PoW jargon help

Hi all

I'm just wondering if anyone could provide help with the following phrases used in a secret diary kept by a British prisoner of the Japanese:

1) Has anyone heard of a game, most probably a card game, called "sapper row"?

2) Does anyone know what the inoculation referred to as being "Given the glass rod" entailed and what was it for? It appears to have been given in the Pacific by the Japanese to prisoners about to be transported from Java to Japan.

3) A code used in the diary is "ice cream", as in the phrase, "Ice cream not good". I'm pretty sure it refers to "news" heard on an illicit radio set in the PoW camp, but I'm just wondering if anyone has come across this term.

Thanks in advance
Greg

 

Hi: They were checking for cholera.
Voyage of the Awa Maru

Hope this helps
Billy the Kid

 

Thanks for that, Billy.

 

Does anyone know of the game "Sapper Row"?

 

Not heard of "Sapper Row" I'm afraid.

I have read of secret radios being called "The Ice Box" and therefore the news from them being called "Ice Cream". So as to stop english speaking guards from picking up the real meaning.

 

Given the "Glass Rod" was a horrific way of Torture.

The Japanese would shove a long thin glass rod down the penis of men then hit the end with a hammer and it shader in the mans penis.

WikiAnswers - Did Germans shove a glass rod down the penis of men then hit the end with a hammer and it shad er in the mans penis

 

Aargh!! Never mind the glass rod, the hammer alone does enough for me!!!

 

Every mention I've read in accounts by FEPOW's of a glass rod was when they were checking for blood in the mens faeces.

 

DelBoy
Thanks for the info on the Ice Box/Ice Cream. That certainly sounds credible. Do you know of any books where this is referenced?
Thanks
Greg

 

It would be helpful if the WikiAnswer gave a little more than just "the Japanese did it".

The rod-in-rod torture is described in The Bridge at Andau, James Michener's account of the 1956 Hungarian revolt against the Communist regime.

 

If the glass rod had blood or mucus on it [after insertion in the anus], then POW would be suffering from the onset of Dysentry. I can't remember where I read this, but when I find out I will let you know.

 

Thanks both

 

as an (albeit more recent) ex Sapper, the game / card game mentioned doesn't ring any bells - it of course may have been named that by anyone and nothing to do with the Sappers themselves. There is apparently a version of solitaire called 'Engineer' which might be connected but i cant find any more info - conceivably a solitaire type card game or a ball under the cups type game could be what you're looking for.

really reaching could it be a corruption of the japanese card game/suit sakura? or a game named after Sapporo the city - possibly only japanese cards were easily available at certain times although seems unlikely the POWs would play Japanese games?

Sorry nothing concrete

 

Hiya Spartanroller
Thanks very much for those suggestions. I'll look again at the entries in the diaries and see if they fit.
I think I may have assumed it was a card game - perhaps a cups type game might make sense.
Thanks again
Greg

 

Greg,

I read about the Ice Box & Ice /cream reference in "Never Forget, Nor Forgive" by George Cooper.

I'll have a dig through my books for examples of the glass rod treatment. There was a similar check done with "Jap Happys" when glass tubes weren't available. Usually performed before a sea trip.

Cheers,
Derek.

 

A dictionary of slang and ... - Google Books

This book link to a preview of a dictionary of slang gives a good description of a lot of far east POW slang (page 1391), and a radio is described as a canary or dicky-bird, with news being birdsong. couldn't find any reference to ice cream or the others you mentioned, although i can't be certain I got through all the other slang categories in the book, and the letters I and G are not unfortunately part of the preview.

Hope this is interesting at least, even if not helpful

Edit; also found this great story of the building of a radio in a camp, with no references to the phrase, which makes the radio reference perhaps very local to one camp, perhaps an American POW rather than a Brit or Aussie thing? It's a good story anyway.

http://www.zerobeat.net/qrp/powradio.html

 

Ah, Found one!

Survivors' Report: The sinking of the Tamahoku Maru

 

Hiya Nigel
That's very helpful - thanks very much
Greg

 

Thanks Delboy!

 

You're welcome Did you come up with any other possible leads on the terms? I hope we're going to have the chance to read more from this diary at some point? Sounds interesting.