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During World War II, Allied POWs in Japanese camps learned to smuggle contraband in the one place guards rarely searched: the crotch fold of the Japanese fundoshi. In tropical heat and humidity, clothing rotted quickly. Many prisoners ended up wearing improvised wraps or fundoshi-style cloth, the same basic garment Japanese soldiers and laborers used for work details.

POWs working details sometimes had access to food or small supplies, but getting anything back into camp was dangerous. Guards searched hands, bundles, and anything obvious—but they typically did not inspect the fundoshi crotch. The assumption was simple: if a prisoner were carrying something, it would be visible without anyone having to look there. That blind spot became a survival method.

Among Australian POWs, the practice developed its own slang. The fundoshi was nicknamed “jap-happy” (likely a pronunciation twist), and their accent turned “crotch” into “crutch.” Smuggling items in the fundoshi crotch became known as “crutching.”

Crutching wasn’t humor. It was calculated risk—food and other contraband carried back into camp, right under the guards’ noses.

Source: Gavin Daws, Prisoners of the Japanese (survivor accounts).