George Wright-Nooth spots a new face among the Japanese calling the morning roll. Suzy Potts tells him that he's a Roman Catholic priest who the police call 'Father John' and that he's done good work for 'our troops in other camps'. 'This may be so' notes Wright-Nooth with a degree of scepticism.
But as he learns later any scepticism is unjustified. The new 'face' is that of the interpreter Kiyoshi Watanabe, a Lutheran (not RC) pastor, usually known as 'Uncle John'. Without ever betraying his country in any way, this man constantly risks torture and death to bring practical, emotional and spiritual aid to the defeated.
Source:
George Wright-Nooth, Prisoner of the Turnip Heads, 1994, 227
See also entry for December 25, 1944
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