When General William Slim, commander of the British 14th Army in Burma (Myanmar) landed on and re-occupied Malaysia and Singapore, he ordered the surrender of the swords of all senior Japanese officers to appropriate British commanders, in front of parades of the defeated Japanese troops. An unidentified officer surrendered this elegantly curved Japanese sword to Mr. A. H; D. Harrison, who was an interned civil servant and represented the British civil service in that symbolic ceremony.
