Translating the Devil: Captain Llewellyn C Fletcher Canadian Army Intelligence Corps In Post War Malaysia and Singapore

TRANSLATING

THE DEVIL

Captain Llewellyn C. Fletcher, Canadian Army Intelligence Corps in Post War Malaysia and Singapore

GORDON D. FEIR

with a foreword by

Brian R. Huntley

Copyright © 2014 Gordon D. Feir.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored, or transmitted by any means—whether auditory, graphic, mechanical, or electronic—without written permission of both publisher and author, except in the case of brief excerpts used in critical articles and reviews. Unauthorized reproduction of any part of this work is illegal and is punishable by law.

ISBN: 978-1-4834-1506-2 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4834-1507-9 (e)

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Contents

Acknowledgements

Foreword by Brian R. Huntley

Preface by Gordon D. Feir

Fletcher’s Introduction

01   We Meet Again

02   Pearl Harbor, Before and After

03   Japanese-Canadians in WW II

04   Training at Camp Savage, Minnesota

05   Service at Camp Ritchie, Maryland

06   To England

07   Bound For Singapore

08   To Malacca in Malaya

09   Destination Kluang, Malaya

10   Summer in Kluang, 1946

11   Autumn in Kluang, 1946

12   To Bankok, Thailand

13   Interrogation Work in Bangkok

14   On To Johore Bahru, Malaya

15   End of Service in Johore Bahru

16   Servicemen in Interracial Affairs

17   Homeward Bound

18   Final Stop in England

19   Reunion in Japan, 1970

Footnotes

About the Author

Llewellyn Fletcher in the classroom in Grand Forks, circa 1958.

The only photograph available, probably taken for a high school newspaper.

Acknowledgements

Transforming a brittle and faded typescript, well over half a century old, into a printed hard cover book takes the time and patience of more than an editor. It’s important to acknowledge the contributions of Brian Huntley, a former student of Llewellyn Fletcher in Grand Forks in the 1950’s. Brian spent many hours in conversation with Fletcher and didn’t want to see the manuscript disappear. He was a prime mover in encouraging its transcription.

An attempt to gather biographical information was made much easier with the help of Keith Feir and the internet. Since there were no contacts with Fletcher’s family and no known friends or relatives, it was necessary to rely on public records or genealogical sites for what little information that was collected. Keith has provided much of the biographical information included in the Preface.

The largest task by far was the transcription of the text into an editable digital format. The original form of the typescript made optical scanning impossible so manual retyping was required. Gwen Gawlick (nee Feir) was of major assistance in this effort. It was a long task taking approximately two years and occasionally required interpretation of the typescript

Neither can we forget the effort made by Lucy Plotnikoff (nee Reibin) in going through her collection of old school photographs, without which we would not have the frontispiece. Many thanks are also due to the occasional proof reader and the interest shown by some of Fletcher’s former students. They are his most prized readers.

Foreword

Growing up in a small Canadian town in the 1950’s, South East Asia was far away and irrelevant in our young lives. We had a Japanese community in our town whom for some reason had been moved there during the second world war but we never knew exactly why nor bothered to ask. We also had the one Chinese restaurant found in every small Canadian town which was the total sum of Asians living in our region. We knew that Asians were ‘different’ by their food and language but they were part of our community joining in every aspect of our social and educational life.

Into our high school came Llewellyn Carlyle Fletcher who was very unusual in comparison to our other teachers. Mr. Fletcher or Fletch had served with the Canadian forces in SE Asia during the Japanese war crimes trials as an interpreter. He had worked at a university in Japan in the 1930s so was present before, during and after the great Pacific war. There was no one else in our town who had been involved in the war against the Japanese. The warriors we had on staff as teachers had played out their roles in the European theatre of war. On Armistice Day our parade was a tribute to the 1st and 2nd World Wars in Europe with no mention of the war with Japan.

On the odd occasion someone in our high school class would ask Fletch about his war time experience to which he would enthusiastically tells us long stories of soldiers, swords, ghosts, travel and his Asian experiences. To us the stories were so alien to our Grand Forks experiences it was though he was talking about a different time and a different universe. If one interjected with a occasional question we knew we could get Fletch to profess his experiences with enthusiasm for the class hour, forgoing normal class lessons. There were stories of his time at University in Japan in the late 1930’s, his travel to Singapore for the war crimes trials as an interpreter for the Canadian forces, and his roaming of what today is the country of Malaysia. They were stories of abhorrent horror of the treatment of prisoners of war, ghosts of executed Japanese officers looking for their swords, offset by his love of Asia and all things Asian.

I never knew how the other students were taking in Fletcher’s stories but for this small town boy he took me to lands beyond my geographic boundaries and sent dreams into motion. I was fortunate that he would sometimes drive me home after school where my mother would supply the dinner while Fletch would supply the stories. This was my introduction to Asia which unbeknown to me would have a profound effect on my life. At the time little did I know that I would spend a considerable number of years in Asia living and working in the very cities around which Mr. Fletcher weaved his stories.

In later life I would be drawn to the very places he had mentioned such as Changhi Prison, the Commonwealth war cemeteries in Singapore and Java, and the lovely cities of Johor Bahru and Malacca. What drew me to Asia? Was it coincidence or did Mr. Fletcher’s stories have a subtle effect on my psyche to make me also become a wanderer in Asia and to eventually love all things Asian. Why not Europe or South America? Why this pull to Asia and all it has to offer…..?

On my own life’s journey I have now spent over forty years in South East Asia where I have been able to go where Fletch had been, albeit decades later. There have been major physical changes in Asia but I believe the hospitality, the heart and traditions found in Fletches manuscripts are still there. Reading the manuscript took me back to his era of post war Singapore and Malaysia of which I had become a student.

Living in Hong Kong, the Philippines, Indonesia and Singapore one cannot help but become aware of the struggles that went on during the war years. On many occasions while traveling in the region I would stop to visit a war cemetery where the soldiers of so many nations had been laid to rest over this great war which at times can become overshadowed by the war in Europe.

Traveling in Asia while reading Fletchers post war experiences was a most unusual experience trying to equate the physical geography of post 2000 with the post war years of 1945-47. There was also the aspect of seeing all Asians so easily intermingling be they Malay, Chinese, Indian or Japanese which was totally different from Fletch’s time in post war Asia.

I cannot say for sure that Fletch’s classroom stories set the stage for my years in Asia where I felt so much at home from the first day I arrived in 1970 and lived until 2010, but I have the odd feeling at times that I had been there before…..

Mr. Fletcher…. one of your students was listening and thank you for a most marvelous adventure.

"I have an idea that some men are born out of their due place. Accident has cast them amid certain surroundings, but they always have a nostalgia for a home they know not.

Perhaps it is this sense of strangeness that sends men far and wide in search of something permanent to which they may attach themselves….Sometimes a man hits upon a place to which he mysteriously feels he belongs. Here is the home he sought, and he will settle amid scenes that he has never seen before, among men he has never known, as thought they were familiar to him from his birth"

Somerset Maugham

Brian Huntley

Perth, Western Australia, 2013

Preface

During the 1950’s in Grand Forks, a small town in British Columbia, a high school teacher named Llewellyn Carlyle Fletcher relished the appearance of a new group of students with each school year. They were another batch of fresh faces to whom he could teach history and relate his many experiences during and after the Second World War. He was often known as LC to many students and they could easily compare notes with the previous classes to find that he told the same stories over and over for the best part of a decade. Then, he finally moved on to another small town in British Columbia where he would start all over.

Llewellyn Fletcher was certainly an unforgettable character and is remembered by dozens of his former students. He took himself very seriously and had compiled a huge set of notes which became his syllabus for his History, English and Geography classes. He repeated the same classes at the same pace year after year even though the official school curriculum had often changed. Perhaps it was because of this seriousness that he would stare in disbelief when any of his students played a prank on him, especially during class. However, when befriended, one would find him to be a warm hearted, innocent and jolly companion.

Although his experiences during and after the war were taken with a grain of salt by his students, he considered them to be a significant part of postwar history. In fact, perhaps even sadly, he made two years of military service in 1946 and 1947, represent nearly his entire life. He sometimes pointed out to students that he was writing his memoirs to be published under the title Now it Can be Told. The memoirs would reveal his work in the Canadian Army Intelligence Corps during the immediate postwar period. During this time the Allies were helping to restore the governments in the Far East, and collecting evidence for war crime trials of Japanese prisoners after they were defeated in Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand. The job in this military theatre fell mainly to the British, Australian, Canadian and a few Indian army troops and investigators.

Fletcher probably started his manuscript during the 1950’s and then spent many hours hand typing it through the 1970’s. By the early 1980’s he had retired and was in an assisted living facility in Salmo, British Columbia. He apparently shared very little of his manuscript with his fellow teachers. However, there is no doubt that his two years of military service resulted in perhaps 30 years of laborious writing and typing. How the manuscript came to be in this writer’s hands is an interesting story.

How This Book Came About

After leaving school in Grand Forks, BC, I moved to Vancouver to attend the University of BC, and then moved on to gainful employment in Calgary, Alberta. Until I moved to the United Kingdom with my new family, Fletcher always sent me a copy of his Christmas letter which outlined his experiences over the previous year. I frequently returned to Grand Forks in the summer since my parents kept a summer cabin at Christina Lake. I had occasional correspondence with Fletcher in Salmo, BC, where he resided in an apartment complex. One summer, circa 1978-1980 I made arrangements to visit him and drove over the mountains to Salmo.

I spent a pleasant afternoon in conversation with him, and he was clearly pleased to have a visitor. He prepared tea and biscuits and informed me that he had finished his ‘reminiscences’ and had been looking for a publisher without success. I was sympathetic and confessed that I had similar unsuccessful attempts with a collection of short stories. He suggested that perhaps I was more familiar with the book business than he, and asked if I could look into some publication possibilities on his behalf. I said I would be happy to look into it but classical publisher’s would be very selective about their commitments.

He walked over to a closet and pulled out a fat stack of typewritten pages and handed them to me indicating that this was a copy of his hand typed notes, and I was at liberty to make any arrangements with any interested party, for which he would be extremely grateful. I couldn’t say no, but did not want to leave him with an illusion of success. So I returned home with a copy of Fletchers ‘reminiscences’. Little did I realize until several years later that this package of yellowing paper was his life, and he believed that it was of great importance to history, and in his mind, it had to be published.

I looked briefly at a few of the papers and put them away for safe keeping in an office filing cabinet. There they remained for over 30 years. The checking I did on publication options made it clear that memoirs were not a big market and editors wouldn’t even consider reviewing it unless it was typed on white paper, one side, double spaced, and had a known market, etc. Reworking the manuscript was clearly out of the question while I was trying to run a business and support a family.

Sadly Fletcher was stricken with early stages of Parkinson’s Disease when I visited him, and he passed away in the early 1980’s. I did not know of his passing, and since his relationship with his family appeared to be strained, very few people were ever notified. One of his remaining friends in Grand Forks was Hugh Sutherland, a former teacher and one of Fletcher’s colleagues from the same period. He informed me of Fletcher’s death a couple of years after the fact. Hugh Sutherland also passed away recently leaving no contact with Fletcher’s children or grandchildren.

Years later the high school graduating class of 1960 had a fifty year reunion. In the course of rounding up names and addresses of former classmates I made contact with Brian Huntley, a former classmate, who is now living in Perth, Australia. A few email exchanges with him brought up Fletcher’s name and Brian expressed further interest because of the time he had spent with him in after-school chats. I mentioned that I had a copy of his memoirs and Huntley was immediately interested. I was reluctant to ship him the papers for reading since they were yellowed and brittle, and I had to confess that it would be two years work to get them into a form that would even hint at distribution. Brian’s reaction was that it had to be done. So here, Llewellyn, after many years of quiet sleep, and with the benefit of computer technology, is your manuscript published in a book.

Some Biographical Notes

One of the blessings of the internet is the ability to search through public records with little cost or leg work. This has made the hobby of genealogy blossom and much of the following data were collected with the help of an enthusiast. Since the available data are sparse and often difficult to corroborate only the most reliable bits and pieces have been included.

Llewellyn Carlyle Fletcher was born on December 26th, 1900 in the county of York, Ontario to clergyman William Percy Fletcher and Gertrude Gadsby. The 1911 Canada Census shows him as the oldest of five children, followed by Pearl 7, William 5, Percy 3 and George 1. He apparently finished school and obtained a baccalaureate in Ontario and was accepted for graduate studies at Yale in New Haven, Connecticut. He speaks often of his Yale colleagues in the memoir. During this period between 1922 and 1925 he apparently married Anne Augusta Fletcher who was born in Niantic, Connecticut, around 1900 and claimed British Nationality. Immigration records show them returning to Canada on December 26th, 1925 via Niagara Falls.

After their return to Canada Fletcher probably applied for a teaching position in Tokyo and was granted a post at Keio University. During the period between 1927 and 1931 he worked at Keio and often mentions his position as ‘Professor of English’ teaching students to read and write English, during which time, he undoubtedly learned some Japanese. Learning to speak Japanese is not especially difficult, but learning to read and write Japanese as an adult often defeats many students.

Records show him embarking on the Canadian Pacific Steamships RMS Empress of Canada at Yokohama on June 27th, 1931, with his wife Anne and a son named Jared King Fletcher who was shown as being born in Jamestown, New York. This suggests that their son was born while Fletcher was in school at Yale. He mentions his son once in the memoir, playing with Japanese companions, but he makes no mention of his wife. On their return journey they arrived in Vancouver on July 9th, 1931.

Election records show that on June 19th, 1934, he ran in the district of Yorkton for a seat in the Saskatchewan legislature. His party affiliation was with the Farmer-Labour Group or FLG. He finished last in the polls. There is no record of him running again, but he was almost certainly active in political events since his students remember him occasionally speaking of his contributions to a new political party called the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation or CCF. The name of the party and his political leanings, are brought up on several occasions in his writing as is his Christian upbringing..

His memoir begins with the Pearl Harbor attack in December of 1941 while he had a teaching position in Canora, Saskatchewan, so we assume that he began teaching high school immediately upon his return to Canada. He volunteered his services to the Canadian Army in 1941, at which time he indicates that he was teaching school in Ituna, Saskatchewan. In August, 1943 he received his orders to report to the military base in Regina. Fletcher does mention that his wife Florence came to stay him while he attended the Military Intelligence school at Camp Savage, Minnesota. This suggests that he had divorced and remarried after returning from Japan. There is no mention of children in the rest of the memoir. From this point we’ll let Fletcher relate his adventures in the Far East.

Editing The Text

The notes were reasonably well organized when I received them. There were a few additions and changes on extra scraps of typescript, but they were not difficult to put in place. The typescript itself was badly faded and yellowed with age. It had also become brittle and would often break rather than fold, so the process of transforming it into a digital form was delicate in places.

A set of rules had to be established for the editing process. Firstly, no facts or dates would be changed or reinterpreted. Fletcher often repeated himself, either forgetting what he’d written or repeating a story for emphasis. These repetitions will be obvious to the reader and only one was deleted where he repeats a paragraph almost word-for-word. Secondly his Canadian spellings have been left as-is except in the case of proper names such as Pearl Harbor (not Pearl Harbour). Thirdly, since the spelling of many place names and foreign language quotes cannot be verified, they are left as-is. There is some question in places where he uses a different spelling for the same word or term later in the text. In other cases the spellings have changed by modern convention. In each case Fletchers original spelling remains (e.g., Johore Bahru is now spelled Johor Bahru). Finally, Fletcher was not shy in making up new words such as gorgeousness. If the word couldn’t be found in either the Webster or Oxford dictionaries, a synonym was substituted. Beyond these guidelines the goal was to reproduce the typescript accurately, reduce typographical errors, correct punctuation and to be consistent throughout the book.

Perhaps the only difficult part of the editing job was to sort out some of Fletcher’s sentences and paragraphs. He often tries to write poetically and in the process will run on and on in a single sentence using semi-colons and commas repeatedly and often changing tense. In some cases he would cover whole paragraphs with a single sentence. At the end of the sentence, or the paragraph, the reader often has no idea what the point of the sentence was. When this problem arises the editor simply breaks up the sentences with periods and new Capital letters hoping that it will create less confusion. Fletcher’s attempts at eloquence often included the use of phrases like on the morrow. When this seemed out of place, it was changed. Otherwise the text is left as it was written and the reader is left to the interpretation.

Fletcher’s Thinking

Throughout the text Fletcher tends to talk down to his reader. He is totally convinced that his memoir is a valuable piece of history and he often explains things in detail which may be obvious or uninteresting to the reader. In several chapters he becomes an expert in diverse subjects like fashion, theatre, architecture and various cultures. He justifies this by pointing out that his own knowledge and experience qualifies him to write down the facts for his readers, even though he may have embellished them with his opinions.

Fletcher spends much of his time explaining the details of race and race relations to the reader. In some ways this is refreshing in that he makes it clear that his friendships cross all racial boundaries and it’s exciting to him to learn about racial history, racial mixing, and how small nations are built from a wide spectrum of people. Little did Fletcher know that half a century later discussing the activities and habits of other cultures might be considered ‘racism’ and much of what he writes has become ‘politically incorrect’. Further, pointing out differences in racial habits and characteristics would be considered to be ‘profiling’ which in today’s world might be grounds for civil action in the United States. His knowledge of races and people seems well grounded. He lived in Japan during the years 1927 through 1931 and certainly would have learned some of the Japanese language, and possibly some Chinese. How much he learned we don’t know, but he indicates that he could speak, read and write Japanese, and this was one of the reasons for his inclusion in the Canadian Army’s Intelligence Corps.

Both Fletcher’s religious and political background are evident from his description of his activities and the opinions he expresses. When he becomes pensive he speaks of the wonder of all mankind and the common bonds of all humanity .… There is little record of his religious upbringing, except that his father was a clergyman, but there is ample record of his left leaning political philosophy. He was a regular attendee at church services throughout his life and a firm believer in the rights of workers and labor organizations. His work with the Canadian CCF party was an extension of his belief in socialism.

Fletcher’s writing is often pedantic, but he is nothing if not sincere. He firmly believes that his experiences are of historical importance and he goes to no end in informing the reader of the importance of people and places that he is associated with. One can’t argue the significance of South East Asia in the second World War, but there were many other theatres of intrigue and Intelligence Operations involving hundreds of servicemen and women in Europe and Africa. Regardless of literary quality his memoirs make interesting reading. They represent the post war atmosphere and status quo in South East Asia circa 1946, and how a man known to many of us, thought and acted

In spite of the fact that Translating the Devil may not be of great historical significance, his service to his country should not be diminished. However, it seems that living out the balance of ones life in small towns teaching English and History is perhaps the antithesis of his life during an exciting period of global significance, but that is not for us to decide. Here then, Captain Fletcher, is our attempt, over half a century later, to gather your memoirs into print. We do hope that you’ll be pleased with the result.

Gordon D. Feir

Houston, Texas, 2014

Fletcher’s Introduction

This is a story of Canadian Intelligence operations against the Japanese in World War II, including the part played by Canadians of Japanese ancestry. Thirty three years have passed since the last units of the active Canadian Army, were discharged in 1947, more than two years after the war was actually over. My own service discharge indicates that I was the 1,164,818th person to receive one. This is almost the figure for the sum total of all Canadians in the armed forces during World War II.

Few people are even aware of the existence of the colourful 235 Canadians who were engaged in Intelligence Operations against the Japanese and the valuable services they rendered. Time is passing and if events are not recorded now, it will soon be too late.

It may be surprising, though understandable, to learn that there was no such thing as a Canadian Intelligence Corps until 1943, and that it lasted only twenty five years when it was combined with the Intelligence and Security branch of Canadian Forces. Canada has had no part in imperialist expansion, political or economic, so has had little need to spy on other countries and has not, therefore, been the object of much espionage by other countries. Our participation in international warfare has been, to a great extent, due to our cooperation with Britain, first as a part of her Empire, and later as a partner in the Commonwealth of Nations.

Though my Army Corps was engaged in Intelligence, I was one of the very few to have on my military certificate, Intelligence Corps. It was partly for security reasons, as we shall read later, that this designation was not given to many of our members. When we had our reunion in Toronto in 1967, we found that the official title that would include nearly all of us was Nisei and S-20 Veterans Reunion. Nisei is the term given by the Canadian Dictionary for Canadians of Japanese ancestry. It is the Japanese word for second generation. S-20 is the military term for Intelligence Japanese Language School, which nearly all of us attended, whether of Oriental or European ancestry.

Few of our group, as far as I know, have literary aspirations, so probably few books will be written about our activities. One will be by Major Robert Elliot, on permanent Army staff. Since he has greater access to military documents, he will be able to write with greater authority and from a more military point of view.

Some members of the Japanese-Canadian Association of Canada have written a history of their people in Canada. An important section of their book has dealt with the period of World War II, including military and other services rendered to the war effort.

I propose to write from a more biographical point of view, illustrating by frequent anecdotes, and sharing experiences and impressions which I gained as an Intelligence Officer. This will include some points of historical value, but will be more subjective than if I were writing a strictly military record. My material is drawn from personal diaries, copies of letters to my wife to whom I wrote on the average of once every two days, and copies of letters to other family members and friends. Only a small amount is taken from military documents.

For many years as a teacher of Social Studies and History, as a lecturer to service clubs, and as a host in my own home, surrounded by curios and souvenirs of my world-wide travels, books, paintings, and tapestries, I have entertained in the hope that I was contributing my share to understanding and friendship among all peoples. It is my hope that through this book I may be able to fulfill my sense of mission to even greater audiences.

Llewellyn C. Fletcher

Salmo, British Columbia, circa 1980

01

We Meet Again

On October 7th and 8th, in 1967, Canada’s Centennial Year, and a little more than 22 years after the Japanese surrender in World War II, those who had served in Intelligence Operations against them, met for our first great reunion.

Dedicated Toronto Nisei, who dreamed up the possibility of such an occasion, worked long hours to locate all of us since no Nominal Roll could be found containing all our names, and we were scattered all over the world. Letters were sent to the few who could be located at known addresses. These comrades in turn were asked to add to the list of names and addresses. Newspaper clippings, college faculty lists, business and professional reports, and telephone directories were some of the many sources investigated. My own address was discovered through my letter of congratulations to Frank Moritsugu of the Montreal Star for an article he had written for the United Church Observer magazine. I in turn, from my own correspondence list, was able to furnish a few more names and addresses.

Finally 75 veterans, or nearly one third of the approximate 232 survivors, registered for the reunion at King Edward Sheraton Hotel, Toronto. Many brought with them their wives and sons and daughters.

The Canadian Army Intelligence Corps, made necessary for the first time in World War II, had been in existence for only 25 years, the youngest of all Canadian Corps, and our Far Eastern Operations Branch was the smallest unit in the Canadian Armed Forces. Later in October there was to be a reunion, to which we were invited, of Intelligence Corps personnel who had served in Europe and Africa. Then, as Canada no longer felt the need of an Intelligence Corps, it was to go out of existence by name and be absorbed in the Security Branch.

Because of the security requirements of our participation in WW II, though we engaged in Intelligence Operations, we were not officially designated as Intelligence Corps. I’m one of the very few in our group whose military certificate is labeled Canadian Intelligence Corps Canadian Army. Therefore, we could not announce our reunion as that of the Intelligence Corps, so we chose instead, S-20 and Nisei Veterans Association, the only name that could include nearly all of us.

Only one of the attendees had I seen in the past 20 years of those associated with me in our last screening of Japanese Surrendered Personnel for the War Crimes Trials in Malaya, Singapore, and Thailand. None attended with whom I had been associated in Intelligence School in Vancouver and in translation of captured enemy documents at Camp Ritchie, Maryland, USA. Some attendees I was meeting for the first time.

Several circumstances helped to make our reunion one of the most memorable experiences of a lifetime. Foremost was the spirit of comradeship, possibly greater in our small unit than one could find among any other veteran units, all the more noticeable because of the greatest possible diversity one could find anywhere in cultural background, personal and professional interests, and characteristics. ‘Buck’ Suzuki, at that time president of the British Columbia Fisherman’s Union, well expressed the feeling of all of us when he wrote of our reunion as those who in a brief period in our lives were closer to one another than brothers and sisters.

Bill Hunter, our 1968-69 president, writing nearly two years later in the Association Newsletter of June 1969, said, It is most fascinating to sit here in Toronto writing a message of greetings to you and to realize that our members are so widely scattered – all across Canada, and beyond the boundaries of Canada – and yet retain so much of the good feeling of closeness that was created twenty-five years ago. It is fascinating because the level of mutual respect we held for each other, the close friendships that started then and are still real and highly valued - these things grew up in a climate that was negative and frightening in our Canada of 1944. Now we see, on a very broad scale, a feeling of mutual interest, respect, and real friendship growing between Canada and Japan. It is almost as if our little world of 1944 is being projected on a national scale. That is being presumptuous, perhaps; and yet, I am sure that we all feel that the example which Colonel MacKenzie set for us, and the way we worked together (and played together), does in fact typify the positive situation that now seems to be developing so well between our two countries.

Two thirds of those present were Nisei, the remainder were of a wide variety of European racial origin, mostly British and French, and some Chinese.

When we entered our hotel hospitality rooms, we were immediately brought into an environment which carried us back to yesteryear. Walls and tables were covered with campaign banners, souvenirs, and old army photos. The first part of the afternoon was given over to renewing acquaintances, and resounding laughter rang through the halls on the recollection of amusing incidents from our army days.

The Honourable Judy LaMarsh, Secretary of State in the Lester Pearson administration, so often the jolly hostess of Canada 1967 Centennial Year, a sergeant of our corps, was at her wittiest best as one of the veterans, and was the focus of attention as she exchanged quips with those who surrounded her. Of all the functions for which she had provided outstanding leadership in Canada’s Centennial Year she declared our reunion the highest point of all.

Newspaper reporters and CBC TV crews were present to record sample interviews and conversations. Enough was said, if picture illustrations could be added, to fill a good size magazine. However, TV editing picked out only the highlights for a ten or fifteen minute showing which appeared on Cross-Canada segment of the 11:00pm Saturday News and Toronto Sunday Night Metro News.

Those involved in the TV program were Mrs. Denise Somerville, Jin Ide, Dr. Frank Haley, George Kadota, Judy LaMarsh, Mickey Nobuto and myself. Mickey had been my partner much of the time in interrogation of Surrendered Personnel in the Far East. In our TV conversation we recalled Japanese soldiers involved in the building of the Death Railway, with prison labour, from Moulmein, Burma; to Bangkok in Thailand. We followed this up to recalling our special assignment of the removal of a case of gold bullion from Bangkok to Singapore, so heavy that the two of us could hardly lift it. The Japanese had given it to Thailand, and the British in turn had taken it from them.

The TV director, in editing, kept only the first part of Mickey’s and my conversations. As whatever Judy LaMarsh said or did in 1967 was given top news rating, naturally more of the reporter’s interview with her was included in the material for broadcast.

The CBC television coverage began with a flashback of scenes from the evacuation of Japanese and Japanese-Canadians from the coast at the beginning of World War II, then by sharp contrast showed the role of Nisei in the Canadian Intelligence Corps and finally concluding with the conversations and interviews of the reunion.

There was much joking about the balding heads, expanded waste lines, and graying hair of those who had known one another twenty-two years ago as military slim figures of zestful youth. I, the eldest to go overseas, noticed all the more the changes that had taken place in these men and women with whom I had been associated in their early twenties, some even younger than twenty. In the intervening years nearly all of them had time to be married and raise sons and daughters, some of whom had already entered college. I was the only one to have had time to become a grandfather of four, with the eldest, a boy, soon ready for college.

Another outstanding impression was that nearly all of our members had become successful leaders in their respective occupations and professions. Probably no other group has provided so many leaders in proportion to their numbers. Here are only a few:

In government service by far the most prominent, of course, is the Honourable Judy LaMarsh, Secretary of State in the Liberal Government during the Lester Pearson administration. In 1969, two years after the reunion she published her sensational and controversial book, Memoirs of a Bird in a Gilded Cage, in which she described, somewhat antagonistically, her political colleagues as she saw them.

C.E. McGaughey had held diplomatic posts in Japan; Thailand; Afghanistan and Pakistan. In 1969 he was appointed Canadian Ambassador to Israel. Edward B. Rettie, who served four years in the Canadian Embassy in Tokyo, was then in the department of External Affairs in Ottawa. Jim J. McCardle, in the same Department, in 1969 was appointed Ambassador to Ireland. Tom Shoyama was Assistant Deputy Minister of Finance. Peter MacKenzie, son of our Commanding Officer at our Intelligence Language School, held an important position with the Federal Treasury Board. Kunio Shimizu, one of our teachers at the school, was with the Department of Energy, Mines and Resources.

Douglas Jung, one of the most colourful adventurers behind enemy lines in Intelligence Operations, loaned by Canada to China under Chiang Kai Shek, then a prominent lawyer in Vancouver, was the first Canadian of Chinese racial origin to be elected a Member of Parliament. Saul Cherniak, QC, was a member of the Legislative Assembly in Manitoba. Hugh Stephen was mayor of Victoria, B.C.

Lieutenant-Colonel P. MacKenzie, MC, DD, Commanding Officer of the Japanese Intelligence Language School in Vancouver, returned