大象传媒

Bert was a short young man with rosy red apple cheeks and a cheeky George Formby grin. He always seemed to be chuckling. Bert was called up, he became a soldier and was posted to Singapore. When the Japanese invaded and Singapore was taken, Bert was taken captive and was imprisoned at Changi. After we heard of this, I suppose the family felt a sort of relief as we thought he was now safe and would be looked after until the end of the war.
When Bert did come home I remember my Father asking him "How did the Japs treat you Bert?" His answer was short."Not too bad". Even a child like me knew that something was wrong. It was not too long later that we started to hear of the dreadful treatment that the prisoners had suffered and I came to know why Bert always answered "Not too bad" and nothing else - absolutely nothing else. He never smiled again. Oh yes! his mouth turned up at the ends sometimes but his eyes remained like stagnant pools.
I think this was the saddest personal thing that came out of the war for me. That such a gentle, kind man had been mentally torn apart by his experiences at the hands of these ferocious people.

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