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Description
Back at Shamshuipo, now a prisoner-of-war camp, Mr. Routledge recalls the frightening treatments he and other prisoners received at the hands of the Japanese guards.
Transcription
They were typically vicious and on guard all the time. There were a number of people on the outside who were very, very sorry for those of us on the inside and, in fact, on occasions, were bringing food, food stuff, to the fence line and passing it through the fence to some of our people on the inside, and some of them were caught and they were decapitated or bayoneted.
Interviewer: By the Japanese guards?
Yes.
Interviewer: Were these typically Chinese people that were trying to help you prisoners?
Some of them, yes. But as I recall it, also there were also some Phillipino-type people, but I, I would say yes, typically Chinese people.
Interviewer: If this was how the Japanese guards treated the non-prisoners, how did they treat you prisoners?
For having accepted sort-of thing? Having accepted, or being caught with the...?
Interviewer: Well, I was thinking just generally. How would the Japanese guards treat you POWs?
As long as they didn't catch us doing something wrong and it was just a matter of guard duty. That's really all it was.
Interviewer: If they caught you doing something wrong or, or you weren't properly respectful to them, what would happen?
Oh, you could, you could be beaten and maybe even deprived of a meal or two. But for the most part, it would be a beating.
Interviewer: During the time that you were at Shamshuipo, were you beaten?
At Shamshuipo? No.