91热爆

This story was submitted to the People's War website by Jenny of the Stoke CSV Action Desk on behalf of Arthur Lowe and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

The 'Sam' story is about one camp of a number of which I was held as a prisoner of war. Sam was a free spirit who won the admiration of us, his fellow POW's.
My first sight of Sam was of him standing in the fourth row of the morning assembly line. His head was bowed down as he hastly ate his mid-day rice. Poor Sam, two of the guards noticed his actions. They dragged him to the front of the 'meshi' hut and beat him severely. The following day at line up Sam stood in the seventh row. Again, he furtively consumed his mid-day rice. On that occasion he was lucky, for his crime went unnoticed. As time passed it became a game with us, his comrades. Daily, we wagered (cigarettes) on his ability to continue to flout the camp rules. These forbade hungry prisoners eating everything in sight. Sam's luck continued and we were overjoyed at his sucess. We were proud of his spirit and amazed at his ever constant good humour. Yet, his safety was our main concern. Some of our captors were well versed in the art of cruelty. To shield him from the attentions of the guards was our main aim. In some degree we were successful in this endeavour.
Whilst unknown to some of us, Sam was surely an inspiration to many. His was an unassuming and gentle free spirit, whose ongoing punishment and premature death enraged and saddened us. Simple justice should merit the telling of Sam's story...Insignificant in the world configuration it may seem, but to be there and experience the complete solidarity between Smiling Sam and us, his fellow prisoners, was to witness the best and worst of human behaviour.

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