Take a Step Forward and I Will Cut Your Head Off!

They were people that had no, no sense of feeling, that’s the impression we got, anyway. But they wouldn’t hesitate to, if you walked by you had to salute them every time you went by. If you didn’t salute them, you would get a bayonet or a slap in the face or, they weren’t hesitant about meting out any kind of punishment.

Our medical officer was in charge, Major Crawford, and he, along with all the rest of them, were slapped and, as a matter of fact, there was, we were told, this was the understanding that I got at the time, and most of them understood the same thing, but through an interpreter, this Japanese officer said, I guess he was a medical officer, a Japanese medical officer, and he said, “If you think you’re doing your job” now, this is what he said, “If you think you’re doing your job, take a step forward, and I will cut your head off.” Now, would you have stepped forward? One man did. Les Farley stepped forward. And, of course, they didn’t cut his head off, they just said he was a brave man. But they came down and they gave the rest of us a swat in the face for not doing our job in the hospital. And it wasn’t our fault, it was their fault for not providing, of course, the proper medical facilities. Anyway, that was just one incident of many, really.

I had an awful pain in the side, I couldn’t figure out what it was, and it occurred to me that I was hit with a rifle and it had cracked a rib. And when I went to see the doctor about it, he said, “You’ve cracked a rib. We can’t do anything about it, but” he said “you’ve cracked a rib.” And I couldn’t, for the life of me, what it was, but, you know, they were always doing this sort of thing and that’s what it was.

If you resisted, they would beat you, really, to unconsciousness or death. And if they were the type that were carrying swords they could probably, they would probably, take the sword out and lop your head off.