This Day in History: 1945-11-20

Reminiscence by Major David Henderson of the 4th Battalion, who had recently been released from Japanese captivity: ‘Finally we began the duty of disarming the Japanese [in Saigon]. Amongst other duties we had to collect their valuables and in particular money because they had printed 900 million piastre notes which had to be withdrawn and destroyed. The 4th Japanese Infantry Regiment handed over their weapons which included 3 field guns, rifles, cavalry carbines, a Lewis gun plus other British weapons (possibly captured in Singapore in 1941) and a number of elderly French weapons including a 19th century Chassepot and Gras single shot rifles.’