Escape to Pagan (27 page)

“Pybaw market was the only place where I ate fried locusts cooked in peanut oil, and only because my mother bought some. They were quite crunchy and tasty if you could forget they were insects. Other strange forms of food in the market were the big bird-eating mygalomorph spiders
[wrongly called tarantulas]
cooked alive in the flames. These spiders lived in deep burrows in the ground. Curiously, the lowland Burmese did not eat these spiders, only the people from the hill tribes.”

The lower ranks of Japanese soldiers took great pleasure teaching us children to bow to them personally, especially when they were alone.
They seemed to love giving instructions; I suppose it gave them a sense of importance. The young soldiers also enjoyed wrestling each other during their time off from guard duty. They would often pick two young children to wrestle each other while they took on the important role of referee. That is why I have always been a good wrestler and as far as I can remember have never been beaten by any of my peers, regardless of size, except one – A slim small-boned Chinese boy who went to a school for rich Chinese children in Johore Baru after the war. After leaving my school, I would walk home past their school. The rich Chinese boys would be waiting near the gate for their chauffeurs to take them home; I would hang around the gate and challenge each one of them to wrestle me. We would end up rolling around the ground watched by their bemused chauffeurs. This small boned boy was as slippery as an eel and I could never pin him down.

“The monsoon had reached its end and the bullock tracks were drying out. Despite our fear of catching leprosy and meeting the Kempeitai, we had to wait a little longer. The village and its market were now becoming crowded with different Japanese troops. Sergeant Enoda and his troops were ordered to rejoin their regiment based at Tada u, then leave for the front line somewhere. There was still an ongoing war with the American and Chinese troops in the north of Burma.”

Unfortunately grandmother did not know everything concerning Tada u. A nasty shock awaited us. If grandmother had been pre-warned, I doubt if she would have wanted to register at this internment camp and transit station for Japanese troops.

“My mother finally decided we should take the advice of Sergeant Enoda and go to Tada u as soon as possible so she went to see him in his command hut for permission to travel, as written permission
was vital. His office contained a simple desk, a pencil and two small thin writing brushes to dip into black ink and carefully paint kanji symbols. Despite being busy organizing the move to the front lines, he gave mother a document written on a piece of cheap yellow Japanese paper. My mother said it took him a very long time to complete the document as he took great care to write each character as if it was some intricate form of artistry. Mother could also use the document to ensure our safe passage when we stopped in Burmese villages. Everyone feared the Japanese Imperial Army stamp and understood that Nippon justice was immediate without trial.”

CHAPTER 19

The
Lisbon Maru
Sinks

EAST CHINA SEA

Things had now quietened down on the half-submerged
Lisbon Maru
; the sailors still aboard knew it would not remain so. The singing by the brave trapped gunners in No 3 hold had long since stopped, all were now dead. With the possibility that some men were still alive in air pockets, Captain Cuthbertson (Royal Scots) asked two men, one a Corporal Isaacs and another man of the same Regiment, to enlarge the entrance of No 3 hold, now under water.

After several attempts the two men were forced to abandon their search. The entrance of No 3 hold was choked with dead bodies several layers deep, their hair swaying like fine seaweed with the movement of the waves, their eyes and mouths still wide open as if still in song. Every man aboard had listened to the brave gunners singing until the sea water stifled and choked their voices mid-note. The free prisoners roaming the decks above the drowning men stopped and stood silent in respect and admiration for the gunners who accepted their fate with such human dignity. I repeat, the word “hero” is now lightweight, used too often these days by people who have forgotten our real past heroes.

If there were any sharks in the vicinity, attracted by the underwater explosions, they did not make their presence obvious. For sharks are cautious predators. If sharks had been clearly visible to the men on
board, I am sure many would have thought twice before jumping over the side. No sharks were initially present when the American troop ship
Indiana
went down: sharks then appeared and claimed 600 victims. It was later said that oceanic white tips were responsible.

All estuaries in warm seas are dangerous especially during war and famine; there would be no shortage of dead bodies in the mouth of these rivers in this part of China. The most dangerous species here are the bull-shark and the tiger shark. In the tropics when standing in open water, never turn your back on the open sea, is good advice. Prisoners, who had jumped off the
Lisbon Maru
as soon as they had broken out of the ship slowly began to regret their decision. Treading water in the strong current was strength-sapping for these already weakened men. Some struggled back on board. Stronger swimmers, with the help of favourable currents, had immediately struck out for the nearby islands and were lucky enough to reach their sandy beaches. Others less fortunate were pummelled on the sharp rocks that surrounded some of the other islands. These islands just off the coast of China were the Zhoushan Archipelago which was made up of around five hundred main islands.

Some distance away, the watching Japanese aboard the destroyer
Kuri
, noticing some of the prisoners were reaching the islands, began to launch boats. At this stage they still wanted no witnesses and began shooting prisoners in the water. Prisoners in the sea who tried to climb aboard the Japanese boats were beaten back. They were clubbed and shot. The prisoners aboard the
Lisbon Maru
and those in the water noticed the Japanese soldiers set up a machine-gun on the deck of the destroyer. Other prisoners, despite their efforts, were slowly being swept out to sea; their watching companions were helpless to give assistance. Many men including some of the sick and wounded were crowded on the decks trying to regain a little strength in the fresh clean sea air. Other prisoners with more vitality began tying anything together that would float.

“Jack said that a bobbing shaven head was spotted keeping close to the keel of the ship, trying not to be noticed. It was one of the Japanese
guards who up until then had escaped the attention of the prisoners. As soon as the guard realized he had been seen, he began trying to attract the attention of his comrades. Several Royal Scots began to throw down large pieces of broken hatch to kill the guard. This proved unsuccessful and several prisoners jumped in and swam towards the terrified Jap who then began screaming to his comrades to be rescued, poor man.”

If his comrades had heard his shouts they made no attempt to save him. As far as they were concerned he was already dead. The prisoners pummelled the guard and held him under. This also happened on other hell ships also sunk by American submarines. I was once told by an American tourist, himself a POW bound for Japan, that when his ship was torpedoed, many of the prisoners in the water took a chance to exact revenge on Japanese guards and civilians also in the sea with them. These killings were witnessed by their countrymen who where also in the sea but out of reach of the vengeful prisoners.

In No 2 hold of the slowly sinking
Lisbon Maru
, prisoners could still be heard below in the darkness. Many of these men were wounded but conscious, just managing to keep their heads above the filthy water but did not have the strength to reach the deck. Again Captain Cuthbertson of the Royal Scots (wounded himself) bravely volunteered with the help of others to be lowered down on a strong rope to rescue many of these men now too weak to save themselves. Captain Cuthbertson like Colonel Stewart (Middlesex) unfortunately did not survive his imprisonment in Japan.

“Jack said when he finally climbed up on deck it was wonderful to fill his lungs with fresh air and feel the warm sun on his face. He began to search for men from D Company. Wandering on deck he came across some men sunbathing, some playing cards, while others held conversations with soldiers in the water, as if on holiday. A dead Japanese guard was lying on the deck. The guard's rifle was thrown
overboard on the command of the senior British officer in case someone began firing at the Japanese, which would bring immediate retaliation from the destroyer nearby.

“Jack had no intention of jumping into the sea straight away as many Japanese boats with armed men were now in the vicinity and single rifle shots could be heard. He was hungry and began roaming the ship
[probably also looking for cigarettes].
In the galley there were several men helping themselves to cooked rice from a big tub and fish paste from a stone jar; he quickly joined them. After the war, Jack couldn't tolerate the smell or sight of this pungent fish paste called ‘narpe' in Burmese. There was plenty of fresh water available, as much as he and the others could drink. Everything he owned had been left behind or lost in No 2 hold in the rush to get out; he did not even have a water bottle to fill with fresh water. How he would bitterly morn the loss of his water bottle later. Jack was soon given his first cigarette of the day.”

Tam and Willie were sitting with other men on the deck in the warm sunshine, smoking Japanese cigarettes and drinking looted sake. Tam, a non-swimmer, dreaded jumping into the sea. He said later, after the war: “There were nae public swimming pools in the Gorbals – only public baths and public huses.”

After resting, prisoners who had reached the safety of the islands moved inland in search of food and shelter. The Chinese fishermen living on the nearby islands in the Chusam Archipelago, Chekiang District, always kept a sharp eye out for Japanese ships approaching their islands, for the enemy had more or less left them alone so far. On seeing the
Lisbon Maru
, then hearing the explosions and observing the bobbing heads in the water, the fishermen believed the men in the sea to be Japanese and turned a blind eye. They had no intention of going out fishing that day.

Some British prisoners belonging to the Hong Kong Volunteer Force, who could speak the Shanghai dialect fluently, were blessed with favourable currents and managed to reach the adjacent Chusam Archipelago. They explained to the villagers that the men in the sea were
in fact British prisoners. These brave Chinese fishermen immediately took to their boats and began to pull the exhausted prisoners from the sea, despite the fact that a Japanese warship was present. To make matters worse a storm was beginning to rise and the notorious currents of this estuary were pulling men past the islands and out to sea. Those who made it ashore were looked after by the fishermen's families, feeding and clothing them as best they could.

So great was the poor Chinese fishermen's contribution to saving the lives of so many of the prisoners that after the war they were justly rewarded for the risks they had taken. The villagers were given a monetary reward and a large brand new motorised fishing boat donated by all the men who survived the rescue and imprisonment.

“The Japanese, on seeing so many prisoners being saved by the Chinese decided to pick up the men in the sea instead of shooting them or waiting for them to drown.”