THE OLD KAMIKAZE HEADBAND

CHAPTER 4 : CAPTURE

In the meantime, the buffalo and its rider had been captured by the Japanese Army.

The fat buffalo was shot, dumped on board a military truck for supper while its rider, a man in his mid thirty was marched at bayonet point to the captured garrison.

He was placed under the custody of a company of fierce Japanese Army armed to the teeth.

Together with other civilians, he was herded into a special area to be tortured or wacked to death.

"Usah! My name is Usah ! "

He yelled in between breathes as he rattled to reply his tormentor's successive questions in vain.

No matter how he tried, he was always found too slow to reply.

As the consequences of his defiant act, a swift and painful blow from the guards caused him to sprawl onto the ground.

He tottered and was forced to stand up when his tormentor pulled him up by the hairs.

Before he could regained his breathe, another fist landed onto his stomach that made him grunts in pain.

"What is your name? " kumpetai, the secret police, roared threatening him with another blow on his battered face.

"U.. Usa sssir! " he answered bowing his head.

Drops of blood from his nose fell onto the ground.

Those who failed to show respect to the kumpetai received curses and bashing.

He tried to regain his composure but the moans and cries of his fellow prisoners made him wonder whether the stings of the sizzling bullets from the zero fighter were more merciful than the kumpetai.

If he thought that being obedient to a kumpetai was a bonus, he was wrong.

The hatred driven kumpetai were not a man to be reckoned lightly.

By the time, two hours had passed : nearly half of the mistreated prisoners were broken in spirit and bones.

Some were dying, others were lucky to be alive should they survived the second round of torture - water treatment!

After the moon had risen beyond the mountain, the tormentors returned to their quarters and silence fell upon the torture chambers, except of the sobbing and heavy breathing of those had but a few hours live.

Usah wrapped his arms around his upper body to stop the assault of the night : cold and damp.

Surprisingly his throbbing pain had gone although black bruises still visible.

This was due to (as disclosed later) the spiritual guardian who took care of him physically and help him to endure the ordeal.

But some of his fellow prisoners were not lucky as he.

Turning his head around : he saw several prisoners were leaning against the posts and walls breathing heavily.

Stains of blood oozed out from their orifices.

They smelt of shit and urine covered their torn trousers.

At dawn early in the morning, he saw their tormentors alighted from the trucks armed with sticks.

They went through a thick folder containing names of the suspected collaborators and rebels to be processed and dealt accordingly.

Names were called and led into the inner chambers.

Those who moved at slow pace incurred the fury of the kumpetai.

Although some of the tormentor were local but the prisoners would not coax sympathy from them.

Fearing the safety of their family members at home, they turned off their ears to the wailing and cry of their countrymen, some of which were former friends who had been accused of as collaborators.

All the prisoners undergone vigorous tortures - water treatment - till their numbers were reduced to half.

Those who perished were brought to the pit to be dumped into several long shallow pits.

When the sun set, the open pen which served as interim prison had less occupants: half of them was lying somewhere - some in the stream, torture chambers and those who were considered lucky were half buried in a shallow grave .

The following day, out of hundreds rounded as collaborators and friends of the rebels, only a fraction survived the processing a.k.a. torture.

Without lunch, the remaining prisoners were herded into three military trucks and had then transported to Jesselton town to the infamous prison known as Batu Tiga Prison.

This group of prisoners had red cloth tied to their right wrist : a sign of death warrant.

There, Usah and his fellow prisoners from all over country went through another round of inhumane and brutal tortures.

Although he was treated mercilessly but by evening came, Usah found his pain dissipated into the night.

After three days of hellish life, the surviving prisoners were herded into five train carriages bound for Tenom in the Interior.

Tenom was the seat of the Japanese Imperial Army of the western zone of British North Borneo.

From there, they continued their journey to Melalap before they tugged along rugged footpaths to Keningau which was 60 miles to the north cross crossing mountain ranges and virgin jungle.

There were heavy burden to carry but Usah found his as light as a feather, giving him free hands to help those who succumbed along the treacherous path.

When they reached Keningau, they were confined into their new prison camp.

The following day, the prisoners were segregated into groups under the closed watch of kumpetai.

Their assignment was to built an airstrip long enough to accommodate several Zero Fighters and Bombers.