This was an armband worn by a Japanese soldier in the Changi POW camp. The Japanese characters are read as "Hosa", which means "Assistant" in Japanese. The armband was probably picked up by George Dudley Binsted, who was interned in Changi as a POW during the Japanese Occupation of Singapore. Binsted had joined the Royal Air Force (RAF) in 1941 and had flown Spitfires over France before being posted to Java. After the fall of Singapore in February 1942, Binsted along with four others, were captured by the Japanese. They were transported by ship to Singapore, where they spent the next three and a half years as POWs in Changi Prison.
