With the surrender of Japan, a party of Japanese troops arrives in British territory on the banks of the River Sittang near Mokpalin, Burma, to discuss surrender.

Wide shot showing River Sittang and the uprights of a destroyed bridge. A country boat, carrying the Japanese party, in midstream. Boat approaches a jetty. Japanese stepping ashore. Japanese troops resting during their march to Abya; there is a British officer amongst them identified on the dopesheet as a Lieutenant Lindsay, an Intelligence Corps interrogator. Close-up of Lindsay talking with a Japanese officer (see note). Lindsay examines the officer's sword and he points out certain features and demonstrates the proper grip. Close-up of the officer. Party of Japanese walk along a railway line and across shot. Some carry white flags and they are escorted by British and Indian soldiers. Same shot again in medium close-up. The officer seen before talks with an officer of the 10th Gurkha Rifles (kukri and horn cap badge); behind him armed Gurkha troops can be seen and a cine cameraman, almost certainly Sergeant Ken Higgins, moves to get a different shot. Japanese party on the march. Japanese resting; one drinks tea. Two British men, one possibly wearing a 'war correspondent' shoulder title and the other probably Sergeant Higgins (with Eyemo camera), with a Japanese soldier. A train carrying the Japanese party approaches camera. Japanese entering a prisoner of war cage at Waw.

Notes

The dopesheet identifies the Japanese officer seen at several points in this film as Lieutenant Iuchi. However, in Sergeant Higgins' film (see related items) a close-up shows his rank insignia and it looks more like that of a major than a lieutenant. This is confirmed by corresponding photograph captions (see related items) which identify him as Major Wako Hisanori (though mispelling his first name 'Lisanori') an officer on the staff of General Kimura's 28th Army. Wako is also mentioned in Louis Allen's 'Burma: The Longest War 1941 - 1945'.

A fairly rare glimpse of Japanese soldiers at close quarters, with the apparently friendly discussion between Lindsay and Wako being quite striking in its familiarity.

Japan surrendered unconditionally on 15 August 1945, some two weeks before this film was shot. However, given the wretched state of the Japanese Army in Burma by this point it took weeks in some cases for news of the surrender to reach isolated units. The dopesheet states that after a meeting with British officers in Pegu these Japanese were expected to go further west into the Pegu Yomas (hills) to try and establish contact with isolated parties.