s she entered the station a man kicked her forcibly from
behind and she fell forward in the room. As she lay there a policeman put
his foot on her neck, then raised her up and struck her again and again.
She was ordered to undress. She hesitated, whereupon the policeman kicked
her, and took up a paddle and a heavy stick to beat her with. "You are a
teacher," he cried. "You have set the minds of the children against Japan.
I will beat you to death."

He tore her underclothes off. Still clinging to them, she tried to cover
her nakedness. The clothes were torn out of her hands. She tried to sit
down. They forced her up. She tried by turning to the wall to conceal
herself from the many men in the room. They forced her to turn round again.
When she tried to shelter herself with her hands, one man twisted her arms,
held them behind her back, and kept them there while the beating and
kicking continued. She was so badly hurt that she would have fallen to the
floor, but they held her up to continue the beating. She was then sent into
another room. Later she and other women were again brought in the office.
"Do you know now how wrong it is to call 'Mansei'?" the police asked. "Will
you ever dare to do such a thing again?"

Gradually news of how the women were being treated spread. A crowd of five
hundred people gathered next morning. The hot bloods among them were for
attacking the station, to take revenge for the ill-treatment of their
women. The chief Christian kept them back, and finally a deputation of two
went inside the police office to make a protest. They spoke up against the
stripping of the women, declaring it unlawful. The Chief of Police replied
that they were mistaken. It was permitted under Japanese law. They had to
strip them to search for unlawful papers. Then the men asked why only the
younger women were stripped, and not the older, why they were beaten after
being stripped, and why only women and not men were stripped. The Chief did
not reply.

By this time the crowd was getting very ugly. "Put us in prison too, or
release the prisoners," the people called. In the end the Chief agreed to
release all but four of the prisoners.

Soon afterwards the prisoners emerged from the station. One woman, a widow
of thirty-two who had been arrested on the previous day and very badly
kicked by the police, had to be supported on either side. The wife of the
Christian teacher had to be carried on a man's back. Let me quote fr