When the prisoner shows him the pictures of his wife and kids and then signals a rocking motion to tell of a third child Bamforth’s attitude is very much changed.
“Good old Tojo. She’s a bit short in the pins, that’s all.”, “You got two chicos, eh?”, “What another?” and then finally “Well you crafty old devil! You’re as bad as Smudge”. He then finishes his speech with: “He’s almost human this one!”
This shows that Bamforth has a much higher regard towards the prisoner. He sees him as ‘almost human’ rather than an animal which he previously regarded him as. This would all be in a praising tone of voice and he would wear an expansive smile.
Bamforth offers the prisoner a cigarette which Johnstone knocks out. But this action shows that Bamforth feels that the prisoner is worthy of a cigarette like a friend.
When Johnstone threatens to rip up the prisoner’s pictures, Bamforth plants himself between Johnstone and the prisoner. He then knees Johnstone in the groin, and then head butts him across the bridge of his nose, after Johnstone had advanced.
Bamforth does this because he has been put in charge of the prisoner and is very uncomfortable with people not showing the respect he believes his authority deserves, as he prefers giving orders rather than taking them.
Later on he defends the prisoner as the prisoner is found with a British issue cigarette and case made in Birmingham.
“I gave him half a dozen fags!”; “The case belongs to him”
This statement is not true because there were no indications of it in the play.
“Does it?” Johnstone questioned.
You’d better have another shufti at it, then.”
The case is given to Bamforth.
“All right! So it’s a British case!”
“Made in Birmingham.”
“So what? What’s that supposed to prove?”
“So tell us now how he got hold of it.”
This would be said with quite a desperate tone of voice, as he knows that his argument has failed. As his first argument has failed, he begins to argue out a second as he is determined to prove that the prisoner is innocent.
But Macleish and Evans ‘move menacingly towards the prisoner’ Bamforth plants himself once more between them and the prisoner.
“It’s pretty obvious he’s pinched the thing.”
“How else would he have got it, Bammo?”
“How does anybody cop onto a fag case? Eh? You buy them! In shops!”
“It’s a British case, Bamforth”
“You’re a head case, Jock. I’ve got a little skin and blister back in Blighty. Twelve years old. She carts around a squinting Nippo doll. Know how she got it? One night, instead of being tucked up in her little bed, she was out roaming the streets with a chopper. She knocked off nine Nippo nippers in a night nursery and nicked a golliwog, two-teddy bears and this here doll. You want to know how we found out? It’s got ‘Made in Japan’ stamped across its pink behind. Now, work that one out.”
Bamforth would be saying this in a rather aggressive manner and with a loud voice.
“It won’t wash, Bamforth. The Nips don’t import fancy swag. They churn it out themselves and flog it abroad.”
He argues with a determined tone in his voice and as a second argument he uses Whitaker as an example:
“Who’s collected more swag than any regiment? I’ll introduce him.”
Bamforth then walks over to Whitaker and raises his hand as if Whitaker had won a boxing match.
He then targets Whitaker even more and then tells the others about Whitaker’s collection of Japanese ‘swag’ which he stores in his locker back at base.
“I swapped some things for them. In the N.A.A.F.I down the U.J club. I swapped them for some stuff I had myself – with some bloke I met who’d come down from up country.”
“That’s all I want to know.”
“It’s not a crime.”
“No, no, it’s not a crime. It’s not a crime to have a fag case either.
“You’d better give them him back.”
Bamforth would be feeling quite smug at his success, head high and a smirk on his face. Bamforth had successfully produced an argument which convinced Macleish that it wasn’t that important. This then triggers Mitchem and Johnston to feel the same, the rest of the platoon then follow suit. The defence conveyd the prisoner as innocent.
Later on, soon before they plan to leave, Bamforth ‘having taken a swig from his water bottle, wipes the lid and offers the bottle to the prisoner.’
“Come on, Tojo son. Get a gob of this before we go.”
Mitcham disagrees
“The bloke’s has got to drink.”
“He’s had a drink – earlier on this afternoon.”
He’s not a camel.”
Bamforth uses the word ‘bloke’ now as he considers the prisoner as a real man, someone he would befriend with. He has now formed a strong bond between him and the prisoner.
“He’ll have to have a drink sometime. We’re taking him as well.”
“I’m sorry.”
“No.”
He once more, stands in between the prisoner and Johnstone as Johnstone goes to kill the prisoner.
“You’re not doing it Johnno.”
“It’s a bloody Nip!”
“He’s a man.”
Bamforth uses the word ‘man’ because he feels that now the prisoner is worthy of being a man, and a human, somebody of his own level.
“Shift yourself, Bamforth, get out of the way”
“You’re not doing it.”
“You’re a bastard.”
Bamforth would be very aggressive at this point. He would be red with anger.
He then asks other members of the platoon whose side they are on. Whitaker sides Mitchem and Johnstone.
“You’ve got no guts, Whitaker. You know that boy? You’ve just got no guts.”
“Evans. Taffy, Taff! Put the gun on these two, son.”
“I reckon Mitch is right, you know.”
“He’s going to kill him, you nit!”
Bamforth would be feeling incredibly angry; the fate of his new friend lies in the opinions of his colleagues.
“Smudger! Smudger, now it’s up to you.”
“Drop it Bammo, it’s like Mitch says – it’s him or us.”
Bamforth is determined not to let the prisoner be killed. He has become too attached.
Mitchem and Johnstone grapple with Bamforth, keeping him away from the prisoner. The prisoner rises.
“Get down! Sit down! Sit down you stupid man, or I’ll have to put a bullet into you” Whitaker shouted.
The prisoner remains standing and Whitaker’s fingers push down the trigger, the bullet penetrating the prisoner right in his body.”
“You’ve got the biggest souvenir of all. You’ve done it this time, Whitaker – take that and hang it on the front room wall.”
Bamforth is furious and makes sure that Whitaker feels very bad. He is distraught as his new friend had been killed for no reason against his will and the Geneva Convention, unfairly.
Overall Bamforth’s attitude towards the Japanese soldier changes. Initially he is prepared to kill him, but gradually builds a friendship, which becomes so strong that he defends him with his own body. He even head butts a fellow soldier across the bridge of his nose! Finally when the soldier is about to be killed Bamforth is extremely angry and as a response tries to divide the platoon up for those for or against it.
Macleish: When the Japanese soldier enters the hut Johnstone grabs him and shouts for Macleish to put a bayonet into his stomach but Macleish refuses:
“No!”
Macleish is completely against the killing of the prisoner and he would say this in a whimper or a distressed tone and he may be quite shocked; standing back with his hands over his mouth.
“What do you think they dish out bayonets for? Just opening tins of soup?”
“They’re not to put in prisoners of war!”
Later on he says:
“If the need should arise I’ll use a bayonet with the next. But I’ve no intention of using one on any man who can’t defend himself.”
“You burk!”
“He is a prisoner of war.”
“Prisoner my crutch!”
“There’s such a thing of the Geneva Convention.”
Macleish feels strongly against the killing of an innocent man and quotes the Geneva Convention. He is trying to persuade Johnstone to leave the prisoner alone. He sees the prisoner as a ‘man’ who is respectable. In the play would be talking in a fairly strong tone of voice, stating facts.
Later on he talks about the prisoner:
“He doesn’t seem a bad sort of bloke.”
This followed by:
“It seems to me … I’ve been thinking it over, like, in my mind. And I was thinking, at the little time it’s taken them to get down here – as far as this – they couldn’t have had a lot of resistance. I mean, do you think it’s possible there’s been a sort of general jacking in from our lads?”
Macleish seems quite worried and would speak in a nervous tone of voice and would be quite twitchy as he would be unsure of his brother’s situation. He would also walk up and down the stage.
“I was wondering about Donald – that’s my brother.”
“Yeh?” Mitchem says.
“Well, if you work on the assumption that it’s all over – that they’ve come straight through…”
“It doesn’t do to count on ‘ifs’ in this lark.”
“No. But if they have, it’s likely that they’ve copped a lot of prisoners, the Japs. That stands to reason.”
“That’s fair enough.”
“So it’s possible my brother is a P.O.W, already.
“There’s a chance of that.”
“You hear so many stories – you know, on how the Japs treat P.O.Ws.
“Pretty rough, they reckon.”
“I’m not so sure. You hear all kinds of things. S if they’re almost…animals. Bu this bloke seems a decent sort of a bloke.”
“It’s hard to tell.”
“I mean, he’s a family man himself”
“So what? Is that supposed to make a difference?”
“He’s human at least.”
Macleish is trying as hard as possible to reassure himself that if the prisoner is a decent man, they all will and therefore his brother won’t be mistreated if he is a P.O.W. He uses the prisoner as a comfort, and respects him as ‘human at least’ and a ‘decent sort of bloke’
Later on when the query about the fate of the prisoner arises, Macleish defends him. This is because he feels that this might be the same attitude as the Japanese army and with the comfort of this ‘decent’ Japanese gone he would fear his brother’s death.
He seems quite desperate:
“He’s a P.O.W”
“You can’t kill him.”
And
“There must be something else.”
However later on, he discovers that the prisoner has some British issue cigarettes:
“If there’s one thing gets my hump it’s knocking off – it’s looting.” Mitchem said.
“I’ll ram it down his rotten throats! I’ll make him eat the rotten thing!”
As soon as he figures out that the prisoner has looted, he immediately knows that it must be looting from a dead body. So therefore there is a very high chance that his brother is dead.
He would be very bitter and aggressive, sneering at the prisoner.
“I’ll kill him”
He then ‘jerks him savagely to his feet’ and then empties the prisoner’s pockets. Following this he throws the contents of his pockets to the floor and rips up the photographs of his wife and kids. He then strikes the prisoner across the face.
He would act this extremely furiously.
Later on he regrets his treatment of the prisoner. Then he decides not to take part in any further events which involve the prisoner.
“Who’s next for stag?”
“Me for one.”
He must be feeling quite upset and must be thinking of his brother, so he needs time to think about it.
Macleish’s attitude towards the Japanese soldier changes. Initially Macleish defends the soldier but soon changes side when he finds out that the prisoner has British issue cigarettes and a cigarette case. However towards the very end, he gradually adopts a neutral attitude and does not care for the prisoner. This is when he decides to go on guard so that he can think about his brother, Donald.
