The Plantation (39 page)

Time was measured in meals. The women thought only of food. They talked constantly about it, describing their favourite meals, exchanging recipes and dreaming about what they would eat when they got out of the camp. And now the rations were becoming even more meagre.

‘This is disgusting. How’re we supposed to live on this?’ asked Norma as they faced another watered-down rice soup, helped along with a few dried beans.

‘It’s not right we have to trade all we have for basic food to keep us alive,’ said Babs.

‘If we could just grow some of our own food, it would make such a difference,’ said Evelyn.

‘We’ve asked and asked if we could use the old rice field beside the main gate to grow some food, but Sakura says that he hasn’t got enough soldiers to watch us,’ said Bette.

‘As if we could run away in the state we’re in. I think that man has been completely unreasonable. I’d love to keep a few chickens. I had them at home and they wouldn’t be too hard to manage,’ said Norma.

Norma’s description of the chickens she had kept was interrupted by June, who had some very interesting news.

‘I have just left Sakura’s office. He’s been transferred. Actually given a promotion and he’s left to go on active service.’

‘I hope he gets killed,’ said Babs. ‘He was such a mean old git. Look what he did to Bette.’

Bette was thoughtful. ‘Maybe we could ask the new commander if we could have a garden. He might be more approachable. When does he get here, June?’

‘Don’t ask me, but I imagine in a couple of days. And you’re right, he might be more reasonable.’

‘They don’t know the word,’ sniffed Norma.

‘Well, I think that we should ask,’ said Evelyn. ‘Any extra food would be so welcome. Nearly everyone is out of money, even Hannah. People are getting sick so easily now, because we’re starving.’

They walked over to the fence and peered at the rutted earth that had once been a rice field.

‘There doesn’t seem to be any water. We’d have to bring in our own or dig a well,’ said Babs.

‘At least the soil looks all right,’ said Norma. ‘Where would we get seeds?’

‘That’d be worth bargaining for,’ said Bette. ‘Maybe we could at least get some root vegetables and let them sprout or save the seeds and plant them. Sweet potatoes, tapioca, yams, some greens.’

‘Who’s going to organise it and work in it?’ said Norma looking at Bette.

‘Everyone who’s well enough,’ said Bette.

Some of the women protested because they thought they no longer had the strength for any more physical effort, but Gloria stepped in.

‘I agree with Bette. A garden is a fine idea. We can’t just sit here and starve to death. Every bit of vegetable is helping to keep us alive because it puts some variety into our very limited diet. I suggest that we ask June to ask the new Japanese commander when he arrives, as if we’ve just thought of the idea, and not let on that Sakura would never let us have one. Then we can set up a committee to plan a garden.’

There was a long discussion the following morning about turning the field into a garden bed.

‘We could do all the work and the Nips could end up taking it all,’ was one complaint.

‘Well, at least let’s ask,’ said Bette.

When the new commander, Captain Toyama, arrived, June and Bette asked permission to speak to him. Bette took along the half cup of rice that was now each woman’s daily ration, and a miserable meal it looked. She bowed low and humbly and carefully explained that this amount of food was not adequate to live on and outlined their plan to grow some more if they could have permission to tend the disused field beside the main gate.

‘You run away, soldiers will shoot.’

‘I understand,’ said Bette. ‘But where are we going to run? There is nowhere to go.’

‘You grow only for you. Women work in field every day. You work like coolies.’ He looked rather pleased as he imparted this news. Perhaps he thought that if the women were more occupied, they would create fewer problems, or perhaps he thought that white women working in the fields was the correct place for them to be.

Bette and June bowed as they expressed their thanks. Captain Toyama turned his back. They were dismissed.

The women were given heavy mattocks and a few old spades with splintered wood handles and they gradually created more tools from flattened tins and heavy sticks. Once they’d prepared the garden beds, fertilised with waste from their latrines, water supply became the next problem to solve. They dug trenches alongside the beds in order to catch the rain and started digging a small pond in the hope it would also hold water.

Seeds were bartered for, and a bunch of uprooted green vegetables that no one could identify were also handed over and quickly planted. Yams that had sprouted became the first crop to be harvested.

‘This garden might be providing a bit of fresh food but its wrecking my back,’ sighed Babs.

‘Gloria and the nuns have made up some sort of liniment,’ said Norma. ‘It burns but seems to help.’

‘I wonder if Hannah has any of her fancy cream left. I certainly could use it,’ sighed Bette. ‘At one stage I thought she had brought half her bathroom.’

‘She might have face cream, but you’re prettier,’ said Marjorie and they all laughed.

It was a relief to laugh. And the hard work was worth it. The garden struggled, like the women workers, but eventually it produced small crops of fresh food that helped to halt the outbreaks of deficiency diseases like beri-beri and general malnutrition.

It was Norma who first said something to Bette. ‘There’s something up with the Japs. What do you suppose is going on?’

‘Don’t know. There seem to be a lot of meetings. Captain Toyama took off and hasn’t come back.’

‘They’re not paying us a lot of attention,’ added Gloria.

‘Hashimoto is waiting for the field gang, though. Let’s go,’ said Bette standing up. ‘I’ll have to get someone to rub my shoulders this afternoon, I feel terrible again.’

‘Aren’t you going to work for mean Hannah today?’ asked Norma as they picked up their heavy gardening tools.

‘She’s conserving her assets.’ Bette shrugged.

‘Poor thing,’ said Evelyn unsympathetically. ‘Maybe she might have to work like the rest of us soon.’

It was while they were hoeing a new row, cloths wrapped around their calloused hands to protect them, the remains of any hats pulled down low over their faces, strips of cloth across the backs of their necks protecting them from the sun, that Bette thought she heard a whistle, then a shout.

Slowly, stiffly, she straightened up. The other women stopped what they were doing and looked across the road at half-a-dozen men coming their way. ‘They’re white. It’s some of our men,’ Bette shouted.

Evelyn limped closer to Bette, shading her eyes. ‘What are they saying? How can they be here?’

The few times the women had seen the male prisoners marching past, the men had shouted out and sung to them despite the admonitions from the Japanese guarding them. But this time the men were waving, punching the air and smiling as they called out. And there were no guards with them.

Ignoring Corporal Hashimoto, the women ran to the road at the edge of the garden.

‘What’s happened?’

‘The war’s over. The Japs have surrendered.’

‘The war is over? Is that what they’re saying?’ The women all looked at each other trying to absorb this news.

‘What’s happened?’ shouted Bette to the men.

‘Surrender. The Nips have surrendered. We heard on our radio that there was a huge bomb and now the Japs have given up. You’ll be all right now. We came to tell you the news, but now we’re going back to our camp.’

As the men turned and went back the way they had come, the women stood, silent and stunned. One woman started sobbing, dropping her face in her hands.

‘Do you think it could be true?’ Evelyn asked Bette. ‘Could it be … ? How?’

She turned and looked at sober-faced Hashimoto. ‘He’s not going to tell us anything. I guess we’ll know soon enough if it’s the truth.’

‘I can’t believe that the Japs are surrendering,’ said Norma. ‘Too proud. Losing face and all that. It must have been a bloody big bomb.’

‘I wish we had some way of finding out what’s happening.’ Bette picked up her hoe. ‘Let’s finish this up. Yam tops and rice for supper.’

There was a lot more chatter as they worked and later when they headed back to camp they held their shoulders back, heads held high and hopeful. The sad, weary sag of their bodies was gone.

The news the men had given them spread quickly through the camp and women gathered in groups talking and speculating. Every move by the soldiers was scrutinised. The surrender seemed too good to be true but, until it was confirmed, most women didn’t want to raise their hopes. Nevertheless, Gloria told those in the sick bay what the men had told them in an effort to lift their spirits.

To everyone’s surprise and growing excitement, the next morning they were called to assembly and it was announced that special parcels were to be handed out, all due to the munificence of the Japanese Emperor. Impassively the soldiers piled packages in front of the women and stood back as they rushed forward as though they were at a clearance sale, tearing the parcels open.

‘It’s food!’

‘Tinned fruit! Oh my God!’

Bette suddenly made the connection. ‘It’s from the Red Cross. Something has happened.’ She grabbed Philip’s hand and spun him in a twirl.

‘Why are you doing that?’ he asked in a worried voice.

‘Now I know that the war is over. We’ll be going home,’ sang out Bette.

Evelyn was studying the contents of one of the parcels. ‘You know what? I bet this is old stuff. I think this food has been sitting in that shed for damned years while we starved and died.’

There was a stunned silence. ‘Do you think so? The bastards,’ said Norma.

‘Now, ladies. Let’s have some order to this,’ shouted June. ‘Let’s sort through systematically, what we have and take it to the kitchen.’

‘Let’s have a party,’ called out Norma.

After that, it was happy chaos as children ran off with chocolate bars and women sat drinking proper coffee with tinned milk. The soldiers left them to it. After a slap-up meal, a sing-song and a prayer of thanks led by one of the nuns they fell into bed.

Philip went to sleep immediately. Bette stroked his hair.

‘I don’t think he’s gone to sleep with a full tummy for years. You know, wonderful as it will be to go home, it’s all going to be a big adjustment,’ said Bette, cradling the sleeping boy beside her.

‘When do you think that will happen?’ said Evelyn. ‘My mind can’t take that in.’

‘Oh, I do hope it’s soon,’ said Marjorie, her eyes shining ‘It’s so exciting. What are you going to do first, Mother?’

‘Hot bath. Clean clothes. Kiss your father.’

‘And you, Bette?’

‘I can’t wait to get back to Brisbane and see my parents, and Margaret, and my home again. I’ve so missed them all. But I do wonder what sort of world we’ll find after all this heartache. I suspect that it will be awhile before life settles down again. But I am so looking forward to it.’

‘We’ve all changed, haven’t we,’ said Marjorie.

‘You certainly have, you’ve grown up,’ said Bette. ‘And we must believe that this terrible time in our lives has given us strengths and knowledge about ourselves that we can use in the future.’

Uncharacteristically, the Japanese soldiers didn’t appear first thing the next morning, though the sentries were still at the entrance to the camp. After the uninhibited and rather hysterical previous evening, everyone was drained, tired and still disbelieving that the end could be near. That was until there was a drone from above and everybody stopped what they were doing and looked to the sky.

‘Is it one of ours?’

Once the women recognised the Allied plane, they started jumping up and down and waving to it. The plane flew low and a snowstorm of white paper fluttered to the ground, which everybody ran to pick up.

Philip scooped some up and ran to Bette. ‘Letters, they’re letters. What’s it say, what’s it say?’ He jumped up and down excitedly.

Bette and Evelyn looked at the leaflet. ‘It’s from the Australian 9th Division. The Japanese have surrendered. It’s official!’ Bette leaned down and hugged Philip as Marjorie dashed towards them.

Wiping tears from her eyes, Bette read on. ‘Due to your location it will be difficult to get aid to you immediately …’ She smiled at them. ‘Not to worry, they’re going to help us. We’re going to be okay.’

The final days were a blur but eventually the 9th Division arrived to liberate the women. For Bette, to see the cheerful open-faced Australian soldiers, to hear their familiar accents, to suddenly have strong, kind men to look after them, to play with the children, to give them rides in their vehicles and to have enough to eat was all overwhelming.

‘It’s wonderful how most of the women have managed to save one reasonably good outfit for this day,’ said Evelyn.

‘Yes,’ replied Bette. ‘But it hardly disguises the terrible physical state of their bodies. You can see by the look on the faces of the Australian soldiers that they think we look pretty awful. There is such a yawning gulf between their world and the three-and-a-half years we’ve been here. I wonder how we will manage when we get out.’