大象传媒

I had no insight into the pain I would cause my family members by asking my Uncle to speak to you about his experiences as a prisoner of war. Having received your email, I asked my father if he would obtain permission from his brother for you to make contact.

In the sixty years since he returned from the war, Uncle has not spoken about his experiences and he told my father that he is unable to talk about the war. We knew very little about what might have happened and this telephone call left my uncle and my father both feeling very saddened.

The following is a transcript of the call:

"I could not speak about the war, not even now. We were captured when Singapore went down very early in the war. They were very cruel towards us, many died. A lot died early on, particularly the officers who would not eat the rice. I ate anything I was given and we soon learnt to eat anything that moved鈥� you had to. Sometimes they would leave empty rice sacks and we would eat the husks out of the sacks, it prevented us from getting Beri Beri.

They moved us around鈥� different camps. We worked on the railway, it was tough, I lost all my friends there (I was captured with a number of local boys who had all grown up together).

On the 15th August 1945 we were in Changi Jail. They marched us back to the camp at midday, we knew something must have happened because they had never done that before, it was very odd. When we got back all the Japanese had scarpered, we raided the stores- there was food. Some of the lads gorged themselves and died. Some managed to take charge and tried to give us food safely.

Three days later the British Navy arrived. By then we were wearing Japanese shirts and trousers so they did not see us in our tatters, they never knew how bad it had been. They took charge and looked after the food situation, trying to give us what was safe. I couldn鈥檛 eat much though.

We sailed back to Liverpool three months later on 15th October.

No one will remember us on the 15th August, they never have. I鈥檒l buy myself a can of beer as I always do and remember on my own.鈥�

My father was at school when his brother (my Uncle) went to war in the RAF I believe, aged 18. The family received a letter form him 3 months after he went and then nothing. My grandparents and aunts spent the next three and a half years writing 鈥渢o everyone,鈥� trying to get some information about his whereabouts. At one point they received information that he may have been captured in Java. My father had always presumed, wrongly as it turns out, that Java was where his brother was imprisoned.

Dad remembers his brother coming home, weighing only five stones. Their mother asked him about the sons of friends, he said that they had died. She asked him to go and tell their parents. One family to whom my uncle had to break the news to had lost their only child. It broke their hearts. Dad also remembers that their mother wanted to make special meals but his brother could only manage to eat tinned spaghetti.

My uncle married but sadly never had children. He had always had a stomach ulcer and his wife was very careful about what she fed him. Once recovered, he quickly returned to work as a printer, the job he had had on leaving school, and worked for the same company until his retirement at sixty-five years old.

Following the war he has never been thanked by the forces or the government and never received his medal. The family story is that you had to go and claim it and Uncle was too ill.

My aunt died a few years ago and now Uncle lives alone. He has heart problems that require regular hospital appointments and admissions. He takes himself to the hospital by bus and returns home the same way, breaking the trip home to call into Marks and Spencers for some tea.

My grandparents, I have been told by my Aunts, never got over the worry of not knowing where he was. My grandfather died of heart trouble, and grandmother suffered early dementia.

Uncle is an amazing man. He is full of life and always ready with a joke or a funny story. He has always approached life in a positive way and every hard time has turned into a tale told with humour. I am sorry that he is not able to speak and leave his story for the benefit of future generations. The subject of the war is still too painful and he feels added hurt at the lack of acknowledgement by the forces and the Nation of what he and others suffered.

'This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by 大象传媒 Radio Merseyside鈥檚 People鈥檚 War team on behalf of the Family of Jill Wickham and has been added to the site with his / her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.'

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.