15.8.45. Hot day, with some showers. Good porridge breakfast, rice & pork – greens stew for tiffin, & rice & bean pot for tea. “Bean cake” for supper. Paper of yesterday's date carried a little news of fighting at borders of Manchuria & Korea & in Sakhalin. Also of bombing in Japan on 12th & 13th. Of course, on the face of it this gives the KO to my belief that the war is over, but there is very little such news, & none of the remainder of the fronts such as China, Borneo etc, & anyway I think they would keep up a pretence locally that the war was still on in order to keep things quiet here. No recce planes about – there is literally just nothing doing. Everything is just extraordinary. Today the first working party came back at about 3.30pm & reported same news from town, & also that they had had to wait three quarters of an hour at the gate to get into camp. Whilst there they saw a group of Japanese officers round a table listening to a radio speech. This was interesting enough, but when the other parties got back they had many details to tell of relatives coming up quite openly to the party & giving the time at which peace (?Armistice) had been signed. Indians called out “All finish – comrades again”; all flags down from public buildings including H.K.Bank which is Governor’s Office. Last but not least all working parties are cancelled – which draws the teeth of the disbelievers who argued the news could not be true because working parties were still going out. One story was that ceasefire occurred at 2pm today. It does look like the end. Japanese twin engined transport plane came in at 7pm. Officers are getting their gear out for cleaning & there is generally a damn good atmosphere. I fancy my beard won’t last long now – discipline again.