Selling dead flies to the Japs

My father, George Lowe, was a prisoner of war in Burma for 4 years. He had a number of stories to tell...some sad, some humerous. One of the funniest was when he and another POW were manning a small furnace to burn flies that the Japs had told the POWs to catch. The POWs were paid a very small sum to catch the flies.

A Japanese guard was present at the furnace to oversee events and pay the POWs. My father had to open the furnace door and take the flies from a POW and toss them into the flames. However, his colleague distracted the Jap guard on numerous occasions , and instead of throwing the flies into the fire my father secretly passed them on to another POW and they were taken back to the line of POWs and came around again!

My father believed he was the only POW to sell dead flies to the Japanese!

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