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DONALD C. BOWIE
likely to follow neither I nor any of those present realised the straits to which the Japanese were being reduced by the Allied blockade.
On 1 April I had to give Saito a certificate in writing that no Japanese school children, soldiers or ordinary spectators had been allowed to come and look at us in the hospital, in fact that we had not been put on display for the curious to gape at. I had no difficulty in complying, for nothing of this kind had ever happened. My explicit clearance certificate was amended and returned by the Japanese and though their version was, I thought, less exculpatory than the original I was still able to sign it without reservation. On 20 June Watanabe told me that we must keep all our worn-out clothing including even the fandoshis and this was yet another indication of the deteriorating situation on the Japanese side.
On 1 July Saito brought a senior doctor to see our equipment in the operating theatres, the X-ray department, the laboratory, the physiotherapy and the ophthalmic departments, and they also looked at our disinfestor arrangements. A little later photographs of the operating rooms, the X-ray department and the laboratory were taken.
On 7 August Watanabe took away the remainder of the kit which Colonel Shackleton had left behind with us, seven boxes in all none being locked. On 10 September Saito again made a search and took more plain clothes. On 6 November a Japanese officer searched the operating theatres and X-ray department in the basement, knocking out some bricks in walls in the process. Directly after this search was completed Saito and Seino repeated the whole procedure.
In our small community I got news very quickly of any unusual happenings and one day late in the year I was told by our own people that two members of the gendarmerie, the Kempeitai, had arrived. I believe that they were identified by the Japanese guards and a notable stillness fell upon the hospital, guards and guarded alike. The former were clearly concerned to keep out of trouble while we knew enough about the reputation of the gendarmerie to keep quiet and avoid provocation. I was not summoned to accompany them nor were any of our local Japanese authorities but I observed two very powerfully built men whom it would have been unwise to provoke. They paid a few perfunctory visits to different parts of the hospital and then left. I never knew if this visit was any