At the RAF's 81 Mobile Field Hospital, operating at Seletar in Singapore, both British servicemen and Japanese prisoners of war receive medical treatment.

A British nurse escorts a British serviceman through the grounds of the hospital. Camera pans with them as they pass and shows a Japanese man on crutches with a Japanese nurse. A ward with Japanese servicemen, some of them heavily bandaged or in plaster. A Japanese medical officer (MO) walks through the ward followed by an RAF MO, two white nurses and a Japanese nurse. A Japanese soldier with his leg in traction. Exterior hospital grounds; a lorry arrives and interned Japanese prisoners of war (POWs) unload large crates containing medical supplies. Close-ups of the POWs at work and of the markings on the crates. Interior operating theatre; a surgical team, apparently all Japanese, at work on a patient. A British nurses' staff room; the nurses chat over tea. Two get up and leave. Exterior hospital; two men walk past camera and get into a jeep. The jeep arrives at a dockyard and two nurses climb a gangway to a supply ship carrying material for the Mobile Field Hospital. A naval officer shows the nurses the hold which is apparently full of medical supplies. Camera pans to the dockside. Jeep driving towards camera. Jeep parks in front of hospital and the nurses get out.

Notes

Though quite obviously staged and with some shots poorly composed, this is nonetheless an interesting record of British and Japanese patients being treated in the same hospital.

81 Mobile Field Hospital was established in buildings of the pre-war Mental Hospital (now renamed Woodbridge Hospital) of the Institute of Mental Health in Singapore. This hospital had been the Japanese Civilian and Military Hospital during the occupation, and was returned to its original function as a psychiatric facility in 1946.

The two nurses who go aboard the supply ship towards the end of the reel are described on the dopesheet as "CF's", but the meaning of this acronym is not clear. Also not all footage described on the dopesheet appears in the Archive's holdings for this film.

Captions of photographs held by the Museum's Photograph Archive provide additional information, such as naming the Japanese MO as Captain Shozo Sone, the RAF MO as Flight Lieutenant Bryn Thomas and the nurses as Senior Sister F H Wilcox and Sister Pat Hughes of the Princess Mary's Royal Air Force Nursing Service. The Japanese nurse is not named. See related items.

Photograph captions also note that the hospital's operating theatre, pathological laboratory and dental surgery were shared by both British and Japanese staff, and that the RAF Regiment guarded the demarcation line between the British and Japanese portions of the hospital.

Slates seen but no dates. Date above from dopesheet.