Several Intelligence Corps appointed as camp interpreters were often the first to face Japanese displeasure. After Oxford University, William Drower was appointed the English secretary to the Japanese Ambassador in London. Commissioned into the Royal Artillery in 1940, his knowledge of Japanese led him to being transferred to the Intelligence Corps and, in June 1941, he arrived at GHQ Malaya and lectured on interrogation. After Singapore surrendered, Drower interpreted for the Australian 2/19 Battalion which was repairing bomb damage and building airstrips in Burma. Its Commanding Officer, Lieutenant Colonel Charles Anderson, had won the Victoria Cross during the fighting in Malaya and was the chief staff officer in A Force – the first contingent of prisoners held in Changi Jail to accept a Japanese offer to move to a new location on the promise of abundant food and a healthy climate. It was the Burma Railway. Drower and Anderson agreed that dialogue was more effective than resistance. At the beginning of 1945, the Japanese discovered clandestine links between the prisoners and the outside world and confined the officers to a compound at Kanchanaburi prison camp. When an officer refused an order by a Japanese private to fill his water bucket, Drower mediated with the camp commander, Captain Noguchi, but was beaten and thrown into an underground trench partially filled with water. Denied food and water for three days, racked by fever and aware that he might involuntarily betray the identities of the officers involved in the clandestine activities, Drower struggled to retain consciousness. After Noguchi relented by allowing him two daily rice balls, the camp adjutant transferred Drower to a cell where his fellow prisoners supplied him with vitamins secretly mixed in his food. After eighty days of savage incarceration, Drower was released delirious and in a piteous state. Appointed MBE for his services as a prisoner he became a career diplomat, and later attributed his survival to an extended and liberal education. Captain Noguchi was hanged for war crimes.
In keeping with the principles of the Atlantic Charter outlined in the 1942 Declaration by the United Nations, the Allies generally agreed that at the end of hostilities, civilian governments were to be returned to colonial administrations as soon as authorities were in a position to maintain services, pending the restoration of self-government, and there were to be no territorial changes made against the wishes of the people. However, several nationalist movements and communist groups took the opportunity to bid for power before the administrators returned. In South-East Asia, an emerging factor was Indian soldiers returning from leave being subverted by Indian nationalism.
The Malay Communist Party had been formed in 1930; however, its politics saw it being outlawed by the colonial authorities. Like most communist movements, it was well organized and formed the bulk of resistance after Singapore surrendered and, during the occupation, sheltered evaders, hosted Force 136 and other intelligence organizations’ operations, and was the most effective organization in resisting the Japanese. During the fortnight delay, its leader, Chin Peng, briefly seized power and amassed a sizeable quantity of Japanese arms, ammunition and war stores. The coup d’etat collapsed when plans to land Fourteenth Army on the west coast of Malaya in Operation Zipper changed to one of liberation, with landings in Singapore and Malaya. 753 to 760 FSS were trained specifically for the invasion. As the Field Security prepared their plans, they were issued with Arrests Lists of wanted Japanese and collaborators.
Grouped under the command of Captain Reginald Isaac MC, 566 (HQ XV Corps) and 565 (14 Indian Division) FSS landed in Singapore on 3 September and had the unpalatable task of advising Allied prisoners in Changi Prison and elsewhere that they would not be released immediately in case they were tempted to seek revenge on their captors. On the same day, 358 FSS (which was formed at Wentworth in September 1944 and had been at Trincomalee in Ceylon on Travel Control Security and 589 (IV Corps) FSS landed at Georgetown, Penang, from the cruiser HMS Nigeria, and requisitioned a headmaster’s house before moving into the former American Consulate. Arresting Kempei Tei, collaborators and others on their lists, they seized Japanese police and security records. Meanwhile, several politicians and businessmen on their White Lists were asked to form a civil administration. Eventually, 589 FSS assumed responsibility for Penang Island and Wellesley Province and provided detachments at Butterworth and Balik Pulau. In one unfortunate incident, an NCO driving a jeep containing a wanted Australian deserter and two cabaret girls was involved in an accident in which both girls were killed.
Morib Beach near Port Dickson, south of Kuala Lumpur, was the scene of several landings. Of the three Field Security sections that landed with the 25th Indian Division on 9 September, 581 FSS lost most of its transport engulfed by the sea. Nevertheless, the section found two 1-ton trucks and rejoined the Divisional Headquarters at Kluang before moving to Kuala Lumpur, where CSM David Devitt requisitioned a school by chalking the words ‘Reserved for FSS’ on the doors, much to the annoyance of several Staff officers seemingly unable to exert their authority on the upstart section. A few days later the section accompanied Divisional Headquarters north to Taiping, where the HQ Japanese Twenty-Ninth Army had been located. Aided by Force 136, the section arrested several individuals, collected political intelligence, provided security coverage for visiting VIPs, and searched for mass burials and the graves of Allied servicemen executed by the Japanese. Several labourers working in the docks were denounced as Kempei Tei. A ‘turned’ spy, Mamoru Shinozaki, helped during interrogations. Instructed to crack down on the Malayan Communist Party harassing the local population and liaising with the survivors of the British Malayan Police Force, an important contact was a senior police officer who had been running sources within the Party before Singapore surrendered. Also set up with Divisional Headquarters was 606 FSS. Its CSM John Davison helped investigate war crimes committed by Kempei Tei Captain Watanabe, who had been implicated in several atrocities. One incident included torturing the wife of a doctor who had treated Force 136 and guerrillas by roasting their child over a fire. He was executed with the same rope that he was instructed to wash. Meanwhile, 571 FSS concentrated on screening captured members of the Indian National Army and women of the Rani of Jhansi Regiment, either for repatriation or to send to the Forward Interrogation Unit at Bidadari prison camp for further investigation. Sergeant Oliver Seymour recalled that the women were more frightening than the men. During the visit of Pandit Nehru to visit Congress members in Singapore, Seymour and another NCO acted as his bodyguards.
In early October, 358 FSS drove to Sungei Patani in the northern state of Kedah on the border with Thailand, where its detachments conducted military security activities and monitored race relations and the economically important price of rice. The FSO, Captain McLean (Intelligence Corps (India)) supervised the exhumation of 100 Chinese summarily executed by the Japanese in March 1942 near Sungei Patani and attended their formal burial on 4 December. In February 1946, the section joined 74th Indian Division and remained in the border region until briefly despatched to Indonesia in 1946. On its return, it was one of seven sections deployed to Burma. Until 1946, 592 (Lines of Communications) FSS was located at Shwebo at the head of the Burma Road into China. Five members made an official visit to China, probably to liaise with Chiang Kai Shek’s nationalist forces. After incidents of sabotage, 591 (Lines of Communications) FSS was attached to the US Army Operating Battalion and provided security for the Bengal to Ledo railway. In March 1947, 358 FSS deployed to Mandalay and absorbed 760 FSS and three Burma Intelligence Corps NCOs of an Anglo-Burmese sergeant and two Karen corporals, who were regarded by Sergeant Seymour to be indispensable language assets. Important roles were to monitor communist guerrillas based in China and encourage good relations with the pro-British Karen, Chin and Kachin hill clans, who had given unstinting support to Fourteenth Army. A rubber plantation employee provided credible human intelligence to the extent that the communists placed bounties on the section, but the NCOs were unimpressed by the measly amount offered. The Rangoon detachment investigated the nationalist Anti-Fascist People’s Freedom Le
ague and its militant Peoples’ Voluntary Organisation led by General Aung San, the founder of the Burmese Communist Party and initially regarded as a collaborator but who was now regarded as a political leader able to govern Burma. Also, 760 FSS collected political intelligence on the effect that the prospect of Indian independence would have on Burma. Meanwhile, 568 (7th Indian Division) FSS flew to Bangkok and was heavily involved in debriefing prisoners of war who had worked on the Burma Railway until it was relieved by 357 FSS in August 1946.
Both 355 (Ceylon) and 759 FSS landed on 10 September and drove north to Kuala Lumpur, where they requisitioned 9, Swettenham Road. There is a suggestion that 355 FSS contacted the Force 136 group led by Major Freddie Spencer Chapman. Chapman (Seaforth Highlanders) had been a key figure in Malayan resistance to the Japanese. Captain D.J. Coupland (Intelligence Corps (India), the 759 FSO, was one of nine officers invited to witness Japanese officers surrendering their swords on the Victoria Institution and Kuala Lumpur airfield. The section discovered a Kempei Tei training camp in jungle outside Kuala Lumpur and arrested several Japanese. On 22 September, 756 FSS landed at Port Swettenham. Its FSO, Captain E.H.R. Evans, also attended the surrenders. Its war crimes investigatory work saw it deployed east to Kota Bahru and, within six months, it was deep inside Thailand at Hadyai collecting political intelligence at considerable risk because it was isolated from support.
In November 1945, HQ Field Security Selangor was formed to administer the detachments in Malaya and Penang. It concentrated on war crime investigation until mid-1946 when it changed to targeting the rising red tide of communism and detected armed Malayan Communist Party cells in Johore. Even when 1 FSS unearthed credible evidence of guerrilla caches and training of young villagers near Muar, the colonial authorities failed to take the threat seriously. The Singapore sections were eventually grouped into the Singapore Security Bureau (SSB) under command of Reginald Isaacs, now promoted to major, and covered Indian, Chinese, Japanese and Malayan affairs and the investigation of war crimes.
Captain James Navin had the unusual task of defending Japanese suspected of war crimes. Transferring from RAF Volunteer Reserve aircrew to the Army in 1944, he was commissioned into the Intelligence Corps and learnt Japanese in Karachi before being sent to Singapore, where his first task was to decipher jottings made by a captured colonel in his field diary. The colonel was happy to help until it dawned on him that the contents could lead to his conviction. Navin then joined the War Crimes Investigation Team and, compiling files on Japanese prisoners held in Changi, highlighted those who admitted to war crimes and those who were believed to have been involved. Soon after the War Crimes Court was established in Kuala Lumpur, Navin was appointed a Defence Advisory Officer to assist Japanese lawyers in an early statement to convince the defence that the Allies wished to give defendants fair trials. This meant gathering statements and issuing sub poenas to witnesses summoned from throughout Malaya. The acquittal of the Governor of Kuala Lumpur Prison proved Allied intent. Although at least 600 Allied prisoners had died, witnesses stated that he had done his best and documents indicated that he had gone to extraordinary lengths to feed the prisoners at a time when starvation was rife among the civilian population. In the trial of two Kempei Tei for the murder of twenty civilians in a jungle clearing, Navin was unable to convince the captain to breach his military code and he was executed, even though the evidence proved his sergeant major was directly responsible; he was jailed. When it was proven that a Kempei Tei officer accused of water torture had actually released suspects, such was his perceived notoriety that there was a near riot when he was given eight years and not the death penalty.
Indo-China
In September 94, 357 and 604 (20th Indian Division) FSS flew to Saigon with the 20th Indian Division, as the advance guard of the Allied Control Commission, to manage the surrender of 70,000 Japanese and the repatriation of Allied prisoners and internees, mostly French, held in French Indo China (now Vietnam). But Major General Douglas Gracey was instructed to ignore the communist Viet Minh led by Ho Chi Minh, who had been supplied by the Americans and had fought the Japanese. Tension in Saigon had escalated when 1,700 former French prisoners of war rampaged through the city but when the local population, who had welcomed the liberators, realized that French administration was to be re-established, extremists attacked the British. With bad weather delaying flying in the whole Division, Gracey mobilized and armed Japanese troops awaiting repatriation and placed them under command of Allied officers until the seaborne force landed. Captain Frost, who had taken over 604 FSS from Captain Ogden, recalled driving around Saigon in his jeep with armed Japanese troops providing close protection. His section was supporting 80 Indian Brigade. His Annamite Detachment Section in the mountains on the border with Laos lost an experienced investigator when Sergeant Jock Watt was assassinated on 11 November 1945, on the fourth attempt. The nationalists had proclaimed Watts to be ‘Public Enemy No 1’. His killer committed suicide in his cell. Watt’s obituary appeared in The Times of Saigon of 4 December. After five months, 604 FSS left Saigon with 80 Brigade by troopship.
Japan
After landing in Madagascar in 1942, 29 (Combined Operations) FSS moved with 29 Brigade to India and established an intelligence office at Combined Operations Force Headquarters. Several NCOs underwent Japanese language training and then, in February 1945, it joined 36th Division in Burma as the Divisional Field Security section and deployed detachments with 26, 29 and 72 Brigades. On one occasion, Sergeant Halfhide and another NCO were given the apparently suicidal job of escorting about 100 Burmese, trapped behind the Japanese lines, to safety. Filled with NCOs fluent in Japanese, including WO2 Lionel Brazier and Sergeant Dick Rolfe, who had both lived in Japan before the war, in September the section reformed in Karachi as 29 FSS and joined 551 (Chittagong Port), 583 (Calcutta Aiport) FSS and 36 (Australian) FSS in the British/Commonwealth Occupation Force in Japan in April 1946. Responsible for counter-intelligence, war crimes investigation and military security in the Kure prefecture, some NCO linguists were detached to the Combined Services Detailed Interrogation Centre. While 551 and 583 FSS remained on the mainland, 29 FSS moved to Takamatsu on the island of Shikoku and then, in mid-1947, absorbed NCOs from the disbanded 551 and 583 FSS. On being disbanded later in the year, it left Field Security representation in Japan to the Australians.
Hong Kong
After the liberation of Hong Kong by Admiral Harcourt’s naval task force, a ten-man FSS, commanded by Captain A.E. Southwaite landed with 3 Commando Brigade on 30 August 1945. Initially, it had difficulty finding appropriate accommodation until it requisitioned a house on Argyle Street on the northern outskirts of Kowloon. Its main role was to screen about 2,000 of the 750,000 returning refugees per day, debrief prisoners of war and arrest war criminals. In early 1947, the section moved to Whitfield Barracks on Nathan Road, Kowloon, where it remained for twenty years. At the outbreak of the Korean War in 1950, 40th Division was formed in Hong Kong as a deterrent against Chinese designs of seizing the colony.
Dutch East Indies
If there was one country where European prisoners of war and expatriate civilian internees awaiting liberation faced significant hostility, it was in the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia). Two days after the Japanese capitulation, two nationalists, Ahmed Sukarno and Mohammad Hatta, supported by Japanese officers who had been preaching independence during their occupation, proclaimed the Republic of Indonesia with the intention of ejecting the Dutch colonial authorities. On 2 September, Vice-Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten, as Supreme Commander, South-East Asia Command, issued orders to Headquarters Eleventh Army Group:
You are instructed to proceed with all speed to the island of Java in the East Indies to accept the surrender of Japanese Imperial Forces on that island, and to release Allied prisoners of war and civilian internees. As you are no doubt aware the local natives have declared a Republic, but we are bound to maintain the status quo that existed before the Japanese invasi
on. I wish you God speed and a successful campaign.
Sharing the Secret Page 27
