The shoulder patch that Cpl. King (George Segal) is wearing is that of the 34th Infantry Division (Red Bull). The 34th ID served in the European Theater of Operations, not in the Pacific. The 34th ID patch is a black Mexican water jug called an "olla" with a red bull's skull superimposed. Almost all the POWs at Changi were British or Commonwealth soldiers captured at the surrender of Singapore on Feb. 15, 1942, but there also were POWs from the Netherlands East Indies, which surrendered in March. The only sizable U.S. unit at Changi was Co. E, 2nd Btn, 131st Field Artillery Regt., part of the Army's 36th ID (the "Texas Division"). The Second Battalion, which became known as the Texas National Guard's "Lost Battalion," was detached from the 36th ID in the States and shipped to the Pacific in November 1941, but when the Japanese attacked the Philippines in December, the battalion's convoy was diverted from Manila to Brisbane, Australia. In January the battalion was sent to Java, in the Netherlands East Indies. The battalion was the only U.S. ground unit in Java when the NEI surrendered to the Japanese on March 9, 1942. Most men in the battalion were transferred to Singapore later that year and, along with thousands of British and Commonwealth soldiers, were used by the Japanese as slave labor to build the infamous "Death Railway" connecting Bangkok to Rangoon. Company E of the 2nd Battalion, separated from the rest of the unit on Java, was at Changi briefly in October-November 1942 before being sent to Japan as slave laborers. It would be plausible that Cpl. King was a member of 2nd Battalion, 131st Field Artillery, and that the movie's costumers got the wrong division patch for his uniform.
