Lost in a Foreign Land by Douglas Anderson

Author:Douglas Anderson
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: Publication Consultants

Chapter Nine:

Heading South

The C-47 cargo plane taxied down the gravel strip and performed an engine run-up in the turn-around pad at the eastern end. Number one Pratt and Whitney R1830 engine ran up to its full 1200 horse power and gave a small dip in revolutions as the magnetos were cycled off and on. Same procedure with number two engine.

Shinichi sat in a jump seat with his right wrist handcuffed to the seat frame and listened to the pre-flight procedures. The MP who arrived at the base the day before was riding as escort and was settled in a jump seat on the opposite side of the cabin. Shinichi listened to the familiar sound of radial engines and savored the pungent scent of the fuel and exhaust. Although he was a prisoner and was on a strange aircraft, it still gave him a thrill. Planes and flying were in his blood and he loved it. His keen eyes were already studying the exposed internal structure of the cavernous fuselage. He knew the Japanese company Mitsui had built the C-47s under a license agreement before the war. The Japanese plane was called the Showa L2D. He thought it rather ironic that both sides were using essentially the same plane as a primary work-horse as they battled for supremacy in the Pacific.

He had been held in detention at the airfield for five days but had been treated well by the people there. Locked in a room most of the time but allowed out for meals and ablutions but never allowed close contact with anyone other than the small group that greeted his arrival. It seemed there were very few permanent personnel on the base—he estimated maybe twenty or so. He had heard aircraft landing and taking off occasionally. Trucks came and went too. It was quite a busy place so someone had to be taking care of the planes, servicing them or whatever.

He had been provided with some better fitting clothes but noted the shirt had POW stenciled on the back in large white letters. He only had only worn that shirt for a few hours when one of the soldiers came to the room, made him remove it and gave him one without the letters. Why the sudden change? He didn't know.

The medical man had checked his injury a couple of times and deemed it needed nothing except some ointment and a little dressing to keep it clean. Shinichi had finally understood; “Long time to mend bone.”

He had not seen anyone who spoke a word of Japanese so he had not been questioned any more thoroughly and certainly had not been pressured for further information in any way. He suspected that would come later at some other place.

He thought he solved that mystery of the Asian looking people. They were local “natives,” civilians employed on routine tasks around the bases and there were several in the room where Carter took him for a meal on one occasion. They sat separately from the service men and he noted some of them spoke a strange language other than English.

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