Fact #73420

Paul McCartney : Everyone had told us, ‘Don’t take drugs to Japan, Asia.’

I do not know what possessed me to stick this bloody great bag of grass in my suitcase. Thinking back on it, it almost makes me shudder.

I think, ‘I don’t believe that. How could I do that?’ How could Linda, who was much smarter than me, let me do that. I must have said, ‘Oh, baby, don’t worry. It’ll be all right.’

I was thrown into nine days of turmoil. It was very, very scary for the first three days. I don’t think I slept much at all. And when I slept I had very bad dreams.

I really thought I was such an idiot. I didn’t have a change of clothes. I couldn’t see anyone. I couldn’t even have a book. And, of course, they were all speaking Japanese and I couldn’t understand a word of it.

It took me three days to realise that you were allowed a change of clothes. I’d just worn this green suit that I’d arrived in and hadn’t taken it off.

I was scared because the actual penalty for what I did was seven years hard labour. After a few days I started to see lawyers, but nobody actually said they would be able to get me out.

I became like Steve McQueen in the Great Escape. My sense of humour and natural survival instinct started to kick in.

I realised from all the movies I’d ever seen and from all the books I’d ever read that the gig in the morning is that you’ve got to clean your cell.

They’d put a reed brush and a little dustpan through the grill in the cell door.

The first couple of days I’d been the last to get washed because I hadn’t figured it out. But once I understood what was needed I started to become the guy who was cleaned first, who got to do his teeth first.

I started to realise, ‘Right, I’m going to get up when the light goes on, I’m going to be the first up, I’m going to be the first with his room cleaned, I’m going to roll up my bed, I’m going to do this, I’m going to do that.

You had to clean your room and then sit cross-legged on your blanket, and you went ‘Hai,’ and the guard came and said, ‘OK, you can get washed.’

During what they used to call the exercise period, I’d squat down with all the other prisoners and you were allowed to have a cigarette. You squatted around a tin can, like a baked bean can, smoking your cigarette and tipping the ash in the can.

There was one guy who spoke English. He was a student, in for social unrest. He was quite clever, a bit of a Marxist, I could talk to him.

There was another guy who was in for murder, a gangster guy. He had a big tattoo on his back which is the sign of gangsters in Japan.

I started to become one of the lads. I started doing games with these guys. One of my games was something we’d played in the studio with The Beatles. It was who can touch the highest part of the wall. Of course, because I was taller than the other prisoners as they were Japanese, I tended to win that game.

So I was doing all of that, almost enjoying it by the end. When I got out, Linda said I’d got institutionalised.

I had an awful feeling in the pit of my stomach. I kept thinking, ‘What have I done to my family?’
(Source : not known)
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Paul McCartney : It was weird because, in the West, we had come through this thing, and we didn’t think pot was quite such a big deal. But we had been warned, “Don’t do it. It really is a big deal in Japan.” So when I was arrested I really blamed myself. I just thought, “You’re such an idiot!” My main thing was putting Linda and the kids through it. I kinda wouldn’t have minded so much if it was just me and I’m just some sailor on leave in Tokyo, and I get nicked for something…

Luckily, I wasn’t just some sailor, because people wrote in from all round the world. There were messages from Teddy Kennedy and John and Yoko, and people the Japanese respected. So I think that carried some weight in my defence.
(Source : interview with Craig McLean, Daily Telegraph, Jan 26, 2014)