IF 'The Progressive' feels so badly about his countrymen and the town he lives in, then he should go and live in Japan and take his boss with him.

And I strongly object to the reference of our ex-service men as "old fools".

They were young men when they were sent East to fight the Japanese invaders (and don't forget it was your friends the Japs who started the war in the East).

You boast of your salary and your two free holidays in the Far East every year, and of your BMW and lovely house in Pennington. Well you would not have had these luxuries if the Japanese had won the war.

You also seem well informed as to how much compensation our ex-POWs will receive. I wonder how it is you know more than the Prime Minister.

You also express your loyalty to Emperor Akihito by saying he will never apologise for the cruel, cowardly acts in his armed forces during the war. In the prisoner of war camps in the Far East you would have been termed as 'Jap Happy'.

The remains of our brave young men lie buried in the jungles of Burma and Malaysia, in Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan and Formusa, where they died as slaves in various mines. They bayoneted our doctors and nurses in the hospitals in Singapore and Hong Kong. And you praise these people. Don't call yourself British.

You say you have a problem you need helping with. Next time you have a free holiday in the Far East, don't go to Tokyo, pay a visit to the British military cemeteries in Burma and Singapore, and alongside the Burma Railway, where so many of our lads were tortured to death.

If you ever get to Rangoon in Burma on one of your free holidays, look out for the grave of my pal Sam Booth, who your Japanese friends tortured to death. He was 21. If he had survived to the present day, he would have been one of the 'old fools' you refer to, but he lies thousands of miles from home in Rangoon war cemetery, Burma, along with many others.

Bert Paxford

Ex 1st King's Regiment

14th Army

Burma S.E.A.C.

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