“Dinkum Brew” at the Yeast Centre

Of the many thousands of Allied troops and civilians taken prisoner in Malaya by the Imperial Japanese Army after the Fall of Singapore in 1942, nearly 15,000 were members of Australia’s 8th Division. Interned at Changi or sent to forced labour work camps, the prisoners of war experienced dangerous working conditions and poor hygiene, with inadequate accommodation, clothing, and medical facilities. Most notably, the prisoners endured starvation rations.

The Japanese forces provided little more than basic rice rations, while secretly withholding Red Cross parcels from the troops. The rice was heavily milled and reduced in quantity and quality; it was frequently dirty or musty, and contained foreign matter such as dead rats, dung, cigarette stubs, human teeth, grit and weevils.

The prisoners recognised the lack of essential vitamins in the limited rations would lead to disease and malnutrition. In response, each unit grew their own vegetables in the camps and purchased, stole or bartered for as much food and provisions as they could. A major concern was the lack of vitamin B1 (thiamine) in their diet.

Acting Sergeant Robert Cecil Morton noted, “Rice, when it comes from the plant contains quite enough vitamin B1 to enable the body to digest it, but to make it keep, it is nearly always milled, i.e. the outside layer, which incidentally contains the bulk of the vitamin is removed, leaving the white polished rice of commerce. A diet consisting of this polished rice alone will not prevent that ‘Scourge of the East’, beri-beri, which is caused by an insufficient supply of Vitamin B1 in the food, and it was not long before a lot of men in the camp had this disease.”

Thiamine deficiency (a lack of vitamin B1) in its severe and chronic form is known as beriberi. There are two primary clinical forms of the disease, and both were suffered by prisoners. Wet beriberi affects the cardiovascular system, and causes many symptoms including weakness, shortness of breath, swelling, and heart failure. Dry beriberi affects the central nervous system, and is described as extremely painful, especially in the hands and feet. Other symptoms from a lack of B1 include impaired vision and hearing disorders, ulcerations, and neuropsychological disturbances such as confusion, irritability, memory impairment and depression.

To combat B1 deficiencies, a small brewery known as the Yeast Centre was established on 1 April 1942 at Selarang Barracks of the Changi camp compound. Yeast, a single-celled fungus, contains essential B1 and can be brewed through a process of fermentation and controlled feeding and harvesting. Each unit was encouraged to produce its own yeast, using limited camp rations and kitchen refuse: potatoes, flour, sugar, rice polishings, and starter cultures created from a batch of brewer’s yeast first provided to the camp bakery.

Driven by the innovation and inventiveness of the chemists, botanists, and engineers among the imprisoned troops, an estimated 30,000 to 40,000 gallons of yeast was made by the Yeast Centre in its first 20 months of operation. The batches were regularly examined under a microscope and the yeast cell production varied in success. In addition to its medicinal qualities, the drink supplied was a welcome taste, and to some it was known as “Changi-mite”.

Acting Sergeant Robert Cecil Morton recalled, “In fact yeast was the nearest thing to the ‘dinkum brew’ in the camp because one of the other things always present with yeast is alcohol, and I venture to say many a tee-totaller enjoyed his yeast for reasons quite unexpected by him.”

Over time, the Yeast Centre became merely one department of the overall “Vitamin Factory”. Medical officers were increasingly anxious about the number of diseases breaking out and the lack of prisoner intake of riboflavin (vitamin B2) and other essential nutrients. Another vitamin-rich drink, the less appetising “grass soup”, was produced. Concentrated juices rich in riboflavin were made by steeping a variety of crushed grasses and hibiscus leaves in large percolators. A crushing and mincing machine made from a modified lawn mower and rollers was assembled for the process.

Other industrious efforts by the men in the Vitamin Factory included the making of a rice polishings extract, and the establishment of a tempeh department. In late 1943 the Japanese began providing soybean rations, which were highly nutritious but not easily digestible. A process for treating the beans with Rhizopus, a genus of mould fungi found on hibiscus flowers, was successful in turning the beans into valuable tempeh. Demonstrations were held to show the cooks how to prepare the digestible dish, usually fried, baked or boiled. Another branch established in the Vitamin Factory was a covert distillery which produced hospital grade alcohol, used for medical treatment and sterilisation, made from scraps and inedible rice.

These innovations of the Vitamin Factory at Selarang were invaluable in providing nutrition to the troops, and no doubt saved many lives. This was especially true for men hospitalised on return to Changi, diseased and emaciated from the brutal conditions of working at camps such as those on the Burma–Thailand Railway.

Acting Sergeant Robert Cecil Morton, a chemist from Queensland serving in the 2/9th Field Ambulance wrote a report, The Vitamin Centre of Changi Prison Camp, which has recently been digitised and will soon be available online. Until then the collection can be viewed in the CEW Bean Research Centre at the Australian War Memorial.

Further sources:

• Deficiency diseases in Japanese prison camps - by Dean A. Smith and Michael F.A. Woodruff; with an introduction by J. Bennet - 616.13 S645d

• The Changi book - edited by Lachlan Grant - 940.547252 C456

• “Changi and Singapore Island: Prisoners of War Camp Changi”, Report on medical activities by research officer for Period Oct 1942 to Feb 1943. Articles on yeast production and analysis of diet - AWM54 554/11/7

• “Nutrition in Rice-Eating Populations”, lecture delivered to Changi Medical Society by Major Burgess, Royal Australian Medical Corps, 6th August 1943 - AWM54 351/5/2