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Burma
Liberated Rangoon Jail
Interrogation and Treatment
Interrogation 4
One PoW, a navigator of a Liberator which collided with another Liberator in the Pakokku area during a raid on 16th, September 1944, was assisted by some Burmese who placed him in a bullock cart.
He was subsequently found by two policemen when the cart was searched, and was handed over to the Japanese in a nearby village.
The same night, a Lieutenant of the Military Police arrived by car and took the PoW to Pakokku, about 25 miles away.
This Japanese Officer was extremely correct in his attitude and told the PoW through his Anglo - Burmese interpreter, that if he behaved himself he would be properly treated as a PoW.
On the following morning the PoW was told that two other members of his crew had been captured. During the day time these three were allowed out on parole and were only locked up at night.
The Japanese Officer seemed only to require Information to satisfy his own curiosity, and on one occasion he even gave them a baseball and gloves and joined them in a ball game.
The PoWs were kept here for four days under the supervision of this Officer who treated them consistently well and showed them his own quarters which had been shot up a few days previously.
One evening, a very tough, ugly looking N.C.O. took PoW with the Anglo-Burmese interpreter to a village near the junction of the Chindwin and Irrawaddy Rivers, where they had to wait for a sampan. They rested at the interpreters house and they were fed by the Interpreter and his wife. The N.C.O. with them would not allow the PoW to touch the food, but as a result of a considerable amount of whisky being administered by the interpreter, the N.C.O. guard gradually changed his attitude and became quite friendly and allowed the PoW to eat. During the whole of this time, the interpreter and his wife did everything In their power to make things easy for the PoW and saw to it that the food they received was much better than that given by the Japanese.
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