Oddly enough I knew a magician named Michael Roth who also used magic to survive a prisoner of war camp, but in Germany rather than Japan. He also used magic to survive in the camp. He said that in the closing months of the war he was on starvation rations in the camp. Oddly enough his main complaint was not with the Germans but with the British Government who he pursued and harassed for years after the war. In fact decades. At issue was money he claimed the British government owed him for army payment not given to him when he was in the camp. He moved to Toronto but still pursued the UK government on behalf of ex-servicemen who had the same experience of not getting their money and questions were asked in parliament over it. He was in the newspapers of the day quite often over the matter. He told me "The British Goverment have never treated their veterans very well".
Here is one snippet about him:
http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1 ... 09,5512269" target="_blank
Posted: Jan 17th, '12, 10:19