ABSTRACT
For bacillary dysentery, a condition about 90 per cent of POWs had throughout captivity, it prescribed ‘absolute rest in bed’, three pints of milk daily, alcohol if needed, saline, enemata of olive oil, hot fomentations to abdomen and perineum, and antidysenteric serum—all measures that were completely impossible to carry out in captivity. For the vitamin B1 deficiency disease beri-beri, the suggested treatment is bitterly comical in the context of Japanese captivity: ‘Care must be taken to cut off white rice from the patient’s diet.’ Captivity represented a professional hiatus for doctors rather than a waste of time. This is evinced by many comments written in their medical reports during imprisonment and immediately after liberation. From the beginning of captivity, doctors formed medical societies and lecture groups in many camps. During captivity, doctors such as Coates and Dunlop performed hundreds of amputations on tropical ulcers.
