HARDSHIP IN JAPAN

Evening Post, Volume CXXXII, Issue 77, 27 September 1941, Page 13

HARDSHIP IN JAPAN

FEAR OF WAR WITH U.S.A.

BRITISH GIRL'S VIEW

(By Trans-Tasman Air Mail.)

SYDNEY, September 17,

Miss Pauline Houghton, a young British girl who got out of Japan just as the Japanese froze British and American credits, has arrived in Sydney. Most of her savings were frozen in a Japanese1 bank.

Miss Houghton, vho worked as a stenographer in Japan for five years, said that she caught the last ship carrying foreigners fro > Japan, and had" to come to Australia by a round-about route because of the withdrawal of shipping. Her predominant last impression was Japanese fear of America.

QUEUES FOR BREAD

. "Food was scarce in Japan before I left," she said. "We had to stand in queues for bread, and sometimes, after waiting for two days, we would not get any. The bread we did get was of poor quality. Every Monday was a meatless day. It was difficult at the time I left to discover exactly what the Japanese were thinking. There had been a spy scare, and they were frightened to speak.

"At that stage there was great military activity, and troops were everywhere. Shipping. was, withdrawn from, the Pacific, before credits .were frozen, and it was generally., accepted that the troops and the ships were intended for French Indo-China."

The people showed signs of weariness of the endless war in China. The Japanese she came in contact with in everyday life were pleasant and amiable. Troublesome ones were the officials. "I did discover in those last few weeks that the people generally were scared of the United States and did not want to become involved in war with them," Miss Houghton added.