大象传媒

Mother and father had planned that she and I should make our way south to where my mother鈥檚 parents lived. Dad would meet us there when he was able. This was the start of our long trek. My cousin put us on a boat at Mandaly to sail down the Irrawaddy River to get to the south of Burma. Only a short distance down the river we had to leave the boat as the river was blocked by wrecks of boats that had been bombed by the Japanese. Some people continued their journey by bus, but we only travelled a short distance by bus and then joined a bullock cart on its journey. I was dressed as a native, wearing a sarong and a Burmese farmer's hat. My face was painted with white paste (used as sunscreen to protect the complexion), so I was camouflaged. I sat behind the driver. I remember his kindness, he refused any money that we offered and gave us food and drink on the long journey.

My mother and I were travelling through Burma to her parent's trying to avoid the Japenese soliders that had just occupied the country. At the Salween river bridge crossing there were Japanese soldiers at each end searching everyone's bags, but as we had no bags they ignored us. There were many Japanese soldiers here, coming in convoys to their bases and thankfully ignoring us. We were getting very tired of all the travelling but were three quarters of the way there. Early one morning we arrived at the Sittang Bridge. this had been destroyed by the British on their retreat to Rangoon. The only way to cross the river was by boat. We met a man who was going across the river by a small rowing boat, but he would be unable to row on his own as the current was too fast flowing into the sea. The owner of the boat offered to help him row and we all got into the boat. As soon as we cast off, the boat was carried by the current a long way off from the other side of the bridge, downstream. We managed to get the boat to land and realised that we were a long way off our course. Mother however was pleased as that had cut off a huge part of our journey around the bend in the river. We were closer to her Parent's home. The boatman was another kind soul, refusing to accept any money from people in trouble. We were close to mother's parent's home now and Mother recognised the area. There was a friend of the family living close by and we knocked at his door for help. He got on his bike and rode to my Grandparent's home to tell them of our unexpected arrival. We had travelled 900 miles.

This story was submitted to the People's War site by Claudia-Liza Vanderpuije and has been added to the website on behalf of Mrs Kathleen Duncan with he permission and she fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.