大象传媒

As the younger brother of W.R.Mayers I asked him to tell me what really happened as a POW with the Japanese. This is one of those tapes condensed.
All name places are spelt phonically as heard on tape.

1.

Switch on tape:

After innoculations and vaccines, we were issued with tropical gear and then transported to Southampton, ferried across to Cherbourg and then to a troopship to the Far East stopping at Singapore to disembark troops, we then sailed for a place called Stanley in Hong Kong. This is where the coastal batteries are situated.
Our group was at Limon barracks to train on anti aircraft guns, which where dotted round the island. Eventually our war position was at West Bay and this was where we where when the japanese attacked at night and day. I personally found it incredible and all so unreal that we were at war, onemoment firing at towed sleeves and the next at Japanese planes.

The other war stations Sywan and Wanlechong
were overrun by the Japanese when they first landed. Unfortunately, my best friend George Ward had been on loan to Sywan and was killed there. Now a very strange thing happened, I don't know whether you can call it the "hand of God" or fate, perhaps one's guardian angel or what,but we suddenly got orders to pack everything up onto lorries and make for Stanley. I'm convinced to this day that if we had remained at West Bay we would have been overrun and not stood a chance by the Japanese forces like had happened at Sywan and Wanlechong.

At Stanley we were to help protect the coastal guns which were firing inland and inflicting casualties to the Japanese, but themselves being bombed by Japanese planes. A Japanese spotter plane was directing their land guns onto our coastal guns,which were massively protected. We were firing at the spotter plane,the pilot then directed their land guns onto our position. The first shell was accurate and killed our man on the Predictor,which works out the planes height and speed.
I was put on a field telephone at the HQ inside a big garage occupied by a large number of Canadians. The garage had several doors with steel shutters that moved up and down, they were mostly down except for two that were open. As I sat by the phone I could hear the Japanese guns firing, first two dull booms, then the shells coming over. They didn't make the sound you hear on TV or films, this was a hissing, ssssssss, just like a sky rocket, you could almost time them. They hit the our big guns but did no damage.

Then the Japanese planes began dropping bombs,one instance remains clear in my mind. I sat by the phone near a workbench, next to me were some Canadians resting. All at once,looking out through this open door, I actually saw a bomb exploding as it hit the ground. It was as if in slow motion, all the debris and earth flew up,like a flower opening. It was a fascinating sight,one didn't realize how dangerous it was. Following this was the sound of breaking glass, but there was no glass in the garage. Then I heard a moan, right along side me was a Canadian laying flat on his face and his leather belt had been cut in two,severed, a piece of shrapnel had entered his back. What I had thought was broken glass was in fact bomb splinters coming through the steel shutters. He was stretchered off to a medical post. I don't know what happened to him but he was in a bad way. That instance stands out in my mind because it was Christmas Day 1942.

You asked what happened, how did our war
end ? I think the island was cut in half by the Japanese and they had reached the water reserviors and threatened to cut it off,rather than see the people suffer the Governor of the colony realized that it was a waste of time carrying on,supposedly fortunate for us,he capitulated. So the fighting stopped.

We were marched out of Stanley down to Stanley village, all the way down covered by machine guns and Japanese troops, to a place called North Point facing Kiatac aerodrome which is on the Kowloon side. This was a camp originally for Chinese refugees who had come in from China over the years and interned there. The Japanese had turfed them out and used it for their cavalry for a short time and that's why there were millions of bluebottles which we tried to kill off. We were there for several weeks. We were then ferried across to the China mainland to Kowloon then a long march to a camp called Chamsepo,already packed with POWs.

We met friends there from different parts that we'd lost contact with. The camp was in a very bad state. The barrack rooms were bare, chinese looters had been in and stole everything,even the window frames. We improvised as best as we could. All I had was a blanket and the clothes I stood up in, it was very rough and ready.

We got two meals a day,one bowl of rice in the morning and one in the evening, at midday they gave us two boiled sweets. You're stomach was permanently empty,it was a terrible feeling of hunger. Nothing is worse than this feeling of always being hungry and no way of finding something to eat, just two bowls of rice a day.

There came a day when the Japanese made everyone sign a piece of paper to say that we wouldn't escape,threatened to be shot if you didn't sign. At first we refused but thought what the hell,how is a white man going to disguise himself out there. The Japanese were not slow in reminding us that they were not signaturees to the Haig's Convention on POWs. We were now guests of the Emperor Hiro Hieto and all that Jazz.

We were in that camp quite some time before the Japanese got organised and started work parties at Kaitac aerodrome on which the British had started to make alterations to runways etc; and we were to carry on as labourers,digging,mixing and laying concrete. When each party was mustered we had to number off in Japanese, if you didn't get it right you'd get a beating. To make things worse after numbering, they would swop No.3 and No.7 and so on,then number off again.
At this point I began having trouble with my eyes. A lot of pus was being discharged and the optic nerve was being damaged. Our own doctors in the camp couldn't do anything about this,it was simply a lack of vitamins. One doctor said that even one jar of Marmite would be a great help to counter this.

Within a matter of weeks everyone is suffering from beri-beri caused by an excess of water in the body due to a diet consisting mainly of rice water. The legs,arms and face become bloated like an unnatural fatness and if you pressed on one area of skin the hollow remained for some time until it filled out again,this brought on a great deal of weakness. Another aspect of starvation is Palagria where the corners of the mouth and nose become sore red patches and then comes weeping scrotum where the skin in that region becomes hard and scaly. Some men made the mistake of picking this skin off which then developed blood poisoning. Nothing could be treated for this,some men found relief by sitting in a bowl of warm water. That's when men began to die. We began burying six men a day through blood poisoning, diptheria or other illnesses.

We developed "unhappy feet". The feet ached day and night,we were told it was dry beri-beri of the bones. The bones aching week in week out for months on end,preventing sleep.Some men sat under a cold water tap letting the water run continuously over their feet to get some relief.I didn't try that because I don't think it was wise in the long run. I found that laying on my back on my blanket in the barracks and raising my feet,move them rapidly outward then inward,backward and forward seemed to give some relief. You must remember, although the pain was so bad,men had to go and work, that was the terrible aspect of it.

We had a doctor there,I remember him well,a big man.His name was Major Brown. Where he got some morphine from I don't know,but he came one night and gave several of us a jab,that was the only way we got relief. It was marvellous,the pain had gone and I was floating.I had this feeling of well being,not caring what happened,if they chopped your feet off you wouldn't worry, that night I slept. It was a terrible time,the aching feet. All this due to our vitamin level.

Still working at the aerodrome,word reached us that working parties were being sent to Japan, I don't know how we got to know,it's such a long time ago,and that a ship called the Lisma Maru,taking 1500 POWs had been sunk off Shangai by an American submarine. Most POWs battened below and those that managed to get in the water were fired upon by relief boats from Shangai. I found this out when I met a friend from another camp as the war ended. His name was Molyneaux and more of him later.

A year later I was draughted on the next boat,an old tramp steamer,I can't remember the name. A ladder led to the hold which had coal all over the deck floor, we had to sit on the coal,so crowded you couldn't lay down,the sides so hot you dare not touch. Just before we sailed a Japanese officer came down the ladder and looked at us,he was dressed in an immaculate white uniform,that sticks in my mind. Hatches battened down, we set sail. All our minds was the fear of being torpedoed.We wouldn't stand a chance.

The Japanese allowed a dozen at a time to go on deck to a primitve toilet at the back end of the ship, that was better than nothing but considering the state of some men with chronic dysentery and diarrhea,it was apalling.
The trip was an absolute nightmare.We lost all sense of time and felt in total depair,we didn't know if it was day or night,it is so long ago that I can't remember how we fared for food. I know on my trip to the toilet I looked out to sea and saw a Japanese destroyer running parallel to us,it was a source of comfort that we had an escort.

We stopped at a place called Formosa,the Japanese name for Taiwan. It was a sort of harbour,we could hear launches chugging round..We were there for a couple of days and sensed it was loading or unloading. We were given half a grapefruit each,that was the last thing we needed.We really needed something to bind our stomach,but still anything was better than nothing,so at least we got that bit of fruit.We estimated that it took eighteen days to get to Osaka,but it was like a bad dream,sheer hell on that boat.

Anyway,we come to Osaka. We were put in a dormitory that was originally for workers that ate,slept and worked there,that was the Japanese system before the war.The next day we were taken to a rail station.I tried to help an RAF chap who was in a very bad shape but after being split up in groups I never saw him again.We boarded a train that took us to a camp that had been built on reclaimed land. The name of that camp was Ohyama near a small village of that name.Near the camp was a huge factory with four enormous chimneys.Divided into two parties,one would work in the factory and the other at the mine.I was in the mining party.

To go to work we left the camp and marched along a canal path under cherry blossom trees until we reached a rail line . A train came pulling two open wagons with seats fitted,this took us several miles to the mine.
We were to dig shafts about four or five feet square. With everyone in a weak condition from lack of food and vitamins,we couldn't work like ordinary people,but the minute you slacked or appeared to take it easy,there was this terrible Japanese word "curra-curra". As soon as you heard that,you knew that a clout or a beating was imminent.
The shafts went down a considerable depth,but what worried us is that they didn't shore up the sides,any collapse would bury us.At around thirty feet a Japanese engineerclimbed down a ladder and took samples,we think they were mining manganese,used for hardening steel.
We had to lift large boxes with handles full of ore and actually carry it to a tipping station en rout to the factory.It took eight of us to lift and carry it. How we managed that in our weak state,I don't know.

For all the sheer hell of it,they were more organised than in Hong Kong. We had a small hut were we had our meals.We had a small bowl of rice with some greens in the morning,later in the day we were given a small black box packed with cold steamed rice and some seaweed vegetable with buckets of green tea.At least it was some effort to feed us.

At this time I began to feel ill.I felt trouble on my left side and difficulty breathing. Our Australian doctor in the camp examined me and called for a Japanese doctor. Between them I heard the word "pleuritus" which meant to me pleurisy.
He gave the Aussie doctor some equipment and while I sat there he pushed a needle into the left side of the pleural wall,inserted a tube and drained jar after jar of fluid. I was very ill and learned that the Japanese doctor had given our doctor some sulphur drugs which helped improve my illness. But they had a strange side effect. When eating I couldn't bring the spoon to my mouth,I'd lost all sense of direction. A number of us were quite ill and too sick to work so the Japanese decided to send us to a missionary school at Kobe that had been turned into a so called hospital for POWs. I think the Japanese realized the war was turning but we had no idea.

We arrived by train at Kobe. The hospital camp was on a hill,Japan is very hilly,reminding me of Ohyama where I had the frightening experience of an earthquake, carrying a tub of rice for our group when the ground started moving side to side,it's a terrifying moment.The Japanese say it's ok side to side,but run when it goes up and down.
The upstairs room in this "hospital" was like a dormitory,looking out of the window you could see the harbour. On both side of me were Americans,the far side an Aussie and a Dutchman and more Americans,there was no English on this floor.
One of the Americans next to me was in a terrible state,hemorrhageing,coughing up lumps of blood,there was no medical aid. this went on for weeks until he eventually died.

At this time the air raids were becoming more severe, particular damage was caused by fire bombs (napalm). Wherever you looked Kobe was ablaze,we began to wonder if we would survive because Kobe was being bombed day and night.We were weaker than ever,our legs like rubber but finally our turn did come.

The American on the other side of me was called Red by the other Americans,because of his hair,he always hid under his blanket and hardly spoke. All I remember is the room full of smoke and fire breaking out.I cried out to Red to get out,that if he didn't he'd be killed.He pulled the blanket over his face and shouted "Leave me alone...leave me alone" I shouted at him "The place is burning...get out" "No..no.leave me alone". It was awful,it was everyone for themselves. I went to the end of the dormitory where there was a sort of window come door, I opened this and it was fear lending me wings when I jumped the ten or twelve feet,others following. I landed perfectly on two feet although our knees were as weak as rubber. The first thing I noticed was the few vegetables we had tried to grow,all on fire
As we ran toward the gate I wondered why the bloke behind me sounded as though he was running in carpet slippers,it wasn't slippers, it was the skin off his feet. Another had all his hair burnt off,his faceswelling up and another with terrible burns to his hands. As we headed for the gate the Japanese guard opened it and let us go up this hill away from the burning area to where Japanese civilians where sheltering,they looked at us not saying a word,bodies laying about,it was a terrible sight.
We just sheltered there under some trees till the raid was over,the smell of burning and smoke everywhere.We made our way back to find all but one hut destroyed,we were ordered into it.We sat there for hours in shock,the burnt men suffering agonies. It's a terrible thing to think that you've gone through years as a POW,starved, beaten, illnesses,used cruelly as slave labour, only to be bombed by your own people and sometimes killed even though they were unaware of it because none of these places were marked by the Japanese. I didn't notice till afterwards that allon my left side,my face, arm and ankle were burnt, my hand was the worst but felt my injuries insignificant compared to the others.
Eventually a Japanese officer came into the hut,weighed up the situation,nodded and went away. He must have given orders because that night we were told we had to march. It was pouring with rain and I thought"Oh God...these poor buggers..in the state they were.
So we started marching,as far as the eye could see everything was levelled. Tramcars burnt out,electric lines down. It took ages and ages to walk along this road but some relief with the cool rain pouring down.

I don't know how many hours it took but we came to a hill that had like an underground train.The train took us up the hill and eventually stopped at a camp. It was called Kawasaki (name of a Japanese motor cycle).
It was here that I noticed my arm turning black,the other POWs told me to see the American doctor who had survived the mission bombing. My burns were light compared to the others but the doctor came to see me when he heard of my burns. He examined me,then he took something out of his pocket and sprinkled some white powder over my arm and hand,bandaged it with some rough cloth and told me to leave it a day or two when he'd see me again. Whatever that stuff was,I don't know,but it must have been magic.The blackness began disappear and when the doctor looked again the skin had flaked off and my hand looked so much better.

Anyway,this was the camp I was in when the war ended. We had a feeling something was up when one of the chaps said he'd spoken toa guard who spoke a little English. The guard had said "Americana...small bomb..kill many" and drew a figure in the dust which looked like 100,000. We thought the guard was off his rocker but he had also said "War..soon finish". Of course,what he was trying to explain was the Atomic Bomb, of which we had no idea. We were very worried about the bombing when suddenly the air raids stopped.
TAPE ENDS.

On another tape he recalls that as the war ended, other POWs came to the camp in slightly better physical condition,working on the docks they could pilfer food,one of those men was Molyneaux, survivor of the Lisma Maru.
Note: Gunner W.R.Mayers called to the army, was a perfect physical specimen. Six foot three inches, fourteen stone.
He came home a seven stone man,half blind,collapsed lung,tuberculosus and continuous hospital treatment three years after. The politicians of the day (1945/50)agreed with the Japanese government that they should pay these men 拢75 as compensation !! Three cheers for the King Hip hip (silence)
Hip hip (silence)
Hip hip (silence)

The Moral of this story: If a man entered a herd of buffalo and shot all the biggest and strongest beast, the herd would gradually decline. Leaving only the weak to pass on their genes, the herd will become infected with disease and leaderless. The human race has been doing just this for the past 200 years. Appropriately, THE END

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