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Norm Luke
11 years ago

We were interned in Japan throughout WW2. About 5 weeks into the Allied Occupation, Alan and a fellow Australian soldier, Geoff Charlesworth, happened on us (interned missionaries including my parents and my sister Connie and I) in Tokyo. I still have a photo of the group of us internees with Alan squatting down holding me. I am wearing his digger's slouch hat, almost disappearing in it! They were looking for the famous Japanese evangelist, Dr Kagawa. We happened to be interned in his home and modest Bible school. He had no official role as interpreter and he and his mate had managed to get someone in the Philippines to give them a pass to "explore areas north of Manila." We were flown from Tokyo to the Philippines where we saw Alan again just briefly, as he and his mate got the RO in the plane immediately ahead of us in inquire as whether we were on the following plane (a Curtiss C-46 Commando) I and my wife moved to Australia in 1966 from Canada, and when my parents visited here (they eventually retired here) in 1971, they managed to re-establish contact with Alan and his lovely family. They dropped in on us a few years ago when Alan was to speak at a Forces Intelligence reunion in Brisbane (we live in Toowoomba). He told me that during the war they were not permitted to know the names or any other identities of others in the Forces Intelligence, and he was only learning their true names just recently (late 1990's - early 2000's)!

User avatar
Norm Luke
11 years ago

We were interned in Japan throughout WW2. About 5 weeks into the Allied Occupation, Alan and a fellow Australian soldier, Geoff Charlesworth, happened on us (interned missionaries including my parents and my sister Connie and I) in Tokyo. I still have a photo of the group of us internees with Alan squatting down holding me. I am wearing his digger's slouch hat, almost disappearing in it! They were looking for the famous Japanese evangelist, Dr Kagawa. We happened to be interned in his home and modest Bible school. He had no official role as interpreter and he and his mate had managed to get someone in the Philippines to give them a pass to "explore areas north of Manila." We were flown from Tokyo to the Philippines where we saw Alan again just briefly, as he and his mate got the RO in the plane immediately ahead of us in inquire as whether we were on the following plane (a Curtiss C-46 Commando) I and my wife moved to Australia in 1966 from Canada, and when my parents visited here (they eventually retired here) in 1971, they managed to re-establish contact with Alan and his lovely family. They dropped in on us a few years ago when Alan was to speak at a Forces Intelligence reunion in Brisbane (we live in Toowoomba). He told me that during the war they were not permitted to know the names or any other identities of others in the Forces Intelligence, and he was only learning their true names just recently (late 1990's - early 2000's)!

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Lionel Sawkins
12 years ago

Great gifts and charm, keen intelligence and a flair for languages. Fluent in Japanese. landed in Japan as interpreter in 1945. He and my brother were together in Forces Intelligence. In church and religious education he showed great moral courage and determination.

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