It was a hot sunny morning when we finally got out of the train and the women and children boarded buses, whilst the men walked to our new destination. We began to have our first view of a Japanese country town as we passed down the High Street of Fukushima which was a town then of about 50,000 people . Today it is over 6 times that size. Most of the buildings were low shops with only the occasional large concrete building. We drove past the Bank of Japan and the Prefectural Office (Like an English County Hall) heading north into the countryside of rice paddies for about 2 miles when at last we arrived at a large imposing modern, Gothic style building set in its own grounds of about 3 acres, and surrounded by a six foot high solid brick built cement rendered wall. We drove in through imposing wrought iron gates with a sentry box on either side to disembark at the front main entrance. Seeing the fine quality of the building topped with a cross, that we were to be housed in was pleasantly reassuring, as was our initial reception in the large wooden panel floored community hall at the southern end of the building. We were directed to the Large Assembly Hall where we gathered to be given a lecture by the Camp Commandant or Head of Police who spoke in a sharp barking tone, whilst his speech was translated by a short grey haired Interpreter Mr Midorikawa who spoke with a pronounced American accent in a high pitched voice. “I welcome you here now into the “Prefectural Civil Internment Camp” as German prisoners but under the supervision of the Prefectural Police. Under Special Orders of the German Authorities, the camp is to be designated a “Secret Establishment” for reasons of Security. Therefore your presence here will not be notified to the Red Cross or Neutral Powers for any visits or receive any outside comforts.” In other words we would be completely isolated from all contact with the outside world and without any redress to any outside authority. The Commandant continued speaking correctly outlining briefly the camp rules in that very peculiar and idiosyncratic authoritarian style so typical of the Japanese. After the speech we were all led into the dining room and given a bowl of thin soup and a couple of slices of bread.. I heard one of the seamen shout out to his pal ahead of him in the queue: “ And what’s the meal like Jimmy?” and back came the brief answer: “Nowt!”. This was followed by an allocation of rooms. The building was built in the shape of the letter “ E ” with the three arms pointing rearwards east. The northern section, both upstairs and down were allocated to the women and children. The central Section downstairs held the guards quarters, dining room and on the right of the Main Central Entrance, was the Commandants and guards main Office. The men had the whole two thirds of the upstairs part of the building which was separated from the womens’ by large steel double fire-doors which were kept permanently locked. On the southern side upstairs were two large rooms, one which housed about 30 mainly Greek seamen, but also a lot of other nationalities. The other room was smaller and housed about 15 Geordie seamen from the British Ships. Also upstairs in the central rear portion was a Chapel for Church Services. Mother and I were allocated a room upstairs in the front. It was 8ft x 10ft in size and we shared it with another lady Mrs Phyllis Hercombe who was in her mid-thirties with a trim peroxide dyed blonde “Eton Crop” hairstyle.. She and her husband John had lived in Penang and on hearing about the outbreak of war and the sudden Japanese invasion from Thailand, made a quick snap decision to escape by driving all night down to Singapore. Their quick thinking was rewarded by being lucky to

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