大象传媒

This is Michael Charnaud鈥檚 story: it has been added by Pauline Colcutt (on behalf of the Fernhurst Centre), with permission from the author who understands the terms and conditions of adding his story to the website.

An unusual and true story of a young boy who with his mother became a prisoner of both the Germans and the Japanese May 1942 - August 1945

CHAPTER 3 - THE JOURNEY TO JAPAN (PART ONE)

The next morning I awoke amongst the other women and children in the muddle of the dining room floor where everyone had been sleeping on top and over everyone else in the hurry of that first chaotic night, but then after breakfast of the usual fare, the officers came to check the numbers involved and who had children. The mothers with children were allocated the few empty cabins, and we were in that happy position, Mother beingonce again able to enjoy the luxury of a bed after three weeks of hammocks, whilst I slept on a mattress on the floor. The strangest twist of this story which at the time as a young boy I found completely incongruous, was that now as prisoners of the Germans, we had a more luxurious and well appointed cabin with 2 proper wooden beds and windows leading onto the deck, which could not in any way bear comparison with the pokey hole that we had actually paid for on the Nankin! Also on deck was a small outdoor swimming pool which could also be used by the women and the officers from our ship as well as the German Officers. We shared our cabin with a Mrs Gabriel Lyons, a French lady from Saigon who had come over to Malaya about a year before in a hurry after the sudden death of her French Army husband . A few months later she had married Capt Ivor Lyons a scion of one of the county families in England, and like a lot of others had managed to escape from Malaya after a hazardous trip being constantly bombed by aircraft following the Japanese invasion. Lyons once in Australia became one of the pioneers and originators of Combined Operations in the Far East, working with small craft dropped by submarines behind Japanese lines. He caused havoc by sinking shipping in Singapore with limpet mines and later he attacked the Japanese in a similar way in Java where he was captured, and cruelly beheaded by the Japanese. The bravery of these exploits were officially recognised when he was awarded the posthumous DSO for his gallant services. Gabby as we called her, had a small three month baby Clive, of whom she was very casual and nonchalant, more often than not neglecting him, leaving him crying continuously because she could not be bothered to change and wash nappies, and perform the normal regular motherly caring duties. She was an extremely attractive woman, quite petite with a soft olive complexion, high cheek bones and sensuous lips. Mother swore that she must have had a bit of Indo-Chinese blood, in her ancestry to give her such strikingly good looks, but she said her family were from Provence originally. Her father had been the commandant of the French Military Penitentiary in Saigon, and she had married her first husband, a French army officer, who she said was continually drunk and beat her. He died suddenly at home, probably from an excess of alcohol but in very suspicious circumstances, and to avoid any hint of scandal or problems with her father鈥檚 position, he had hurriedly sent her off on the first boat to Malaya to sit out the inquest. A few months later she had met and married Lyons, who must have been captivated by her looks, charms and her soft French accent. I got on well with her, as did Mother with whom she would constantly chat in French and we all would together talk a lot. She always dressed in a provocatively tight black skirt, slitted below the knee, Chinese style, and wore an open very elegantly cut white silk blouse. The other passengers disliked her intensely not only for being so chic, but also because she was aloof, haughty and had a rather supercilious disdainful Gallic manner, and the neglect of her baby child who was always crying, also did not help.
After getting our cabins, and then rolling in the fuel line, we departed from the Regensburg and finally got under way at 11.00 am that morning, with a lot of cheering and waving from both vessels, setting a North East course, from which we then knew that we would be heading for Singapore or even possibly though more unlikely Japan. The Dresden was a substantial cargo/ passenger ship of 11,000 tons, and before the war had been used on the Hamburg / Argentina route. She was under the command of Captain Jaegar, with whom Mother got on well, although our Captain Stratford found him very overbearing. Probably he had an antipathy to Australians, because he had during the First World War been imprisoned first in Darlinghurst gaol N.S.W. under a very harsh regime, but he was later at Berrima where he had been well treated with happy recollections. Also as a passenger was a Major Willhelm Meisner (little Willy) who was travelling to assist the military Attache in Tokyo. He had a small fox like face wore rimless glasses that were the fashion amongst the German officers, and was always over correct in dress and mannerisms, but otherwise he was quite pleasant and was also well educated and could converse well.

On both the Raider and the Regensburg, Mother had little social contact with the officers, but here on the Dresden we shared the same deck, swimming pool etc. and so one was in constant contact with them all for the weeks that we were aboard. Mother as a child had been brought up speaking German at home, both with her German Nanny, and less often with her Mother who was Austrian. However from the age of nine when she had come to England as a child, she had never again spoken German, but now 36 years later, her childhood fluency re-emerged and she could once again start to make conversation. She got very friendly with Jaeger and they spent a lot of time chatting together, so much so in fact that after the War was over, she would post him food parcels to him and his wife who were starving amongst the ruins of Hamburg. I too became very friendly with the sailors, who would invite me down to their quarters where we would play chess, rummy and other card games. There was always a gramophone playing a whole variety of German tunes, but what also I found very surprising, were English records like 鈥� We鈥� ll hang all our Washing on the Siegfried Line鈥�. But of course by far the most popular record was the haunting waltz of 鈥淟ili Marlene鈥� so beloved by the forces of both sides but not sung by Marlene Dietrich then, quite one of the best songs the war for its wide nostalgic appeal. Pin ups were everywhere especially those of Marlene Dietrich regardless of the fact that during the war she was resident in America. She was still the No.1 hit for her looks, poise and elegance with all the sailors.

Everyone was very kind and their general philosophy was 鈥淵ou are our captives now. Tomorrow it could be us as prisoners of the Royal Navy. Also at least we are spared the horrors of the Russian front鈥�. All spoke about the Russian campaign, with the cold, and its ruthless brutality with a dreadful fear and repugnance..
One day in their quarters, playing cards and, I became totally inebriated on Becks beer for the very first time in my life, and was eventually carried up asleep by one of the sailors to my Mother and dumped back on my mattress. She was completely unperturbed, and next day, she laughed about the incident and my terrible hangover and said:

鈥淭hat is a good experience for you to learn on drinking too much beer!鈥�

In fact this little incident epitomises the quick growing up that I was passing through at the time, from thinking and acting purely as a child to now sharpening my wits in order to survive. I was learning fast to start and think like a grown up through being in constant adult company. Also the whole war with its daily action packed incidents and the ever constant change of scenery, all of which was a surprise and the strangeness of my new life, all played a part in my rapid development.
Throughout our life aboard all the different ships that we were to travel, Mother was always around in the background, but I was always left very much on my own, to go out making friends with members of the crew and our fellow prisoners and having my own experiences without ever feeling oppressed in any way by her whatsoever. She always used to say that she wanted me to be what she described as a 鈥淔ree Spirit, responsible and able to think for myself, and to be absolutely loyal to our family, even to my Father who had treated her so badly.鈥� For this free attitude and strong moral upbringing, I was and always have been deeply grateful, as I could never stand a cloying manner which could have cramped my character. At the same time however, she would give me great liberal doses of her mind, and plentiful scoldings , but also she would open her feelings and give me her honest philosophy, and also just by the example of her quiet dignity, her manner, quick wittedness and common sense, I was to learn volumes as she would converse with me as though I were a young adult and very much an equal.

Shortly after we had joined Dresden, there was an incident in the middle of the night which could have been fatally serious. On the men鈥檚 deck area, at night a cargo net was stretched across the deck, abaft of the forecastle bulkhead, aft of which no one was allowed. To enforce this were two guards each with a Luger pistol, a tommy gun and grenades. In the night three men went to go to the latrines which were forehead of the net, and then suddenly one of the guards panicked and opened fire missing them by inches. The bullets hit the forehead bulkhead where Capt. Stratford was asleep with others. Had the bullets been about nine inches to right several men asleep there could have been shot and either killed or wounded through the open door. Needless to say Capt Stratford was furious and a protest was made, and for the rest of the trip the trigger happy guard in question was relegated to become a galley assistant. We continued our voyage heading northesatwards in calm seas and fine weather with a heavy Indian ocean swell the vessel which rocked the horizon gently up and down in a never ending gentle manner.

One afternoon about a week after we had embarked on 鈥淒resden鈥� in the far distance we could see our first sight of land since we had left Freemantle, as a hazy mountainous silhouette ahead. We now knew that we were approaching the 鈥淪unda Straits鈥� that separate Java from Sumatra. They ship ploughed its way towards it in the afternoon till dusk was falling, when we passed a pointed headland on our Port bow. Suddenly out of the shadows from behind a small island a warship appeared, and started flashing its Aldous light. The message that it sent was in standard International Code,

鈥� Who are you? Please identify yourself. Where are you going?鈥�

Back came our reply, also in the same code which of course Malcolm Scott the Kirkpool鈥檚 radio operator and other officers amongst our prisoners could easily read:
鈥淲e are 鈥淣DL Dresden鈥�, proceeding direct to Yokohama鈥�.

So now we all knew our destination. It was not going to be in the steamy tropical sweatiness of Malaya, full of fevers and dysentery, but instead to Japan, in an alien country quiet different in culture from any Western tradition. The very thought of the future was quite numbing, knowing the reputation of the Japanese from so many of our passengers who had just recently escaped from Malaya , and everyone amongst us wondered how it would all end. Talk next day was quietly sober, and there was now a more reflective attitude which transcended all the normal jollity for the next few days, until we all gradually got accustomed to the news and realised that life has to go on, so one had better make the most of it whilst one could. Mother who was one of the few who had been to Japan in peacetime had found the Japanese correct and courteous, but that was quite different from being a prisoner under their military control as she was to bitterly discover.

We were now heading north through the Java Sea, and passing through innumerable islands through the Gaspar Straits into the South China Sea. The weather was still very calm with flat seas and just the heavy Pacific swell rolling the vessel gently too and fro from side to side with the horizon constantly moving up and down. It was all most exotic as some days one would not see any land, then out of the distance a hazy outline could be seen and then soon we were passing quite close to palm fringed small tropical islands and I would imagine Robert Louis Stevenson and the Treasure Island Pirates amongst them somewhere. Then another spectacle would be the sudden afternoon tropical storms that would suddenly blow up. Huge threatening inky black clouds would loom, and often there would be the usual passing tropical downpour. But at other times a far more spectacular sight would take place, when a long pencil shaped water spout or tornado would slowly stretch down from the cloud , just touching into the sea. If it was fairly close at hand, one could see the swirling water being sucked up in the spiral like a continuous live corkscrew. It was an awesome and wonderful sight, but it must be terrifying to meet one of those twisters in a small boat. About a couple of days after passing through the Straits there was a grand ceremony amongst the crew for 鈥淐rossing the Line鈥� from South to North. All members of the German crew who had not crossed the Equator from this direction before, now had to submit to appropriate measures under the order of King Neptune. A large inflatable was placed on deck and filled with sea water. In front were all the henchmen such as the barber with a two foot wooden cut throat razor, another with a deck swab to apply thick foaming lather, three men covered in grease to manhandle the victim and then chuck him in the water. King Neptune climbed up over the side on a Jacob鈥檚 ladder wearing a yellow string wig and carrying a trident, and gave orders for each novice to be lathered, shaved and washed and then be given some foul potion to drink.. Everyone laughed and had a good time, drank some beer and it all broke the monotony of the voyage with the never ending blue seas, heavy swell and the ever distant rocking horizon!

On the 23rd June, just over three weeks after leaving the Regensburg , I came out in the early morning onto the deck to be met by a thick sea fog enveloping us. The ship had slowed right down, and all around were Japanese fishermen in small dory type boats throwing out baited hand lines, and as fast as they threw them in, they were hauling them again loaded with fish. Slowly the mist lifted and one could see more and more of them around us. About an hour later it got warmer, the sea mist started to clear quicker, and we were then in bright sunshine and the sky suddenly became cloudless and the sea deep blue. Then suddenly as though curtains had suddenly been drawn back I looked ahead and there in the sky suspended above us , was the massive snow capped peak of Mount Fujiyama 12,300 ft. Its base was in a blue blur of haze that blended into the background, but its snow capped peak for half its height glistened and sparkled like a huge white crystal in the brilliant morning sunshine, as though it were a detached body just hanging there in the sapphire blue sky above the equally calm blue ocean. Viewing Mount Fuji from the sea on that day, was one of the most stunning and unforgettable sights of my life. It was of such beauty that having seen it under those conditions, one could only then really appreciate what an effect such a sight must have had on the Japanese psyche over the long centuries since the dawn of time.

Cont/鈥�..see A Child鈥檚 War part six

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