A Talent for Adventure by Pat Spooner

Author:Pat Spooner
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781781594001
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Published: 2012-11-25T16:00:00+00:00

He told me they subsisted largely on a diet of sour black bread made from tapioca flour and almost the only vegetable was obi leaves.

Evidence of war crimes started to accumulate, with information now pouring in to our office as a result of the publicity we had obtained locally. For example, a diary kept by a Warrant Officer Reich had been found at St Vincontuis Hospital in Batavia giving the names and other details of Japanese who had mistreated patients. Because of shortage of staff, however, I decided to concentrate all our efforts, in the early stages, on the PoW and internee camps before they were evacuated and it was too late.

Since all efforts to obtain reinforcements from E Group Singapore or from the Dutch were unavailing, I had little choice but to make the best of what staff I had, despite the mounting work load. I did manage to take on three Dutch ladies from the Tjidang camp, who had volunteered to do secretarial work. Although still weak from their privations, they rapidly gathered strength and were a great asset to the unit. Up until then Sergeant Bryce had carried out the secretarial chores, but I needed him for more productive fieldwork and he was only too glad to be relieved of these onerous duties. In addition, the Australian ex-PoW, Wing Commander Bill Pitts, had joined us and I sent him off to liaise with Colonel Havercamp in the capital, Bandoeng, in central Java.

I met the former Chief Advocate, Batavia, Mr P. J. Brugman, at the Hotel Tjikini. He was investigating the mistreatment of civilian prisoners by the Japanese and handed over copies of statements incriminating, in particular, the Kempeitai. The Admiral sent word that Lord Mountbatten, the Supreme Commander, wished to know how things were progressing on the war crimes investigations front in Java. Rashly, I promised to produce an interim report within the week or no later than 4 October. Once again, he invited me to spend the night on board HMS Cumberland, but this time, due to pressure of work, I declined regretfully.

The Americans had sent a small unit of their Office of Strategic Services (OSS) to Batavia. I was informed that a Captain Shaw would be arriving next day to ‘deal with war crimes’ and would contact me. I found this rather puzzling; to the best of my knowledge there had been no American military serving in Java. There were, on the other hand, quite likely to be Americans amongst the civilian internees, although we had not, as yet, encountered or heard of any.

On 30 September E Group was officially made responsible for the investigation of war crimes in South-east Asia. There would be a forward headquarters in Singapore with teams operating in Java, Sumatra, Singapore and Malaya. Other teams would be located in Burma, Siam and Indo-China, under a forward headquarters in Bangkok. This was welcome news: with my own colleagues running the show I felt less likely to be messed about.

I heard through

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