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This story was submitted to the People’s War site by Morwenna Nadar of CSV/´óÏó´«Ã½ LONDON on behalf of Mrs. Mavis Jackson and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site’s terms and conditions.

When the war started in Burma on 23/12/41 I was 23 years old and newly married.. My husband worked in the Customs Office in Rangoon. We all thought we would be safe as we all believed that Singapore was very strong and could never fall to the Japanese. The seas were well guarded and we didn’t think they might come overland from the North but they did. 2 days later, Singapore fell. Then the bombing started and it was very bad. Trenches were dug and people rushed to shelter there but as we lived in a very strong concrete house, we decided we would be as safe there as in the trenches when the bombs were falling. After the raids, the wounded were taken to the trains and efforts were made to get them away from the city. There were a lot of Indians working on the wharfs and they were machine-gunned. I remember there was a great hole in the ground and many dead bodies there. My aunt was missing and after much searching, my uncle found her body there. People started to flee as soon as there was a lull in the attacks and it was chaos as they tried to take as much as possible with them on carts, lorries, their backs. There were a lot of tears shed, of anger, sadness, fear. There had been some Japanese dentists, osteopaths, masseurs and shopkeepers in the city and a few months previously they had all disappeared. At the time we had wondered where and why they had gone, but we now realised they must have had warning of the intention to invade Burma.

My husband had to stay in Rangoon but my parents-in-law and I fled to the North-West. By then, the Japanese were on the road leading from China to Burma. Oil-wells were being destroyed and the resulting fires were frightening. When the Japanese started to infiltrate the North-West of the country, my husband sent me to India to join my parents who were already there. I was at that time pregnant with my first child. His parents joined us later. I was 3 days on the boat to Madras and it was a very frightening journey. The radio reported the war news and the passengers heard all about the bombs, the fires, the killings, the destruction. I think we all felt certain that the ship would be sunk and we would all die, but we arrived safely at Madras. Shortly after, my family and I moved straight across South India to Mangalore where my baby was born. Meanwhile, the Japanese had taken Rangoon and my husband was forced to work as a stoker on the trains for them. During an air-raid by the Allies, he was severely wounded by shrapnel in one of his legs and had to have that leg amputated. Sadly, he died. I hadn’t seen him for over 18 months and he had never seen his child.

I met my second husband in India. He was in the Burmese Fire Service and, along with his colleagues, had been evacuated to India to form a special fire-service. As soon as the training was finished, he was sent back to Burma, as an officer, to burn the oil-tanks so that the Japanese couldn’t use the oil. It was dangerous work but he survived. They had been sent from India by glider but when they had done their work they had to make their own way back to India on foot. It was a very dangerous time because they had to avoid both the Allied and the Japanese attacks.

In India we had big VE and huge VJ celebrations which continued for weeks. There was a big dance in the banquet hall of Madras Town Hall and some of the dances we did were the British war one ,such as Doing the Lambeth Walk, Boomps-a-Daisy, the Palais Glide and the Jitterbugs or jiving. I remember being so excited when my husband and I came second in the dance competition which took place there. People spent hours in the cinemas watching all the victory news from the various countries that had been involved in the war. All the schools had parties for the children and there were displays of fireworks which were wonderful to see after all the time we had had to use blackout curtains. Many of the little children had never known anything other than ‘Don’t let a light show’ and found it quite hard to understand how this could change so suddenly, but they didn’t let that spoil their excitement!

Shortly after Hiroshima was bombed, we went back to Burma. By then we had another 10 children, the result of there being nothing much to do in India after blackout time! There was no radio where we were, no T.V, not many books and very little outside entertainment. Life was not easy in Burma after the war and we were very poor. Because of the rationing situation, the black market flourished although what they sold was very, very expensive. Sometimes we had no choice but to use it, as food, clothes and medicine were very scarce. Before the war it was normal for women to wear felt hats when going to church or out somewhere, but post-war they had become a luxury. My husband used mine to make shoes for our children. He also used to make sandals for the boys out of old rubber tyres. He used to use a fretsaw to make little toys and I used to paint them as there were none for sale anywhere.

In 1957 the British Embassy called my husband to ask if he would like us to leave Burma and settle in Britain. We were given this opportunity because, 10 years after the country got independence, the ’scaffolding of Burma was going’ and it was felt that people who were not pure Burmese could experience difficulties. My husband was of a very mixed race family background which included both English and German ancestry. I am also mixed-race but not quite so much as he was, so our children are even more so. We felt it would be too risky to stay in our country, particularly for the children, so we accepted the invitation to move to Britain. Although it took us a little time to become accustomed to the place, we never regretted our decision. And eventually I took and passed my driving test at the age of 77!.

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