The Plantation - Di Morrissey [125]
Uncharacteristically, the Japanese soldiers didn’t appear first thing the next morning, though the sentries were still at the entrance to the camp. After the uninhibited and rather hysterical previous evening, everyone was drained, tired and still disbelieving that the end could be near. That was until there was a drone from above and everybody stopped what they were doing and looked to the sky.
‘Is it one of ours?’
Once the women recognised the Allied plane, they started jumping up and down and waving to it. The plane flew low and a snowstorm of white paper fluttered to the ground, which everybody ran to pick up.
Philip scooped some up and ran to Bette. ‘Letters, they’re letters. What’s it say, what’s it say?’ He jumped up and down excitedly.
Bette and Evelyn looked at the leaflet. ‘It’s from the Australian 9th Division. The Japanese have surrendered. It’s official!’ Bette leaned down and hugged Philip as Marjorie dashed towards them.
Wiping tears from her eyes, Bette read on. ‘Due to your location it will be difficult to get aid to you immediately …’ She smiled at them. ‘Not to worry, they’re going to help us. We’re going to be okay.’
The final days were a blur but eventually the 9th Division arrived to liberate the women. For Bette, to see the cheerful open-faced Australian soldiers, to hear their familiar accents, to suddenly have strong, kind men to look after them, to play with the children, to give them rides in their vehicles and to have enough to eat was all overwhelming.
‘It’s wonderful how most of the women have managed to save one reasonably good outfit for this day,’ said Evelyn.
‘Yes,’ replied Bette. ‘But it hardly disguises the terrible physical state of their bodies. You can see by the look on the faces of the Australian soldiers that they think we look pretty awful. There is such a yawning gulf between their world and the three-and-a-half years we’ve been here. I wonder how we will manage when we get out.’
Despite Bette’s fears, Philip and the other children were beside themselves with joy, and the sense of new-found freedom and opportunity. The reality of home and family, barely recalled, was of little consequence in the excitement of the moment.
Finally the day came when the women went home. Evelyn and Marjorie, arms about each other’s waists, walked beside Bette and Philip. The little boy skipped as Bette firmly held his hand and walked to the smiling Australians and Americans waiting to drive them away.
Evelyn saw Bette glance over her shoulder at the emptying compound, the huts and the wire that had enclosed their world for so long. Evelyn gave a quick prayer of thanks that they had all come safely through this ordeal. She did not look back. She squeezed Marjorie’s hand and led her away.
10
JULIE HAD TEARS IN her eyes. She took Marjorie’s hand.
‘What an incredible story. What an experience for a young girl. What happened after you got back home to the UK?’
Marjorie sighed. ‘It was as wonderful as I had anticipated, and although Mother was still frail, she recovered surprisingly well. My father refused to go back to Sarawak and got a job managing a printing company. I have to say, though, that the cold weather was hard for all of us, at first. It was also difficult to be parted from so many friends. They all went their different ways naturally, but we left some of them behind, too. One of Mother’s closest friends, Babs, died not long before we were freed. Her death was a great shock to us.’
‘Oh, she sounded such a jolly person. What happened?’ asked Julie.
‘I suppose she just wasted away. A lot of people died in camp from malnutrition and various deficiency diseases. When I think back, Mother and I were very lucky to have survived.’
‘Philip and Bette? What happened to them?’
‘We were so focused on our lives and wanting to put the war behind us that we pressed on. Bette went back to Australia. Mother and she wrote to each other for a while, but being separated by twelve thousand miles and having nothing in common except the POW camp, the letters gradually ceased, but, as you