Escape to Pagan (20 page)

“By the time the De Souzas reached Yu on foot they were exhausted and starving. They were expecting to be met by their Chinese employees at a crossroads. The Chinese were not there. Worn out, they fell asleep in the jungle. They finally stumbled into Yu to find shelter in the empty houses. That afternoon the De Souzas moved into the next bungalow and began cleaning it up; my mother did all the cooking, they collected the wood. The neat Chinese vegetable gardens were now almost bare due to the attention of the wild boars. Within days the vegetable gardens would be reduced to piles of disturbed earth. My mother felt that the De Souza family had some business connections at Yu and the goods in the warehouses. We did not tell them about the bodies in the river.

“I was breastfeeding you one morning sitting on the floor while the De Souzas slept next door. My mother was in the back garden digging for ginger, when suddenly I saw movement at the open doorstep and the head of a big lizard appeared. I banged the floor to frighten the reptile away; the lizard promptly rose up and spread a hood: it was a cobra! I screamed to frighten the cobra away, my scream alerted my mother who quickly approached the snake from behind and killed it with her dah. It was a very big snake. I said that I was not spending another night here, as the mate of the snake she had just killed would come looking for revenge. My mother told me not to be so stupid and that this was a myth. You were fascinated by the still wriggling reptile and danced around it like an excited imp.”

Mother would often emphasize:

“It was only feet away – if I had not screamed the cobra would have attacked us.”

Mother would never believe that all snakes were deaf to airborne sounds and only felt ground vibrations; perhaps it would have spoilt her story. Venomous snakes should always be decapitated; many people have lost their lives by closely inspecting a supposedly dead snake. I am sure I remember this event, or perhaps it was placed in my mind by the constant repetition over a fifty-year period by my dear mother.

“We gave the De Souzas bags of rice and other items of food. They were so grateful. In return they gave us a very large amount of Burmese rupees in paper money. They also gave my mother some pure silver Maria Teresa dollars which are accepted worldwide. The Burmese rupee (printed by the British) remained the most popular currency throughout the occupation, despite the worthless Japanese paper money (known as ‘banana money') that was later in circulation. Most of the money carried by the De Souzas was new and of high denominations; my mother advised them not to flaunt new notes and to age the money by rubbing it in dirty water, then change it as soon as possible for lower denomination notes. Whether they took this advice later on is hard to say, but more tragedy awaited this rich and naïve family. Only three out of the remaining eight members of their family were to survive the war. We were to meet up with them at Tada u but only Maria would ever leave their single room to visit us.

“The De Souzas had so much silk clothing in their possession that they decided to leave much of it behind on their next leg of their journey. I think they hoped to go to Moulmein and catch a boat to Macao which was a Portuguese colony accepted and respected by the Japanese. But first they intended to wait for their father and uncle who would soon catch them up with more transport and servants. No trace of their father or uncle was ever found after the war.”

CHAPTER 12

The
Lisbon Maru

SOUTH CHINA SEA

The Japanese as a race never liked idle hands, or feeding men who were not working for their keep. In Japan, prisoners who had committed serious crimes (stealing was one) were beheaded at the beginning of autumn. The reason for this practise was brutal, frugal and practical in the eyes of the Nipponese: why feed useless criminals during the hard winter?

As most of the manhood of Japan were in the services, prisoners of war would be used as slave labour. In late September 1942 over 1,800 British POW's were ordered out onto the Sham Shui Po parade ground with all their belongings.

The reaction of the prisoners to the move to Japan was mixed. Some believed conditions would improve. The POW camps in Hong Kong and the New Territories were now overcrowded; serious diseases were rampant and the food consisted of a starvation diet. Chinese civilians were dying of hunger, anywhere else had to be better, even Nippon. All the chosen men were then given a medical examination (Japanese style: a glass rod up the Khyber as described by a soldier from the Middlesex Regiment) and about two thousand men were pronounced fit for travel to Japan. Sergeant Devereux was among the fit men as was Tam and Willie. They were lucky; despite being in the thick of the fighting they had not sustained any injuries.

The selected prisoners were taken by boat to Hong Kong Island and then slowly made their way to the harbour on foot. The hot sun smiled down on this ragged column of humanity who staggered and shuffled to the docks. These men had once been proud soldiers who swaggered behind the pipes and drums. Japanese guards flanked the prisoners, urging them on with the butt of a rifle or a jab with a bayonet. All the while the local Chinese looked on impassively, their inner feelings a mystery. It is certain by now that Sergeant Devereux was able to walk unaided. In the camp he had acquired another set of kit. As with all soldiers the men of the Royal Scots stuck together; the remaining soldiers of D Company were no exception. The doctors and medics at Sham Shui Po had saved Sergeant Devereux from serious infection. He would soon need all his strength.

“The five months at the prison camp in Hong Kong allowed Jack to grow stronger; thank God he didn't know what lay ahead. He had only praise for the dedicated medical staff that looked after the seriously wounded and the men who risked their lives stealing medical supplies and drugs from outside. Brave local Chinese citizens also risked their lives passing drugs and throwing food over the camp fence to the prisoners.”

By now all the front line Japanese troops who had been guarding them had been posted to the Pacific Islands. Their replacements were Class B, all under five foot rear echelon soldiers, who were always more brutal to the prisoners, especially those who towered over them. The tall Sergeant would soon learn a practical lesson.

The
Lisbon Maru
was an old rusting 7000-ton merchant ship. Her Captain was forty-three-year-old Kyoda Shigeru; he would turn out to be (or so he said at his trial), more humanitarian than Lieutenant Wada (the army interpreter in charge of the prisoners). Captain Shigeru would be tried after the war and given a long sentence; the notorious
Lieutenant Wada was sentenced to death in his absence; like many of the other war criminals he vanished off the face of the earth.

All British Navy personnel had been ordered into No 1 hold, the most forward and uncomfortable hold in the bow of the ship. It was reasoned by the Japanese, that being Navy personnel, they would be used to the rising and falling of the bow as the ship cut through the seas. Soon No 1 hold was full to bursting in the suffocating heat.

The Middlesex Regiment and the Royal Scots and a few smaller units were packed into No 2 hold, the biggest hold of the
Lisbon Maru.
This hold was divided into two levels with rough planking. The Middlesex, Royal Engineers and the Royal Corps of Signals were on the first floor level. The Royal Scots were placed in the lower level. Only two crude wooden ladders led from the lower level to the second level, from which four wooden ladders led up to the upper deck. The first level was by far the safest and healthiest level to be in.

Little fresh air reached the Scots in the lower level. This hold must have been stiflingly hot and claustrophobic while the ship was still at anchor. Within a few hours several men died of suffocation. In No 2 hold, others went mad and had to be knocked out before they harmed anyone. No 2 hold was originally intended for 1,000 prisoners with no room to spare; this number soon swelled. This sudden rise in numbers was due to the fact that some astute prisoners from No 1 hold and No 3 hold decided to change accommodation at the very last minute. They did this despite the beatings from the Japanese guards as they ran the gauntlet to No 2 hold and jumped in. There was little the angry guards could do; one white man looked much like another. The guards had no intention of going down into No 2 hold to find the culprits. These gauntlet runners had improved their chances of survival.

The men of the Royal Artillery were in No 3 hold at the stern of the ship. No 3 hold was the smallest and was to prove the most dangerous; it had portholes. The men of the Royal Artillery got to work straight away on the portholes. Unfortunately these portholes would prove to be death traps.

On the 26th the Japanese soldiers arrived on board. These were seasoned veterans from the war in China and the battle of Hong
Kong. These soldiers had played their part in the well known “Rape of Nanking.” They were all in a good mood and laden with their items of personal loot. Usually Japanese soldiers were granted leave every two years and were looking forward to seeing their mothers, wives and children. On the 27th the
Lisbon Maru
sailed.

While the prisoners were waiting for the Japanese troops in the sweltering holds many who had arrived relatively healthy and had walked to the harbour unaided soon became ill in the hot foul smelling depths below where there was no ventilation. It was estimated at that point over 75% of the prisoners were ill. Many kinds of different skin diseases now flared up.

“At first Jack and other prisoners were allowed to walk on deck and socialize. The naval prisoners on deck were the first to notice there were no escort ships in attendance to discourage submarine attack. They told the other prisoners that the
Lisbon Maru
was a sitting duck for any submarines lurking in the area. Jack was just glad to be out of the sweltering hold in the cool sea breeze with his friends. But he was not happy about leaving Hong Kong; he was now going further away from the Shan States and Burma.”

The doomed
Lisbon Maru
steamed out of harbour. The weather was hot. The entire group of prisoners watched Hong Kong slowly slip by, each with his own thoughts of halcyon days long past. Many men had left their wives and family behind in the tender care of the Japanese; for these men this was a traumatic event. Soon the old merchant ship slipped past Stanley Point. The
Lisbon Maru
kept close to the shore for much of the way. They only saw one other ship during the whole voyage. The following morning the prisoners were served tea and rice; in the evening they got rice, bully beef and tea. This addition of bully beef was thanks to the foresight of Colonel Stewart, a very brave and caring officer of the Middlesex Regiment; the bully beef was to last for
two days. This officer's quick thinking and organisational skills saved many men in No 2 hold from suffocation and drowning as the sinking ship went down. Unfortunately Colonel Stewart did not survive his imprisonment in Japan.

The men below took turns to go up on deck, this continued for several days as the ship followed the coast line of China. Other officers unfortunately did not follow Colonel Stewart and his junior officers' good example and formed their own small groups, divorcing themselves from the welfare and suffering of the men in their care and often pulling rank for their own benefit. The behaviour of these officers bred resentment among the men.

“Jack and the other prisoners were roused at 6am for roll call held at 7am on deck, followed by breakfast consisting of a small ladle of rice and onion soup. To while away the time, soldiers played card games and indulged in sing-songs. Jack never liked talking about what went on in No 2 hold especially during the sinking and the scramble to reach the ladders.”