“The day’s work
had ended; the tools were being counted, as usual. As the [work] party was
about to be dismissed, the Japanese guard shouted that a shovel was missing. He
insisted that someone had stolen it to sell to the Thais. Striding up and down
before the men, he ranted and denounced them for their wickedness, and most
unforgivable of all their ingratitude to the Emperor. As he raved, he worked
himself up into a paranoid fury. Screaming in broken English, he demanded that
the guilty one step forward to take his punishment. No one moved; the guard’s
rage reached new heights of violence.
“All die! All
die!” he shrieked.
“To show that he
meant what he said, he cocked his rifle, put it to his shoulder and looked down
the sights, ready to fire at the first man at the end of them.
“At that moment
the Argyll stepped forward, stood stiffly to attention, and said calmly, ‘I did
it.’
“The guard
unleashed all his whipped-up hate; he kicked the helpless prisoner and beat him with
his fists. Still the Argyll stood rigidly to attention, with the blood streaming
down his face. His silence goaded the guard to an excess of rage. Seizing his
rifle by the barrel, he lifted it high over his head and, with a final howl,
brought it down on the skull of the Argyll, who sank limply to the ground and
did not move…
“The men of the
work detail picked up their comrade’s body, shouldered their tools and marched
back to camp. When the tools were counted again at the guard-house no shovel
was missing.”
Ernest Gordon
continues with this story about an Aussie private who was caught outside the prison
camp trying to get medicine from the Thais for his sick friends, he was
sentenced to death.
“On the morning
of his execution he marched cheerfully between his guards to the parade-ground.
The Japanese were out in full force to observe the scene. The Aussie was
permitted to have his commanding officer and a chaplain in attendance as
witnesses. The party came to a halt. The CO and the chaplain were waved to one
side, and the Aussie was left standing alone. Calmly, he surveyed his
executioners. He knelt down and drew a small copy of the New Testament from a
pocket of his ragged shorts. Unhurriedly, his lips moving but no sound coming from
them, he read a passage to himself…
“He finished
reading, returned the New Testament to his pocket, looked up, and saw the
distressed face of his chaplain. He smiled, waved to him, and called out, ‘Cheer
up, Padre, it isn’t as bad as all that. I’ll be all right.’
“He nodded to
his executioner as a sign that he was ready.”
From To End
All Wars, by Ernest Gordon, pages 101 – 103.
What does Good
Friday look like in our lives?
In our lives as
the professing church?
John 15:12 – 13;
1 John 3:16; Mark 8:34 – 38.
