To ensure maximum security the guards would work four hours on duty and four hours off. Nurses would be accompanied at all times by two riflemen on guard duty as they treated the Japanese POWs. The Gurkhas, of course, much preferred their trusted kukri knives. Madge was surprised to hear that the ward would not be surrounded by barbed wire or by specially built security fencing. ‘From what I’ve been told our “guests” aren’t exactly going to be in good enough condition to go hopping over the main fence,’ said Matron.
Some of the nurses began to feel scared at the prospect of treating the POWs.
‘What if people come in to attack the Japanese and they attack us as well?’ asked one VAD during another intense debate in the mess one afternoon.
Madge pointed out that they had volunteered to serve in the Burma Campaign as nurses in the first place, knowing there would be risks involved. ‘There’s no point in being scared. In reality, it’s just another job and we’re going to be put on the rosters whether we like it or not. And they’ve put strict measures in place to make sure we and the patients are kept safe.’
Later that evening Basil warned her not to expect the same gratitude from the Japanese for trying to save their lives as nurses got from Allied soldiers. ‘You must remember,’ he said, ‘that they feel enormous shame at being taken prisoners of war and would prefer death before the dishonour of being treated by the enemy.’
Nurses were briefed about the arrival of the Japanese POWs and told what to do in the case of any emergency. It was made very clear that should an incident occur on the ward, the most important thing was personal safety. ‘Don’t think about being a hero. If you are attacked, get out of the way as quick as you can and let the guards step in. The greater the distance you can put between you and any attacker, the safer it will be, but if necessary, hit them as hard and as fast as you can with anything you can get your hands on,’ they were told by a security expert.
‘It is highly unlikely,’ he went on, ‘that one of the Japanese will escape, but in the event of that happening, remember the old motto that there is safety in numbers. The more of you there are together, the less likely it will be for one of you to be taken hostage.’ He ended by saying just how much he admired the nurses for the task they were undertaking. ‘You may think that these prisoners are seriously ill, but it is absolutely vital that you be on your guard at all times,’ he added.
As they left the briefing, Madge said to Vera and Phyl, ‘Well, at least he told it to us straight so we know how to deal with anything that might happen. I suppose we’ll just have to expect the unexpected,’ to which the other girls nodded in agreement.
The first two Japanese POWs were carried in on stretchers to 56 IGH on 3 March 1945. Within days the ward was full of demoralised Japanese soldiers suffering, in the main, from malaria, dysentery, dehydration and malnutrition. For those with combat injuries the length of time they spent at the hospital could vary, but the others were soon moved to purpose-built POW camps.
Despite the evidence that the push against the Japanese was working to plan, the boys on the BOR ward, where Nurse Graves was on duty, were outraged and bewildered over what they described as ‘an un-bloody believable decision to mollycoddle the Japanese’. If debates in the nurses’ mess were heated, the arguments on the wards became increasingly fierce. One particular Lancastrian lance corporal insisted that it didn’t mean the Japanese POWs were being mollycoddled just because they were being treated as human beings. ‘We are a civilised nation and must not lower ourselves to their level,’ he insisted, but he was met with some even fiercer responses.
In typical British fashion, however, they maintained their sense of humour. David, a patient from Cardiff who was recovering from a nasty shrapnel wound in his left shoulder, called Madge over and told her in a stage whisper that he knew the key to dealing with the Japanese. ‘Madge, my little lovely, even if one of these people has a sword hidden in the bed, remember you must keep your ’ead at all times!’ As the rest of the ward burst out laughing the cheeky Taff chuckled so much that his laughter turned into a yelp of pain.
‘Serves you right,’ Madge grinned, before walking on down the ward to check on another of the soldiers who had been brought in two days earlier with a very unpleasant bout of dysentery. He had a cast in his right eye and a rugged, dangerous look about him. He had said virtually nothing since arriving and she was worried he might also be suffering from shock. Out of the blue he told her, in a clipped accent, that he had something that would solve the chronic constipation from which the Japanese were said to suffer. Without further ado, he produced a hand grenade from under his pillow.
Madge hadn’t been sure about this new patient but the utter shock, brilliantly acted as it was, on those scarred features as he dropped the grenade certainly didn’t fool the unflappable Nurse Graves. ‘Boys and their silly toys,’ she said with a shake of her head and a whimsical smile as she calmly placed it back under his pillow.
He apologised profusely for the jape with the grenade which he said he’d won in a little wager with two gentlemen from the Land of the Rising Sun. ‘It has, of course, been defused,’ he added. ‘I just thought the boys on the ward needed a little fun in their lives.’ He turned serious for a moment and said, ‘You know, Nurse Graves, in a
