On the 17th September 1944, an incident happened, which considerably relieved the monotony of our existence. A typhoon had approached the coast and caused a tidal wave which covered a good third of Osaka with water to a depth of seven feet. As our camp was close to the waterfront, we were able to watch the water rising higher and higher but, fortunately, our camp was built about five feet above ground-level, and we gave a sigh of relief when the water ceased rising. When the camp was flooded to a depth of two feet, we could see part of the havoc caused; bales of cotton and wool, drums of gasoline, timber, and various other goods from the wharf and warehouses went floating along the streets.
The water did not subside for about two weeks, and after the first day, we waded our way to the docks, driven by the Japanese to help salvage goods. The destruction that met our eyes filled us with joy; the bottom bales of huge stacks of rice had swollen in the water, and toppled the whole stacks into the water, rendering it useless; thousands of bales of wool, rice, silk, beans, and other perishable commodities were damaged. Hundreds of Japanese homes had been swamped, and owing to the primitive sanitary conditions, typhoid, and other diseases soon abounded. Luckily for us, a supply of Red Cross medicines and drugs had been issued recently to our camp, and our medical staff were able to inoculate us against these diseases.
After a week or two, when working parties returned to the cement factories, and steel mills, we found that the floods had filled up the tunnels carrying cement powder with water and had hardened it until the factories had to close down for a long while. While the moulds in the steel mills had filled with water, production ceased.
