大象传媒

This contribution to People鈥檚 War was received by the Action Desk at 大象传媒 Radio Norfolk and submitted to the website with the permission and on behalf Mr Jack Roach

February 15th 1942 is a date that will always be foremost in my memories. It proved to be the beginning of a period of three and a half years as a Prisoner of War of the Japanese, during which time I was humiliated, degraded, beaten and almost starved.

On 16th February we were marched twenty miles to Robert鈥檚 barracks at Changi, Singapore, which were built to accommodate approximately 600 personnel. Into this 20,000 of us were herded, which included the sick and the wounded from the battle areas.
We were put under the control of our own officers for administrative purposes, after the Japanese took all our senior officers, including the Colonel and above, away.
We slept on the concrete floor, with about two feet width space per man. My only possession of bedding was a mosquito net, which served as something to lie upon and as a cover. (Thank God it was a very warm climate).
Food was practically non existent at first, living on what our own people had brought with us. Then came the change to rice, rice and more rice, with a little meat and vegetables. Some of the rice was called limed rice, terrible unpalatable stuff, full of weevils and other crawlies, not fit to eat, but you had no alternative, eat it or starve. Soon dysentery and other stomach disorders broke out, and with meagre medical supplies to use, the burial parties were kept busy and the cemetery was expanding daily..

At this time the Japanese were calling for daily working parties clearing up at the bombed harbour and other parts of the town. There were no shortages of volunteers to get on these as there was a chance to scrounge or barter something with the natives, or pilfer some of the goods you were handling, which were being shipped out to Japan. Demands for work parties became a priority for different projects, so camps were set up nearer these places. I first went to help build a sea wall, working in mud and water up to my waist most of the time. It was very unpleasant, but, the food was more plentiful. Of course mostly rice, but, the cooks worked wonders with it. My next assignment was to assist in building roads, also a shrine (memorial) to the Japanese killed in the fighting. This was my first introduction to Japanese brutality. The beatings and torture. After a few weeks at this project I contracted malaria and dysentery and was returned to Changi hospital for treatment where I remained for sometime. After this period in hospital, I was engaged in various camp chores, these included working in the vegetable gardens cultivated by the prisoners, but we were all, always hungry.

Unbeknown to us, the Japanese were sending thousands of prisoners of war to build what was to become known as the notorious 鈥淩ailway of Death鈥�, through the jungles of Thailand and Burma. To this unknown operation I was detailed off to join a party of men from different regiments. The Japs told us that we were going to a 鈥淗ealth Camp鈥�. We were overjoyed at this thought. They said 鈥淪end the sick, it will be good for them鈥�!
We were herded like cattle into metal goods trucks, 30 or so men to each truck. As we travelled through the relentless sun of Malaya for five days and nights, the conditions inside became indescribable. It was a journey of sheer horror, stopping a couple of times for rice and 鈥淗ogwash鈥�, which the Japs called stew.
We arrived at Bampong Station in Thailand, that same night the Japs said 鈥淎ll men Marchee, Marchee鈥�. We said 鈥淣ot us, we鈥檝e been told we鈥檙e going to a 鈥淗ealth Camp鈥�. It was then that we realised the true meaning of the deceit of the Japanese, accompanied with their derisory smiles.

So off we set into the jungle, in torrential rain, sodden to the skin, up to our knees in water at times, broken in spirit after realising the truth. For three nights we stumbled and dragged ourselves through the jungle, resting in camps which were nothing more than clearings in the jungle until we arrived at what was to be our camp. We had to clear an area to erect tents, set up the cookhouse, dig large holes to serve as latrines and then be ready for work the next day. It is quite amazing what the human frame will stand up to. Daily we left camp in the dark and returned to it in the dark. 大象传媒 consisted of blasting out a cutting through which the rail track was to be laid. The use of sledgehammers and shovels and the removal of boulders with our bare hands, certainly took its toll on our weakened bodies. In the oppressive heat and humidity our only sustenance each day was a bit of rice, a bit of salt fish plus three mugs of tea without milk or sugar.
All one could hear were the grating yells of 鈥淪peedo, speedo鈥� by the Jap guards, usually accompanied if they thought you weren鈥檛 working hard enough, by a slap, kick or whack of a bamboo cane. Some health farm!
Exhausted, numbed, starved and with the outbreak of malaria, dysentery, tropical ulcers and many broken in spirit, the numbers required for working parties could not be met. The Japs became enraged; making those of us who were mobile, drag the sick out on parade, allowing only those who were completely unable to stand to remain in the camp.
Fate came to my rescue temporarily. Myself and one other chap went to work in the Jap engineer camp, cooking, cleaning and other tasks. This was great whilst it lasted, eating decent food again. Next I joined a bridge-building team. Sawing down trees, de-barking them, then pile driving them into the ground using thirty men, pulling ropes. About this time we were informed that the line through to Burma was completed. The Japs celebrated and we were rewarded with a mug of 鈥渃offee鈥� that milk and sugar. What a luxury! What a reward for 16,000 deaths, and disease, and sufferings for most of the remainder.

Then from out of the blue, like a dream come true, myself and others were informed that we were going down to a 鈥� hospital camp鈥� at Kanburi (Kanchanburi), still in Thailand. When we got there the state and visible sufferings of some of the fellows there was completely beyond belief. There were men so blown up with Beri-beri, caused by vitamin deficiencies, that they resembled 鈥淢ichelin man鈥� we see now on television. Others had no flesh on their bones and looked like skeletons; other poor chaps had had their arms and legs eaten away by thousands of maggots and many had had limbs amputated without chloroform or proper instruments, only to die afterwards because they had nothing left in their constitutions left to fight with or for.

During this time I had an attack of cerebral malaria. This vicious type effects the nervous system, with few recovering from it. I must have had a charmed life! Then I went down with pleurisy. This time I was convinced I was dying. Perhaps I was hallucinating 鈥� I saw 鈥淗eaven鈥檚 Gate and the Angels鈥�. However something strange happened and I made a remarkable recovery. At this point I must thank two fellow prisoners, who gave up part of their rice ration to me, this they reheated and put between banana leaves to form a poultice for my chest. That was a sacrifice indeed!!
Now began the move back to good old Changi and consequently to work, this time constructing an airfield, which is where the new Singapore airport now stands.

Then came August 1945 and the day I thanked the Lord for my deliverance from hell, I started back on the road to normality.
Since my return I have been in tropical disease hospitals in London. I am pleased to say that the new medication I received some years back succeeded in killing all the 鈥渘asties鈥� in my blood. Ever since that period of over 60 years ago I have carried a hatred for the people of Japan; until I attended an 鈥淎lpha course鈥� in 1998, which is an introduction to Christianity. Where I am happy to say, Jesus came into my soul and I became a Christian. I am now relieved of the pain that hatred caused me. I have forgiven them for what they did, but I shall never be able to forget the inhuman treatment that was inflicted upon all my fellow Prisoners of War.
I have been introduced to Keiko Holmes through my Christianity and made aware of the great work she was involved in with 鈥淎GAPE鈥�, to bring about the reconciliation between exPOW and the Japanese nation. This has greatly enhanced my forgiveness. Now I think all of the Japanese people I have met so far are really lovely and can only mean a better understanding for the future.

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