Meanwhile Colonel Yanagida week-ended in Bangkok. Taramoto then gave orders that every officer would parade next morning for railway work. Protests were not even listened to, and if we didn’t parade armed guards were detailed to drag us out of the huts. There would be no compromise; you could take your choice – obey or be shot. We paraded. After the troops had gone to work we were still standing on the square outside the Nip office, while Colonel Featherstonhaugh tried pathetically to reason with Taramoto. Councils among the junior officers were held, and the general opinion was to hang on a bit and see what happened. Then Taramoto posted armed guards on two sides of us. Finally, to a tense, whitefaced section, he gave the order to load – and that was the end. The Colonels’ advice was to give in. They were probably right; and certainly the Nips played the same game with the same result up and down the line. Many wiseacres said after the event that the Nips would never have dared to fire; subsequent events showed that the Nips were capable of anything. Anyhow, under extreme compulsion, we agreed to work. The handicap among Europeans is that they do value their own lives.

Taramoto then ordered a Medical Inspection of all officers. The Horse Doctor took the parade, and our own M.O.’s had no say at all, Taramoto and Keriama accompanied him up and down the ranks, laughing and giggling. Men with grey hair and 25 years’ work in the East had to work; dysentery cases, said Taramoto, could only be cured by work; and ulcers on the legs, after being kicked by Keriama’s jackboots were not considered worth examining. Get them all out was the policy, and out we all went, starting that very afternoon at two o’clock.

At that hour the whole party was met by Taramoto at the tool shed, where he addressed us in his thin, malicious, hissing voice. First he introduced us to our immediate bosses, Mr Watanabe and another Mr, two hideous little Nip privates who worked in great fear of two Nip sergeants, who in turn worked in great fear of Taramoto. Taramoto then said that as long as we behaved like gentlemen, he would treat us like gentlemen. But if we did not carry out his orders he would kill us. (‘I weel keel you.’) We must look after our tools zealously; he would teach us to lo-ove our tools. We would have the privilege of working all day and every day on skilled work; we would be responsible for making two bridges about a mile outside the camp; we would parade daily after breakfast, have our midday rice brought out on the job, and work till six o’clock.