A few days after Lacey had died and been taken away somewhere and buried, I was marched through the streets back to the Kempeitai barracks. This time I was dressed in a pair of white trousers and a white shirt, and had rolled up one of the blankets and tucked it under my arm. No one noticed.
In the barracks I was shown to a room in a basement. There Lieu and Chien each had a bed with sheets and blankets, and a bedside locker. There were no guards, and Lieu and Chien were dressed in new uniforms, complete with hats.
Sato greeted me and asked, ‘Would you like to live down here like the Chinese?’
‘Of course I would,’ I answered.
‘Then, all you have to do is sign this.’ He pushed a typewritten paper towards me. I picked it up and read it. It went as follows: ‘I… promise not to escape. I will help the Japanese to overthrow the British and United States Forces and I shall enlist in the British, Indian and Burma Independent Army.’
I dropped the paper to the table, looked hard at the Japanese officer for a second or two and asked, ‘Can I go back to my cell now, please? It stinks in here.’
Sato smiled slightly and said, ‘I didn’t think you would sign it, but I had to try.’ He then turned and shouted to the guard, who accompanied me back up the steps to my cell. It had changed quite a lot. The walls had been whitewashed and the floor had been scrubbed almost white. I was allowed my blanket to lie on.
Later I was taken down to that dreadful bath house. There I was allowed to wash and given a piece of cloth to dry myself. After that I was taken upstairs and told that for the next few days I would be helping to prepare food. That would be my job until I was to be transported to Rangoon, from there to be put on a ship to Japan.