Nitpick: Cochrane was British then did not fight against the Japanese, and he was prisoner of war in a German camp.
Here is his story about the prisoners' camp[1] and there is no mention of blinding people, “just” German soldiers shooting or throwing grenades at random on prisoners.
Fair nitpick - as I said, I was recalling the book from memory having read it quite a while ago, and couldn't remember what the exact tradeoffs were. Thanks for linking to an original source.
Here is his story about the prisoners' camp[1] and there is no mention of blinding people, “just” German soldiers shooting or throwing grenades at random on prisoners.
[1]: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1444794/?page=1