“Okay, Dad.”
As I strolled over the hut I forgot about the danger I was putting myself in, there were too many things going through my mind at the time. I circled the hut looking for the door, I came to some old wooden steps, a few of them had rotten away. I dodged the holes in the steps and raised my hand slowly towards the doorknob. I twisted the knob and started to slowly push the door open, it was very dark and I quickly checked if the coast was clear but I couldn’t see properly, I flung the door open the rest of the way. Whilst doing that I caught eye with something shiny, so I took one step closer to try and get a better sight of it. Then the light started to flicker, all of a sudden I saw six soldiers, and there was another one behind me holding my arms behind m back tight. They were shouting words at me I didn’t understand, then CLONK! I was out cold.
I woke, and I didn’t remember what day it was, I could barely remember where I was. These people started shouting words at me again, I didn’t understand what they were saying, they started to push me around and before I knew it I had a bayonet to my chest. I couldn’t understand why they want to kill me. Then I saw the British flag on one of the soldiers shoulder. This rough looking man grabbed the bayonet and pushed it towards the centre of my stomach. I could feel the pressure, yet it didn’t quite break the skin. One of them grabbed the bayonet from the other man; he was waving it in my face and shouting at me. Then it all stopped it worried me I thought don’t they just want to kill the Japanese.
Later on I was sitting there on my own and I found a window I stared out of it, not too long after that everyone was asleep except the two keeping look out. I took off my coat and wrapped it around myself, as I dosed off I pulled it close to my neck to keep me warm in the night.
I woke up the next morning and one of the men was holding a bayonet to my head, I thought, here we go again; British soldiers do things much differently to us. Suddenly one of the men grabbed the bayonet and passed me a water bottle. I looked up at the man he looked quite rough it was the same men that wanted me dead the other day when they captured me. His face was dirty and spiky because he hadn’t had a shave but the smile on his face was very comforting it made me think of home, and how happy I was there. I reached for the photos in my pocket and let the grinning man have a look at them. The man looked at them and he smiled at me he said something to me but I still didn’t understand him. I wish I could understand them it would’ve made life so much easier. As one of the men walked through the door he shouted at the rough looking man, he turned to me quickly shouted something, he was talking slowly and putting his hands on his head at the same time, I thought I should just copy him. As I did that the man with my photos gave me them back and ruffled my hair. I felt that he didn’t want to kill me any more he was my friend now.
Later on that day “my friend” walked over to me and passed me a cigarette, I took the cigarette and placed it into my mouth. I put my hand out to wait for the lighter and one of the other men came over to us and hit the cigarette out of my mouth. His eyes were as red as fire, he was shouting at me again so I just put my hands on my head. The nice man and the violent man started to shout at each other I think that they were having an argument but I couldn’t be sure because I couldn’t understand what they were saying. Then the violent man hit my friend. I wanted to get up and stop the fight but another man walked through the door, the shouting stopped immediately. The man was short and fat but his posture made him somewhat taller than the others. He looked like the leader of the troops. The atmosphere in the room changed rapidly they started acting like more of a team again.
The men started to talk between themselves, I was looking around the room and I caught a glance of someone fiddling with some sort of box it looked like a radio. Suddenly words started to come out of the box they were Japanese words, I couldn’t believe it.
It was Bob my best friend from camp; he was chanting in Japanese “Little Johnny we are coming to get you, we will be there soon.”
I started to get excited, but things started to look bad everyone seemed to be getting their things together. I didn’t want to go anywhere. I wanted to stay, I wanted to go back to camp to see Bob. I started to think about my family again and not ever seeing them again.
About an hour later we stopped at a river it was really nice to see the outdoors. I faintly remembered the area and after a while it came to me that camp was just on the other side of the mountains.
No one had spoken to me for about an hour now. A lot had gone through my mind. I thought about if Bob and then other troops, about when they were going to come and get me, if they were still alive and if they were going to be able to find me now. Those things only glanced through my mind, but my family was stuck there for ages. I secretly pulled my pictures out of my pocket I was staring at them. I thought about my beautiful wife and when I was going to be able to hold little Timpto again and when I was going to be able to play games like hide and seek with Quento again. Most of all I thought about Shaki my wife, I couldn’t wait to sit in front of the fire holding her close feeling her heart beat close to mine.
It was about mid-day and a big fat guy strutted towards me I got a bit frightened only because I was confident with only one of the men. He started to talk to me, although they should have known by now that I didn’t have a clue what they were saying to me. I thought I would be able to make a new friend so I handed the nice man a cigarette. The leader of the group walked over towards us and started shouting at me and the fat guy, I thought to myself these people never seem to get on they are always fighting. The leader started to shout at me I couldn’t understand so I just put my hands on my head. He hit my hands. I just sat there I felt so pathetic and week, then they all started to shout at me. The fat one picked up the cigarette box and looked at it closely, he then quickly stared at me with dagger eyes. He pulled me up to my feet violently, and rummaged through my pockets quite violently. They found my wallet. A big tall guy took my photos out of my wallet and looked at them I tried to snatch them off him, but they pushed my arms down. He held the photos in front of my face and tore then up into small pieces, I felt like grabbing him by the neck and never letting go. I was very puzzled at this point, it baffled me that some one has to tear your photos up because a man from their own side gave me a box of cigarettes. My friend ran over and seemed to want to know what was going on, then he just jumped on me and held my hands behind my back he wanted me dead again, he was confusing me rotten. The leaders friend started to walk over and he grabbed the cigarette box and read the side of it. The argument started up again, but this time my friend was on my side, it made me much more confident and he seemed much more supportive. He shouted at the others and grabbed the cigarette box off them he passed me it and the fat man picked my torn photos up and passed them to me. I was shocked and I couldn’t believe what was going on. I looked at the photos and it looked like a broken puzzle and all I had to do was fit the pieces back together. The other soldiers started to say things to me I think they were trying to say sorry.
Then there was an interruption and there were more words coming out of the box the youngster was playing with it was Bob again he was telling me that he knew where I was and he was on his way to get me. When I heard the words I walked over to the box and I was going to shout down through the receiver, the youngster thought I was coming after him but I wasn’t I just wanted him to put his gun down, I didn’t want him to kill me. Then I looked at him in the eyes and thought he’s going to shoot me!
