Greyfriars House

by Emma Fraser

  Nausea curdled in my stomach.

  ‘I’m ashamed to say that at that time what was happening on the other side of the world didn’t seem to have very much to do with us,’ Georgina continued, a faraway look in her eyes. ‘But we should have paid more attention. We should have done something to punish them, at the very least we should have realised that the Japanese had to be taken seriously. That they were not an honourable army. But we didn’t. Not until it was far too late.’

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Georgina

  Singapore, December 1941

  In the early hours of the morning, just over a week since she’d seen Edith, Georgina was jerked from sleep by bangs that shook the house and rattled the window panes. Her heart in her throat, she ran to the window and looked out, almost unable to believe her eyes. Parts of the city were in flames and, even as she watched, planes appeared from out of the thick cloud. Singapore was being attacked! Where were the guns? Where was the RAF? For crying out loud, Singapore was lit up like a Christmas tree! Only yesterday the radio had spoken, very casually, as if it were of no concern, of Japanese landings on Kota Bahru and of their warships lying off the east coast. Yet, even then, Singapore hadn’t bothered to enforce the blackout. Damn the Singapore government and their insistence in not taking the threats from the Japs seriously. Thank God the British government seemed to. A few days earlier two British battleships, the Repulse and the Prince of Wales had sailed in to reinforce the Far Eastern fleet.

  The sound of stuttering returning fire came at last, either from the heavy guns facing out to sea or from the battleships. At least Singapore was being defended. Half an hour later it was all over.

  The next morning, she heard on the radio that Pearl Harbor had been bombed by the Japanese and almost the entire American navy wiped out. In response, America had declared war. In Singapore, although Raffles Place had suffered a direct hit, Chinatown had endured the worst of it. Dozens of people had been killed and hundreds more injured. The day after the attacks, news reached them of the sinking of the Repulse and the Prince of Wales battleships. They had only been in Singapore a week! And the very next day news broke of the destruction of the airfield at Butterworth, and Georgina thought it inevitable that people would now sit up and pay attention. Who could doubt the Japanese army’s intent now? But no. Singapore picked itself up and shrugged the news off as if it was only a minor inconvenience and really nothing to do with them.

  On Sunday, a week after the bombing of Singapore and Pearl Harbor, Georgina and Lawrence drove out to the Sea View Hotel on the east coast road leading to Changi. Sunday morning was a Sea View morning for most of the Europeans in Singapore and it was Lawrence’s and her habit to go there every Sunday for lunch. Not even the Japanese attacks would be allowed to change that. They were all nothing if not creatures of habit.

  Everything was just the same as every other day, adding to the sense of unreality. The large rectangular ballroom was open to the sea along one side, its floor crowded with small tables, each able to seat four people, leaving a square in the middle for dancing once the tables had been pushed back after the meal was over.

  At the far end of the hotel’s pillared terrace, with its dome in the centre, flowers in tubs lined a platform on which an orchestra, violins predominating, played light classical music. Most of the men not in uniform were in the more casual dress permitted on a Sunday – open-necked shirts and shorts. Many of the women also wore shorts, their hair and skin protected by wide-brimmed hats or bandanas, with sunglasses to shield their eyes from the glare of the sun.

  Lawrence held out a chair for Georgina at one of the tables on the terrace facing the hotel beach, signalling for a Tiger beer for himself and an ice-cold gimlet served in a frosty glass for her.

  They sat in silence as they waited for their drinks to arrive, taking in the spidery lines of Malay fishing traps between the green islands and the sea.

  ‘Surely the government is going to do something now?’ Georgina said, when they’d been served, taking a sip of her drink. ‘They’ve refused to take the war seriously so far.’ And were still not taking it seriously. If the Straits Times were to be believed, nothing at all was happening. At least Singapore had finally implemented the blackout they should have implemented months ago.

  ‘Darling, you have to leave these matters to people who know best. I promise there is nothing to worry about, but if you are at all concerned why don’t you go back to Britain? I can easily get you a ticket.’

  ‘I have no intention of leaving!’ Certainly not as long as Edith was in Singapore. ‘I’m going to make myself useful. I’m taking a course in first aid with a view to volunteering at one of the hospitals. People have been wounded and killed, Lawrence, and the hospitals are feeling the strain. As you keep pointing out, my job here is practically redundant these days and I refuse to be a useless mouth.’

  To her fury he laughed. ‘You! Take care of the sick? Empty bedpans and fetch and carry for the nurses? You can’t be serious.’

  ‘Just bloody well watch me, Lawrence.’ She picked up her handbag and glared at him. ‘That is one of the many reasons I could never marry you. You think you know everything there is to know about me, but you don’t. You don’t know me at all.’

  Over the days that followed it became increasingly clear that the Singapore government was determined to persist with their bury-your-head-in-the-sand attitude and that the rest of Singapore was going along with it. As December wore on the first festive decorations started sprouting in shop windows and adverts for hotel rooms in the up-country stations of Fraser’s Hill and Cameron Highlands appeared in the newspapers with the headline: Don’t let rumour spoil your Christmas!

  Georgina had thrown the newspaper down in disgust. No wonder most people still refused to believe, even for a moment, that the Japanese would ever be able to occupy Malaya, never mind Singapore.

  If anything the atmosphere grew more heady and frenetic. More troops poured in as did army nurses yet Singapore carried on partying. But people from up country were fleeing to Singapore; trekking across ravines and through the jungle, stumbling into buffalo wallows filled with mud and excrement, some arriving in Singapore with only the clothes they stood up in. Undaunted, many of the up-country women would find their way to the Swimming Club, where they’d shower, wash their clothes and lay them on the lawn to dry before taking a seat under a beach umbrella by the side of the large, tiled pool and ordering a drink from one of the impeccably dressed Chinese waiters. Georgina had to admire their sangfroid.

  Christmas Day arrived without a word, or even a card, from Edith. Georgina had completed her first aid course – but to her chagrin Lawrence had been correct – she was a hopeless nurse. The sight of blood sickened her. So she’d offered her services to one of the many refugee centres that were springing up throughout Singapore as more and more people arrived from the north. She might be no use as a nurse’s aide but she could ensure that refreshments and clothes were in plentiful supply for those who needed it.

  By now even the army was retreating. The Japs had landed in Hong Kong the same day they attacked Pearl Harbor. The commonwealth forces held out as long as they could, but it was hopeless and eighteen days later, on Christmas Day, Hong Kong surrendered.

  Georgina was in Lawrence’s office waiting for him to finish so they could have supper. She was perched on the edge of his desk, examining her nails and wondering whether to schedule a manicure for the following day when a corporal rushed in, barely remembering to salute his superior officer who was seated at the other desk.

  ‘Sir, you need to read this.’ The corporal’s face was pale, the hand that held the telegram shaking.

  The captain snatched it from him, read it, and blanched.

  ‘Jesus,’ he breathed.

  ‘What is it?’ Georgina asked, her nails forgotten, a cold feeling growing in the pit of her stomach.

  Ever after she would recall the swishing of the overhead fan, the distant sound of
explosions, the beads of moisture on lips and foreheads.

  Instead of replying, the captain turned on his heel and hurried out of the room, the telegram still clutched in his hand. The corporal just stood there as if he had no idea where he was.

  ‘What did it say?’ Georgina demanded.

  The soldier collapsed into the chair recently vacated by the captain. ‘My girl was there. Dear God, my girl was there.’

  ‘Where? What has happened?’ Georgina felt icy cold despite the heat.

  The corporal seemed to collect himself. He gave a small shake of his head. ‘Better you don’t know, miss.’

  She strode over to him and stood directly in front of him. ‘Better I don’t know what?’

  He looked up at her, his eyes swimming with tears.

  She crouched down in front of him and pressed his shoulder. ‘Tell me,’ she whispered. ‘You’ll know I’ll find out later anyway.’

  He was silent for a long time. ‘They’ve murdered them.’

  ‘Murdered who?’ She could barely speak.

  ‘The nurses. And the doctors. In Hong Kong. And the men. Dear God, even those who were sick or wounded, the bastards killed the lot of them.’

  Acid bile rushed to Georgina’s throat. ‘Tell me about the nurses!’

  ‘Raped. And murdered too.’

  ‘All of them!’ It couldn’t be true.

  ‘No, some they took prisoner, some escaped. That’s how we know.’ He turned his head away from her and vomited into the wastepaper basket that Georgina had hurriedly placed next to him, having just about enough wits left to anticipate what he was about to do.

  ‘But they can’t have. It’s a hospital! Why would the Japs kill women and doctors and sick men? The communiqué must be wrong.’

  He lifted his head, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. ‘It’s true, miss. The doctors held up white flags – they came out with them – but the bastards killed them anyway. Then the Japs went inside the hospital. Some of the doctors were in the middle of operating. Didn’t make a difference. They shot them, or bayoneted them, then all the poor buggers who were lying helpless. It was a massacre.’ He started crying again. ‘My Laura was one of the nurses. No one knows for certain who’s alive or dead.’

  Georgina took a breath in an attempt to slow her racing heart.

  ‘It might not be as bad as it sounds. You know how things can get confused – exaggerated.’ But, dear God, even if only a small part of it was…

  ‘They’ve landed on Malaya too,’ the corporal said. ‘Everyone said they couldn’t.’

  She went to the adjoining bathroom and poured some water into a small basin and handed it to the corporal. ‘Wash your face,’ she said, making herself sound stern, although she wanted nothing more than to weep with him, ‘and for God’s sake pull yourself together. It’ll do no one any good if we cause a panic.’

  She waited in Lawrence’s office for hours pacing up and down, fretting and refusing to leave until she’d seen him. She had to know if what had happened at the hospital in Hong Kong was true. And had the Japanese really landed on Malaya too? Everyone believed that the Japanese couldn’t get to Singapore – not through the jungle – and definitely not through the port. But what if it was their intention to try? What would they do to the hospitals in their way? There were several – one of which was where Edith was – lying between the north of Malaya and Singapore.

  The troops would stop them. Of course they would. Hong Kong was much more difficult to defend than Malaya. Nevertheless, it would be far safer for Edith and her fellow nurses to return to Singapore. God knew nurses were needed here as much as anywhere.

  But, she forced herself to calm down, as soon as the Governor’s office knew what had happened in Hong Kong, if it were true, surely they would abandon their stupid pretence that everything was still going to be all right and demand that the nurses be brought to safety?

  More information trickled in over the next hours, each new detail almost worse than what they’d learned before. The hospital in Hong Kong where the massacre had happened, had been set up in St Stephen’s college to help deal with the wounded. Staffed by QAs as well as civilian nurses and VADs, it had been packed with injured men, the nurses run off their feet and the doctors operating almost non-stop. A Red Cross flag had been prominently draped over the front door and no one doubted for a minute this would give them protection should the worst happen and Hong Kong was taken.

  The worst did happen. After fighting bravely and fiercely, on Christmas morning the colony had accepted the inevitable and surrendered. Despite this, the Japanese army had bayoneted the disarmed soldiers before, fuelled by vast amounts of looted alcohol, going on the rampage. When they arrived at St Stephen’s, two army doctors went out to meet them but, to the horror of those watching, were immediately shot and bayoneted. It didn’t stop there. The soldiers swarmed through the hospital, ripping bandages from injured soldiers’ wounds before bayoneting the helpless men too. Anyone who tried to stop them was instantly killed.

  The nurses were gathered together and taken to a room. Throughout the night, Japanese soldiers came and selecting several took them away where they were raped repeatedly. Three women were raped and then murdered, their bodies left casually in a heap.

  It was very late before Georgina was able to speak to Lawrence. When he eventually appeared, he looked haggard and drawn.

  ‘Georgina! Why on earth are you still here?’

  ‘Oh, Lawrence, I heard what happened in Hong Kong. It’s too dreadful to believe.’

  ‘Bloody savages,’ Lawrence muttered, closing the door behind him. Georgina thought it was so Lawrence could take her in his arms to comfort her. But she was mistaken. Instead, he went to his desk, opened the drawer, removed a bottle of whisky and two glasses and poured them each a large measure.

  ‘Darling, you are not to tell anyone what you’ve heard.’

  ‘You can’t be serious! Of course people must know – it must be reported!’

  Lawrence’s mouth flattened into a straight line. ‘You signed the official secrets act, did you not?’

  ‘But…’

  ‘If you tell anyone, even a single person, what you have discovered here, you will be committing an act of treason. Do you understand?’

  This was a side of Lawrence she’d never seen before.

  ‘But that’s outrageous,’ she said furiously.

  ‘Those orders come from the highest authority. To tell people will only cause panic.’

  ‘What about the nurses in Malaya? What’s being done about them? Are they to be evacuated? They have the right to know what happened – what could well happen to them. They should be given the opportunity to come back to Singapore for their own safety.’

  ‘For God’s sake, Georgina. Can you imagine what would happen to our injured men if the nurses take it into their heads to jump ship?’

  ‘How can you not tell them! We are talking about defenceless women.’ She gripped his arm. He must be made to see reason. ‘What if the same thing happens at the hospital where Edith works? At any of the Malaya hospitals?’

  ‘We won’t let them be raped.’

  ‘And how exactly are you going to prevent it? These women don’t have any means of protecting themselves.’

  He looked down at his feet and flushed.

  ‘How, Lawrence?’ she demanded. ‘Tell me how you or anyone can guarantee they won’t be raped and murdered.’

  ‘Their commanding officers – well, some of them think it would be better – for Heaven’s sake, Georgina, this is not something you need to know.’

  ‘If you don’t tell me, I’ll go to the press and tell them everything I’ve heard.’

  ‘They won’t print it. They’ve been told not to.’

  ‘Then I’ll go to your commanding officer and tell him you’ve been sharing information with me that has been classified above my level. I can’t imagine he’ll be pleased to hear that. You might even be court-martialled.’

/>   He stared at her, appalled. ‘You wouldn’t. I allowed you into the office and you had no right to any of the information you garnered here. I trusted you.’

  ‘Then perhaps you shouldn’t have. Just tell me.’

  He took a long swallow of whisky. ‘Some suggest the women should be shot if it looks like they are in imminent danger of being –’ he flushed and looked into the middle distance ‘– you know.’

  ‘Shot by whom? You can’t mean… Dear God. You can’t mean that our officers intend to shoot them! As if they were animals that needed to be put down. Tell me that’s not true.’