大象传媒

(This chapter is part of Len Baynes' book '
The Will to Live
', an account of his wartime experiences with the Cambridgeshire Regiment, his capture in Singapore, and the four years he spent as a prisoner of the Japanese.)

Three working parties

I soon toughened up, as I worked out on the site, and for three months laboured with the men, sometimes on levelling, and sometimes on stone breaking, but always in charge of one of the working parties.

One day, soon after my return to work, I saw a crowd of about a hundred men come running towards us from the other side of the 'drome'; they were waving sticks and yelling.

This is it, we thought, the war is over. We left our guards and ran to meet them, but as we got closer we saw that there were also Japs in the crowd, acting as excited as the rest; and finally we were close enough to see what the fuss was really all about; a snake going for its life, followed by hordes bent on its destruction.

The prisoners were, for the first time, organized into companies, and each company comprised three working parties. Our company consisted of one Australian and two British working parties. I was in charge of one of the British groups.

The Aussies from our company were breaking rocks with sledge hammers, and my men were carrying the broken rock on to the runway, where the third party was laying it in position, and ramming it down.

No-one of course ever worked harder than was necessary to keep our guards quiet, but one day I noticed a member of the Aussie group listlessly tapping gently away at the same rock for a long time without breaking anything off it; and this lasted all the time we were loading up. That was asking for trouble, and the man certainly received it.

The guard in charge of the Aussies was some way off and this prisoner thought he was unobserved. However there was another guard watching him from among the trees, and in their usual way, he came rushing out with a roar, clouted the culprit round the head, and kicked his shins. Then he made him stand to attention with a fourteen pound hammer held over his head.

When we returned some minutes later for another load of rocks, I saw that the poor chap was still there and on the point of collapse; every time he attempted to lower the hammer the Jap threatened him. As the sun blazed down, the man began to sway; but no-one tried to help him from his own group.

Since the Aussie NCO's had all removed their badges of rank (because they did not want the responsibility, and taking the can which being in charge of the men involved), the one nominally in charge acted like one of the men.

So I left my own lot and ran over to the Aussie. Snatching the hammer out of his hands, I yelled at him without ceasing for about a minute, in order to impress the Japs who were watching. Then, leading him over to a big rock, I told him to get stuck into it if he valued both our lives.

The Jap had said nothing while this took place, and turning to him I made him understand that I would see to it that the bad boy did his share in future.

That evening back in camp, a delegation came over from the Aussies, and asked me if I would take charge of their party as well as my own, which I agreed to do.

Bulldozer beetle

The fauna here was somewhat different from that up country. We were eating our mid-day rice a few days later when I met my first bulldozer beetle, and found it a most interesting little creature. He had been disturbed from his earthy home and was doing his best to rehabilitate himself as quickly as he could. About an inch long, beautifully made, black rounded and silky, he carried a perfectly made curved bulldozer blade in front.

When I picked him up, he feigned death. Looking closely at him I was surprised to see no sign of eyes or feelers and wondered how he knew where to dig. So I put him down about a foot away from the nearest soft earth. After a minute or so, the blade slowly lifted to reveal two beady eyes and a pair of short feelers; within seconds he was at the heap, blade lowered, and digging himself in. Quite the most perfect little creature I have ever seen.

There were also blue velvet covered spiders with bodies an inch and a half across, and they were poisonous, or so we were told. They lived in holes in the ground, each one lined with silky layer of cobweb.

Then there were pale green, semi-transparent tree-frogs, with strange starry eyes. The first time I saw one I reached to pick it up but was stopped by a Dutch fellow prisoner. He told me they could squirt blinding acid from their vents and were best left alone.

Although I found this difficult to believe, especially remembering our childhood belief that our British frogs could spit fire, I left them alone. They clung to the leaves with little suction pads on their feet.

Two injuries

Buckets were again in very short supply, in this camp, and now I fashioned myself a few rough tools to enable me to resume tin-smithing again; before long I was turning out a bucket or some other item most evenings, there being more tin plate now from the Red Cross rations.

I was soon becoming really fit again. On my way to work one day, I tripped and fell with two heavy picks on my shoulder. Somehow or other I managed to get my little finger caught between them as I hit the ground, and it was so mangled that an inch of bone was exposed. However I washed the mud off, drew the flesh together, and kept it bound up with a piece of rag for a couple of weeks; when I removed it, to my surprise it had healed without becoming infected. I still have the scar.

Occasionally, my work party was taken down to the small town of Pechaburi to collect goods for the guards. The first time I went, our English speaking guard told me that the correct name of our actual camp was 'Katchu Mountain Camp'.

In the town we passed a long line of Thais celebrating some event, probably a wedding. Each one was dancing individually, with the strange and beautiful hand movements of the country, while thin strains of music came from the head of the line.

Men and women each had bamboo bottles slung over their shoulders, and now and then I would see someone stop and take a swig from over his shoulder.

The second time we went, an Allied plane dived at us as we were passing a stream, and I jumped into the water for protection. On hearing an explosion, I climbed out, and saw thousands of leaflets falling from the sky.

Our guards later searched us for these leaflets, but they did not find mine. When I got it back to the camp I found that it was printed in Chinese and unfortunately, no-one could read it.

A few days later, the Japs brought in a group of Thais they had caught, we were told, stealing blankets. They held them in the guard-house all night, and every now and then we heard them scream; apparently they had been tortured by having hot water poured up their noses.

The next morning, after being kept kneeling in front of the guardroom for a long time, they were eventually taken away somewhere.

The wet season set in now, and as usual the camp became a sea of mud. Drawing the tools for my party from the tool store one day, I dropped an axe on my bare big toe. (I was saving my boots to wear on our release, and I could not keep sandals on when it was muddy.)

My toe was gashed too badly to go out to work for a couple of weeks, so I got a temporary job in camp, tin-smithing. Again, in spite of having been inundated with mud many times, my flesh healed completely with only a simple dry rag dressing.

The war ends

On the fifteenth of August 1945, an exceptionally strong rumour swept through the camp that the war was over. Although, of course, it had to end some day, I did not believe it. However, something was in the wind, as we did not go out to work that day, and the guards were standing about in groups talking with worried countenances.

The following day, again we were not called out to work, and to our amazement the Japs unlocked what we had until then believed to be one of their ration stores, but we found it to contain Red Cross goods which they had been sitting on for months. This consisted of some tinned food, which was by mutual consent used in the cookhouse to improve our meals.

Mostly, however, the shed contained sports equipment, such as deck tennis rings, tennis rackets and balls, and these were shared among the huts. With such unaccustomed 'generosity' of the Japs, we began seriously to consider the possibility that the war was indeed over.

I spent every spare minute I had working at tin-smithing, and turned out hundreds of mugs from the empty Red Cross food tins. I had to work to avoid thinking about what was happening, as, for some strange reason, I felt extraordinarily unsettled instead of relieved, at the thought of imminent freedom.

We had no officers with us, as they had all been separated off at Chunkai, but there was an efficient British R.S.M. in charge of the camp, so they were not missed.

Everything seemed strangely quiet all day on the eighteenth, and late in the afternoon, the R.S.M. called us together to tell us, at last, that the war was really and truly over. We responded spontaneously with a deafening cheer, and then gathered in little groups of friends to discuss the news.

How can I explain what it felt like to be told that a bad dream of nearly four years' duration was at last ended? It was a most complex reaction. Try as I might I seemed to be unable at this stage fully to realize the implication of the message we had just received. Why was my soul not soaring with rapture at the thought of the fast approaching freedom?

'Rejoice and be exceeding glad,' I told myself, 'Suffering and privation are over, and we are all going home'. I was talking to myself aloud, as I suddenly realized; and looking quickly about me, saw, what I assumed to be, the same dazed look on the faces of my friends, in place of what should have been rapturous anticipation. I felt terrible, as my tummy turned over with an unidentifiable fear; where was the joy our release was to bring? All the hitherto unanswered questions as to how the Japs would react to defeat were now known; they had made no attempt to kill us, or commit hara-kiri as they had threatened, but were taking it all very calmly. I did understand all these things, but I was in a state of shock, and could not appreciate them.

That evening meal was the best since we had been captured, the cooks surpassing themselves with the aid of plenteous Red Cross rations. I collected mine, but sitting down felt sick at the sight and smell. Can't waste it I thought, and called out 'Any one for buckshees?' A day or two ago fifty voices would have sung out; today there was not a sound as everyone fiddled with his own helping.

The nineteenth found Japs still guarding us. They had told our R.S.M. that the Allies had sent them a message to the effect that they were to remain armed and in charge until someone came and took us over. One of our men passed a guard and did not salute him, thinking it unnecessary, now that the war was over; but he was knocked down in just the same way as he would have been before.

Still unable to rid myself of the nameless fear I was experiencing, I spent all my time working. Our lives had been ordered for us during the last few years; now I would need to make many major decisions for myself.

We had been told by those who should know, that after all our privations we would be impotent for the rest of our lives. Moreover, I thought, after living the way we had, everyone would think we were a bit 'peculiar' when we got home. I could not keep these and other thoughts from my mind as I worked.

For instance, would I, as I had for many years planned, be able to marry some nice girl, after admitting to her that we could never have children?

What was even more, did 'impotent' mean that not only would we be unable to father children, but did it mean we could not experience sex either? There was no-one I could ask.

(Some of these fears were far from groundless. I had left home a lad, but to use my sister's words some time after I had returned home, I came back looking like 'a queer old man'. Later on the family told me that for the first few months, among other things I never walked, but ran everywhere. I can now remember hardly anything about that first year back home; but years later my family told me they found it hard to hold back their tears at the way I was.)

During the following few days I kept thinking I would wake up and find I had been dreaming, as the camp looked the same as usual with the Japs still in charge.

However, we were issued with more Red Cross stuff, including tins of fruit, American shirts and trousers, and best of all, a lovely American fluffy army woollen blanket, which I took home with me. As clothing was then rationed, I had it made into an overcoat by the local tailor.

Men now began to discuss the possibility of breaking out of camp, so all NCO's were called together and asked to ensure that the men were kept under control, to avoid mob rule taking over.

There was also the possibility that if a mass breakout occurred, irresponsible elements might cause trouble with the Thais. I realized that this was quite right; we did not want any trouble, now that we were soon to be free.

On the twenty-first of August, some Thais called through the wire and told us that we were going to be evacuated on the twenty-eighth of the month. It seemed strange that none of our people had communicated directly with us, and that all we knew was coming from either Japs or Thais.

Just outside our camp was a large cemetery, containing the remains of all POWs who had died in the area. On the twenty-sixth we held a memorial service there, attended by all the fit prisoners, plus the Jap camp commandant and his staff.

Chapter 39

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