Sometime after my introduction to Mundo a brick was knocked out of the wall under the window and level with the floor. Buckets of water and brushes were pushed into the cell and I was told to clean up our mess. This was after a Japanese medical officer had visited us. After we had cleaned up the cell and got rid of the smell, Lacey and I and the two Chinese were all roped together with our hands tied behind our backs and a noose was put around our necks. Four armed guards marched us through the main streets of the town to the bank of the Irrawaddy. Still with the noose around our necks and a rope around one ankle we were allowed to clean the filth from our bodies and bathe.
I was more embarrassed by the sight of Lacey than I was for myself, for his testicles and penis were swollen to an incredible size. His legs were more than three times the normal size and his stomach was also swollen. I had to assist him as we went along the road. Even our Japanese escorts seemed to be somewhat ashamed as they marched along with us past the staring crowds of onlookers. There were very few people along the route who thought it amusing. Many showed their disgust by turning their backs, so as not to look upon the scene. In my opinion the Japanese lost more friends and gained more enemies in that town that day.
On our return from the river the two Chinese were put back into our cell, which had been disinfected. Now we were also allowed to have a bucket in there to do what we had to do. This was emptied every morning and brought back clean by the two Chinese in turn.
One afternoon an air-raid siren went off to let us know that our planes were on their way. Guns began to fire as the drone of aircraft came nearer and nearer, and the scream of the planes could be heard as they made their dive for strafing and bombing. It seemed to us that they were coming straight into our cell. The building shook as a stick of bombs landed close by, dust rose into the air, screams of wounded could be heard just outside, and then another wave came over. I thought that the next would be right on us, and in the centre of our cringing circle. We could hardly see each other through the clouds of dust that had filled the cell. Then it was over. All went quiet as the sound of the planes faded away and the guns ceased firing. All that we could hear were a number of people outside moaning and groaning. Then above this I heard the shout, ‘Ingris, Ingris!’ I somehow sensed something was wrong and I got hold of Lacey under the armpits and dragged him into the corner where the two Chinese had put their tins. There was about eighteen inches of wall before the start of the bars. With my legs astride Lacey and pressing myself close to the wall, very little of us could be seen from outside. There was another shout coming from the hall, and I could hear the sound of boots running towards the cell. The footsteps stopped in front of the bars. A rifle barrel was pushed through and a voice shouted, ‘Ingris, Ingris, mutta coy, mutta coy!’ I never moved but pressed myself further back. The Japanese tried again to get his rifle around to where we were, but the bars stopped him. He then called the two Chinese who stood at the wall almost opposite, shaking from head to foot. Lieu raised a shaking finger and pointed in our direction. Once again the Japanese shouted and tried to get me to show myself. But seeing that I was not going to move he turned his rifle as far round in our direction as he could and fired. The noise in that enclosed space was deafening. The bullet struck the wall about a foot from my right shoulder, sending bits of brick in all directions. It then ricocheted from that wall and went diagonally across the opposite wall and flattened itself before dropping to the floor, making a kind of splat sound.
As the shot rang out there were shouts down the hall, and a number of Japanese came running from all directions and took the man away. I still did not move from my position until I was quite sure that all was well.
Some days passed after that incident, and the two Chinese were again removed from our cell. This caused me some concern for every time the Japanese did this, something always followed.
The two Chinese were taken from the cell at an early hour in the morning. At about midday I heard a terrific scream coming from a large room up the hall. Looking through the bars, my vision was screened by the two swing doors. I moved closer to the bars to get a better look. As I did, I saw a Chinese civilian being dragged out by Mundo and Tamura, the big Japanese who had slapped me the first day. These two were the bully boys and would stop at nothing, not even death. I moved quickly away from the bars as they dragged the struggling and bleeding man down the hall. Suddenly there were shouts. I moved back to the bars to see the injured Chinese dashing back up the hall and past where I stood and out into the sunshine, with Mundo and Tamura in hot pursuit, both men with their swords drawn.
A few moments later they returned with the luckless man. He had a deep gash, pouring with blood, in the right shoulder. As he went past I could see that he also had a long cut down his back. This too was pouring with blood and leaving large spots on the floor. What happened to the man after that, I do not know.
The day after that incident I was asked if I could do any carpentry. I said that I could do the basics provided I was given the tools. I was let out of the cell and taken down the hall to the bathhouse. There I was given a claw hammer, a box of nails which were about an inch and a half in length, a saw and some lengths of two by two-inch wood. I was told to put four legs onto the duckboard that was lying by the side of the large square bath.
The duckboard was about six feet in length and about two feet wide. The bath was raised about three feet from the floor and had steps up the one side for entering the bath. One end was against the wall. At the other end was a tap. Behind the steps and at the furthest wall was where the fire was put beneath the bath to heat the water. I looked at the bath and couldn’t see any purpose for raising the duckboard to the height that I had been told. But I did not question them on the point and got on with the job, thinking that I might get a good meal out of it. Even when I had finished what I thought was a good sturdy job I was still puzzled, as all they had to do was walk down the steps onto the duckboard. The Japanese were satisfied, and I was taken back to my cell. I had two helpings of food that day. I thought perhaps they were bribing me for something.
At about eleven in the morning there were shouts of both agony and of denial. These then turned to screams. I had a peep through the bars and saw the same two bullies, Mundo and Tamura, dragging another struggling man down the hall, followed by another Japanese who was carrying a whip, or what looked like a whip. I moved away and waited. There were cries coming from the bathhouse, pleading for mercy, but the cries went unheeded. I walked around the cell, trying to blot out the cries of the man, but I could not blot out the agony that came up the passageway, for it brought me to a halt. The screams of that man were screams the like I had never heard before. They slowly died, as though being swallowed back into the throat of the person who had uttered them. For a moment all was quiet. Then I heard a guffaw of laughter and some loud Japanese being spoken, then quiet again. I went back to the corner quickly and sat down beside Lacey as I heard footsteps coming up the passage.
I was staring at the opposite wall when Mundo shouted, ‘Goodho! Mutta coy, mutta coy!’ I rose slowly to my feet, went over to the bars and faced the man that I hated like I had never hated anyone before. Mundo undid the latch and opened the door. I crawled out and stood up in front of him. He knelt and locked the door. At that precise moment I felt that I could easily have killed him with my bare hands. He stood up and motioned me to walk before him down the passage to the bathhouse. As I stepped inside the bathhouse the heat of the floor burnt my feet and the puddles of water almost scalded them. Then I looked towards the bath. The sight that met my eyes made me almost cry out in horror. I had seen death in many ways, mutilations of all kinds, but what was before my eyes was indescribable. The face was not that of a human being, although I knew it had been. The steam that was still hanging about didn’t help the situation, for it came down on me and gave me a feeling of nausea. I had stopped in my tracks. The burning in my feet was nothing now. The slits for the eyes were still there and slightly open, but not looking. There were bright red patches over the face and chest. The skin was beginning to form into large white blisters.
I was given no more time to wonder, for both Mundo and Tamura got hold of my arms and said, ‘Untie, untie,’ and pushed me towards the man tied upon the duckboard. He was tied face upward, with his head directly under the tap. I began to weep as I knelt and tried to undo the cords that bound him. I could not make out whether the man was still alive or dead. I began by trying to undo the rope that bound the man’s shoulders to the duckboard. My hands were shaking and as I glanced now and then at the still form I could not help the tears of sympathy for the poor man. At the same time I turned my head to look at the three Japanese who were standing nearby. I cursed them, their mothers, their fathers and their children, and hoped that the time would come, as I was sure it would, when they would get their true and just deserts.
I was not fast enough in undoing the ropes, so Mundo drew his sword and slashed the cord that bound the body. Tamura got his riding-booted foot to the frame and sent it over on its side. I jumped back as both frame and body fell over and made a dull thud as they hit the floor. Some of the blisters broke in the process, causing water to seep from them. With the cords now free of the body, the three Japanese began gesticulating at me and threatening me. They waved their arms, telling me to drag the man outside. At first I bent and got my arms beneath the arms of the body, but in my weak state I could not budge it. The dead weight was too much for me alone.
Tamura shouted to the third Japanese, who went up the passage, while I tried to move the body along the floor.
The third Japanese returned with Lieu, who went white at the sight. He looked at me in the manner that I had got to know which said ‘hopeless’. Between us, with one on each leg, we pulled the body outside the building. There we left it, as we were told to do, and returned to our respective cells.
The following day there were more screams and sounds of torture. I saw a young man of about seventeen being taken to the bathroom and given the treatment, whatever that was. In the afternoon, eight Chinese of all ages crawled into our cell. Among them was the young man who had received the treatment. He could hardly crawl and was holding his private parts and moaning and rolling over in agony. I asked him what the Japanese had done, but he shoved me away. I asked some of the others and they tried to say that the Japanese had cut him or put something on him. I thought they meant some kind of castration, which I had heard was common practice by the Japanese on the Chinese. The young man was in terrible pain. Later I found out that the Japanese had poured acid on his penis and testicles.
As we were now short of space I was forced to get closer to Lacey, who had by this time become very weak and hardly spoke. It was while I was trying to make conversation with him that the young Chinese man crawled to the bars, pulled himself upright, turned and, with agony in his face, dashed across the cell to the wall where the window was. He sprang with his arms up and grabbed the bars of the window, pulled himself up with his knees under his chin, and did a backward dive onto the floor. His head struck the concrete with a loud thud, and his back slammed on the floor. He lay still and his eyeballs rolled in their sockets. He had taken us all by surprise. A Japanese came by just as he was falling. When he saw what the boy had done, he began clapping and said, ‘Very good! China acrobat, very good!’ Then he went away laughing. By this time the youth was bleeding from the mouth. We had to pull him to one side of the cell because of the cramped space. One Chinese and I pulled the youth to the side near the hatch. As we did this his head left a trail of blood along the concrete.
Not long after that episode, with the youth still lying lifeless in the cell, a Japanese guard brought a large clean bowl, full of cooked white rice, together with a bowl of mixed vegetables in curried gravy. A kettle of sweetened tea was also pushed inside, and the Japanese stood and said, ‘Goodoh, meshi, OK. China meshi nai, no give China meshi OK kah?’ I nodded my head and pulled the two bowls and kettle into the cell. I then went back with them to Lacey. He refused to eat any food, but did drink from the kettle. I tried to force him to eat some of the food, but he would not.
As I sat there, eating to my heart’s content, I glanced at the old man squatting on his heels opposite me. I looked around at all of them, and they were watching me hungrily as I scooped up the food with my fingers and stuffed it into my mouth. My eyes came back to the man who looked the eldest of them. I could see that he was eating every morsel with me as I lifted each handful to my mouth. I had been hungry and I knew what it was like to be hungry. I had suffered the pangs that the old man must be suffering now. I stopped eating from the bowl, went to the corner where the two Chinese had left their small tins in case of emergency, and filled one. Making sure that no one was watching I got down on one knee and slid the tin across to the old man. It went so far and stopped when it hit an uneven piece of floor a few inches away from him. He saw what had happened and swung first his right arm then his left towards the tin, but making no attempt to pick it up. What the bloody hell is up with him? I thought. Why doesn’t he pick the bleeding thing up?
Although his hands went near the tin, his fingers never moved. Then I realised that he had no use of his fingers or arms, because of the way they had been trussed up beneath his armpits and hung for I did not know how long.
Throwing all caution to the wind I went across to the old man, picked up the tin and began pushing handfuls of food into his mouth as fast as he could swallow it, disregarding any Japanese who might be passing. The old man had eaten nearly all of the contents of the tin when there was a shout from the passage. ‘Goodoh, no good, no give meshi, China!!’ It was none other than that hateful Mundo.
Mundo gave a shout, and an officer and two other Japanese came up to the bars. ‘Why have you disobeyed our orders?’ the officer demanded in very good English.
‘Because I was sorry for him,’ I replied, facing them.
‘Why are you sorry for them? They are not your friends, are they?’ he shouted with glaring eyes.
‘No sir, but they are human, and I know what hunger is like,’ I replied.
‘Oh, you do, do you?’ The hatch was unlocked and I was ordered to crawl out. As I did I fully expected a boot to the head, but it did not come. I stood up with my back to the wall that divided the two cells.
‘So, you like the Chinese savages?’ the officer asked, staring at me and moving closer. All four stood around me in a half circle. I never answered, but began to steel myself for what was to come.
‘And you do not follow orders given by your Japanese masters,’ the officer continued, ‘who have been kind to you and given you very good food.’ He was glaring at me, and the temper was showing in his face as he went on, ‘Is that how you repay the kindness?’ His eyes were half closed as he spoke.
Before I could answer he was throwing blows at my face. The others immediately joined in. Some blows were going to my head, and others were knocking the wind from me in the belly. The blows to my head were making me bang my head against the wall behind me. My head was going from side to side one moment, then against the wall. I tried to get my arms up to protect my head, but as fast as I lifted them, they were knocked down. I felt a terrible pain as one of them trod on my foot. It was this pain that seemed to hurt me most, as I felt the wall slowly slipping up my back as I lost consciousness.
It hurt for me to even open my eyes. It was pitch black. I slid my tongue over my swollen lips and tasted the dried blood around my mouth. I felt stiff all over. I was also feeling much colder than I had ever felt before. My head was resting on something. As I tried to move, my shoulders felt like ice. I lifted up my one arm. It hurt, but I managed to get it above my head. What I felt then was deadly cold and damp. I pulled my arm down and touched the concrete floor. Slowly my eyes began to get used to the darkness, and I could make out the shapes of the others across the room and I began to hear their breathing. With some effort I raised myself up into a sitting position and, half turning, felt for what I had been lying upon. It was the corpse of the Chinese youth.
Gathering my wits, I could just make out the bars and I made my way on my hands and knees across to where Lacey was lying. There I snuggled against his warm body until daylight came.
As the light came to the room I tried to focus, and there bending over me was the old Chinese man to whom I had given the food. ‘Ying-gwor, ying-gwor, nee shr howla wren, nee shr hun howla wren,’ his squeaky voice was saying. ‘English, English, you are a good man, a very good man.’ He went on to thank me. I told him through my swollen lips to go back and sit down before the Japanese came.
I knew that I had got a couple of black eyes, for I could feel the puffiness around them. My foot was giving me some pain, and my whole body ached. Lacey woke from his usual stupor and said in a weak voice that he was glad to see me near him, as he thought that it was the last he would see of me after I was taken out.
I did not wish to talk too much, for my face gave me so much pain. The old man kept looking across at me with a kind of guilty look upon his face as though he was blaming himself for what had happened.
Lieu and Chien were brought from their cell to drag out the body of the young Chinese. As they did they both gave me looks of pity for they were in the next cell and had seen almost everything that happened. The Japanese came at intervals and taunted me with, ‘Goodoh, no good, meshi nai,’ meaning that food had been stopped being given to me as I was no good.
A few days after my beating a Japanese officer came into the cell and gave each one of the Chinese a pill to swallow. He said to me, pointing at their injuries, ‘Malaria cah?’
‘Yes, so is this,’ I answered, and pointed at my injuries.
The Japanese only grinned and offered me some of the pills, which I refused.
A short time after that a Japanese NCO came into the cell. His name was Sato. He was not too bad, as the Japanese went. He told the remaining Chinese that they would be going back to their homes. This left Lacey and I on our own once again.
To my utter surprise Sato brought a large bowl of food into the cell, together with the kettle. Lacey wanted only water. Sato stood for a time inside the cell with his back to the bars. He pulled out a packet of cigarettes and threw it by my feet with one match. Then in quiet Japanese he began to talk. I did not understand what he was saying, but he seemed sullen and sad as he spoke. He stopped talking and left.
Lieu was sent in to take away the bowl and kettle. Sato came back and told me to get Lacey outside as we were going on a journey. Straightaway I thought of what the interrogating officer had said about a ‘last meal’ being a waste of food. I wondered if he had changed his mind about that. Outside in the passageway our hands were tied behind our backs and a blindfold put over our eyes. We were both led out into the sunshine, which I could feel upon my naked body. Hands gripped me and hoisted me upwards. I just put out my feet and felt floorboards beneath them. Then I was grabbed from in front by another pair of hands which pulled me forward a few paces and made me kneel. I put my head forward and touched something. I also felt someone near me on my right-hand side.
‘Is that you, Len?’ I asked.
There was a weak reply of, ‘Yes, Fred, it’s me.’
I heard the tailboard of the lorry being slammed up and latched. After a few moments the engine started up and we were on the move. I thought to myself, well, this is it, I suppose they have kept us hanging around for long enough, now this is it.
‘What are they going to do with us, Fred?’ Lacey asked in that low weak voice of his. ‘Why have they blindfolded us?’
I could not answer the question, but I had my own idea of where and what was going to happen to us. ‘I haven’t any idea,’ I said, ‘and it’s no use worrying now anyway.’
We both fell silent, falling against each other as the lorry went around bends in the road. After a time I got the impression that we were being driven around the same places. I could begin to recognise the sounds as we went past. But if we were going around in circles there could only be one end.
The vehicle stopped. This is it, I thought. I could hear quite a number of Japanese talking, and some of them were shouting and laughing. I wondered who would be first, or if we would go together. I was not given any more time to think. I was grabbed by the arms, lifted to my feet and turned around to face the other way. I was then shoved forward to the back of the lorry. Arms grabbed me again and made me sit. I found my legs were dangling over the back of the lorry, then a push from behind and I was on my face in the dust. I was lifted to my feet and forced forward. I felt a step with my foot. I raised it and felt another step with my other foot, then I was pushed forward again for a few paces and the blindfold was taken off.
I thought that I would be standing on some kind of platform that was part of a gallows, but instead I was standing just inside a room with two beds with mattresses on them. As I took all this in, Lacey was brought in and my hands were untied. I was completely taken by surprise and just walked forward without the Japanese pushing me from behind.
The door of the room was shut and locked behind us. There were bars on the one window but, amazingly, a blanket on each bed. Lacey had already occupied one of them and lay flat on his back. I turned to the window to look out at our surroundings. I heard the lock being turned and swung around as the door was opened. To my astonishment an Indian woman entered. She was wearing a royal blue sari. I rushed towards the bed and grabbed up the blanket to cover myself.
‘It is alright,’ she said smiling, ‘I am a nurse. I have got to look after you.’
‘Where are we?’ I asked, looking around the room.
‘You are in the civil hospital in Myitkyina,’ she answered in perfect English, smiling still and showing a perfect set of white teeth. She looked me over and asked, ‘Have you been fighting?’
‘Yes, I suppose I have in a way, but I could not fight back.’
‘Your friend is in a very bad state,’ she said, turning to Lacey, ‘and he is covered in lice. Did you know?’
‘No, I hadn’t noticed,’ I answered truthfully. I looked closer at Lacey and then I could see his black hairy body was completely covered in crab lice.
‘I’ll go straight away and bring something back for those lice and something for your bruises.’ She knocked on the locked door. It was opened from outside, obviously by a guard or hospital orderly. When she returned she was carrying a bowl of hot water, a bottle of meths, a tin of ointment and a roll of cotton wool. She said to me, ‘I had better see if you have any lice on you.’ I had not. The only reason that I could think of was that I was not so hairy and not as dark-haired as Lacey. ‘How long has he been like this?’ she asked.
I hesitated to answer, for I did not know how long we had been captive. ‘I don’t really know. What date is it now? What day is it?’
‘It’s the twelfth of December, 1942,’ she informed me.
‘Then he’s been like this for about two months,’ I told her.
The nurse began to swab Lacey over with the cotton wool soaked in the meths. ‘Here,’ she said to me, handing over the tin of ointment, ‘rub some on your arms where the bruises are, and I will do your face later.’
Sometime later a Japanese came and ordered me outside. There I knelt down while he shaved every hair from my body, even my eyebrows. Later, the nurse brought in food. Again I tried to coax Lacey to eat, but he refused. The nurse also tried to tempt him, but he would not eat.
The next day, when she came to bathe Lacey, she brought me a pair of white trousers. Later, when she brought in some food, she also brought me a white shirt. I told her that I could not thank her enough for what she had done for us.
Early the next morning the door was opened and a man of small stature, dressed in a smart Western-type suit and carrying a small attaché case, entered. He had the face of an Oriental and at first I thought he might be Japanese. ‘Hello, how are you?’ he greeted me with a broad smile on his face. He put out his hand for me to shake and I took it. ‘I am Mr Kin-Maung,’ he then declared. For a moment I was dumbstruck. ‘I have come to see how you are being treated,’ he said.
After I regained some of my composure, I asked, ‘How is Nita?’
‘She is very well,’ he replied. ‘It was she who asked me to come to see you. You see, she has had you watched, and pleaded with me to get the Japanese to release you from the Kempeitai and send you to a POW camp.’ He said this with a smile on his face.
‘That was very kind of her, sir,’ I replied. So, her crush on me was doing some good after all, I thought. But for all that, I could not push from my mind the thought that we had been betrayed. We could have been safely in British hands by now otherwise.
Mr Kin-Maung looked down at Lacey’s bloated yet thin form lying on the bed, still with some lice in patches on his body. When he enquired of his health it was with bitterness in my voice that I said, ‘Oh, he will die, but he would not have done so if I could have got him to Sumprabum,’ I answered.
For a few moments there was an uneasy silence. Picking up his hat and case from the bed, he said, ‘Well, I must be off.’
‘Please give Nita my regards and tell her thanks,’ I said.
As he walked towards the door he turned back and said, ‘I will, and keep your pecker up. Old soldiers never die, you know?’ He gave a smile as he reached the door.
I do not know what made me say it, but it was the first thing to come to my head in answer. ‘No, but traitors do!’ I said it with some hatred. His face went blood red. He snatched open the door and stamped out, slamming it behind him.
We had been in the hospital for four days. The nurse had brought hot water every day so that I could wash and keep myself clean. She bathed my friend twice a day with the meths. But his general health was getting worse. He was now beginning to ramble and was in a sort of coma.
Before the nurse came in the afternoon of the fourth day, Lacey opened his eyes and called me. I leaned over to hear his weak voice. ‘Fred,’ he said, ‘I’ve seen all the lads, every one of them.’ He raised one arm and pointed a finger towards the ceiling. At the same time tears fell in rivulets down the side of his face. For a moment I just sat and looked down. Tears welled up into my own eyes. I had to move away. I went over to the window and just gazed out. I was not looking at anything in particular, but just gazed more or less into space. Tears were streaming down my face, as my thoughts went back over the months that we had struggled to get back, the walking, the sleeping out in the jungle where even the natives would not dare to spend a night out, and being unarmed into the bargain.
I turned from the window as the nurse entered the cell. She went straight to the still form of Lacey who was making a funny sort of noise in his throat as if he was having some difficulty in breathing. The nurse came to me near the window and said, ‘I’m afraid your friend will not last the night.’
But he did. He died just as the Japanese were blowing reveille.