The recent postings (Sallyann Wagoner's B-29 Superfortress)  re "Honey Buckets" took my memories back to POW days in Tokyo.  After days in the solitary cages at Kempei Tai and then at Tokyo (Ueno) Zoo I was relocated to Omori prison camp.  At Omori there were 32 B 29ers assembled from various prior areas of confinement.  Great to be out of solitary and to be able to be amongst fellow B 29ers and talk and see the sky.

 

After a while we were assigned the job of "cleaning up" the city of Omori adjacent our camp (kind description of our holding facility).  Raids by B 29s had demolished/burned out much of the city.  Our function was to develop a garden area in Omori  contiguous the railroad tracks on the Tokyo-Yokohama rail sector.  We had no tools and very little strength/ability but did manage to dig/scrape trenches to plant our garden.

 

We needed fertilizer.  Several teams were formed to accomplish that mission.  Major Bob Goldsworthy (of Z 1) and I were a team.  With a 10 or 12 foot bamboo pole  and a wooden bucket suspended thereon we set out each day to gather human refuse to fertilize our garden area.  Sanitary toilet facilities were non existent.  We improvised a ladle and scooped out the human refuse from homes in the now destroyed neighborhood.  Long tapeworms prevailed  in this crude operation.  Then we loaded the refuse into our "honey buckets" and suspended on the pole between our shoulders we transported to our garden area; poured into the trenches to serve as fertilizer.  Needless to say; we were never allowed to eat any of crops that resulted.   Extreme hunger caused some of our group to violate the rule and severe immediate beatings by guards ensued if  our guys were caught.

 

Cucumbers and large white radishes (Diakons) were our most prolific crops. The rate of growth assisted by the earlier described fertilizer was amazing.  In the vegetable section of an occasional store these days I will see and purchase one of the large  Diakons. I only take a bit or two.  It's not about fulfilling hunger - it's about defying former rules that prevailed in the days of starvation long ago.

 

August 15, 1945 was the final day we 32 B 29 guys worked in the Omori garden area. I hope that some of the Japanese folks living in our former garden area enjoyed the crops left behind.  Those folks were starving also.

 

I will never forget those days of "Honey Buckets". 

 

Enjoy Life

Hap Halloran