The stench coming from our perspiration, human waste and stagnant water fouled up the small cell and was suffocating.
We had to crawl out through a small trap door at the side for interrogation. Our captors beat us up, subjected us to electric shocks and pumped us up with water as part of the interrogation routine. The feeling of having one’s belly pumped full of water and then seeing the water gushing out of the body was hardly bearable.
When my interrogators could not get any information out of me, they dragged my husband from Outram Prison, tied him up and made him kneel beside me. Then, in his full view, they stripped me to the waist and applied electric currents to me.
The electric shocks sent my whole body into spasms. My tears and mucus flowed uncontrollably.
Even now, anything with electricity, like microwave ovens and the television, puts me off.
I cannot describe the pain, but it must have been thousands of times worse for my husband who had to see me being tortured.
I was detained in the centre for more than 200 days. I wore the same outfit for that period of time. Getting a decent shower was wishful thinking; we considered ourselves very lucky to have a little water to wash our faces.
Our daily meals were shoved to us through the trap door. Ravenous, every one would eat up the last grain of rice. The portions were pathetic. My waist shrank to 18 inches (45 cm) from 25 inches.
Outside the cell, badly tortured prisoners lied in the corridor. They howled in pain. The cries of the dying would pierce our ears and hearts. It was most distressing.
Worse were the interrogation sessions.
Monai Tadamori, a warrant officer with the kempeitai, would come chat with the prisoners as and when he felt like it. Just when you least expected it, he would deliver a few hard slaps on your face. The impact would leave you with giddy spells and feeling absolutely helpless.
I was finally released after more than 200 days in the cell.
Not having seen sunlight during my imprisonment, my eyes could hardly open as I stood directly under the sun. My mind was a complete blank.
The clothes that I had been wearing for 200 days smelt foul.
My body ached from my injuries.
For a long while, I felt I had just returned from death."
Extract from: A shameful past in human memory: a verbal account by Elizabeth Choy, The Price of Peace.
Used with permission from the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry
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