Themes
Twiss POW Transcripts
Admiral Sir Frank Twiss describing his clothing and posessions in the Zentsuji prisoner of war camp
Transcript: "We were all issued with British army uniform, I think of the 1890s, or there about. It was a very coarse khaki uniform of jacket and trousers and that was given to us to clothe ourselves with and a pair of, I don’t think we had boots at all, I think we had wooden clogs. Anyhow, we had jolly little to cart around with us but we did have, for instance, most of us still had a toothbrush and you could get a little toothpaste. In one of the tubes of toothpaste we had for the whole of our time in camp carried an account of the battle of the Exeter’s sinking screwed up and put inside the toothpaste thing which the Captain, Captain Gordon, always had in his gear. He always had the battle narrative which he actually eventually was able to hand to the allies at the end of the war. It was always touch and go because wherever one moved, everything was searched and most of the small things tended to be taken away but the Japanese had a great respect apparently for teeth. Toothpaste and toothbrushes was always passed."
