I am in no doubt at all that its use was widespread. This ranged from quite savage beatings with paddles especially in the Victor camps and in Macau where I am satisfied that children were bruised and injured. The penalty for too many demerits in the Jumbo camps was to be "swatted" with a switch, which, certainly in the Philippines, was a bamboo cane. Berg's favourite implement, the fly swatter, was in regular use and children were regularly beaten with it. Again I am satisfied that there were many occasions when the beatings were more severe than was necessary. Given the emphasis on beating until it hurt and beating until they repent, it is not a surprise to me that many who administered these punishments lost sight of the admonitions not to injure. I am also satisfied that there were many occasions when the object of public beatings was as much to put fear into the onlookers as it was to humiliate and break the will of the recipient. It was not infrequently a brutal form of control.
