大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's War Website by Pamela Brown, a volunteer for 大象传媒 GMR, on behalf of Pat Flynn and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

I was a stoker first class on "H.M.S. Ruler" in the Pacific in tandem with the American Navy. We were out in the Tokyo Bay having patrolled the area for weeks without seeing land. We were given the choice of going straight back to Australia for a well earned rest, or waiting a few days and then taking adult and children prisoners of war back to Sydney. Of course there was no contest - we waited for the children and adults.

As soon as the chippy (joiner) knew there were going to be children on board he started making toys.

The children were not in too bad a physical condition, but the adults were vastly undernourished - no doubt they gave much of their rations (such as they were) to the children.

We made our way back to Sydney where we had a tremendous welcome on the quay side at Sydney harbour as word had got there before us. Many of the POWs came from that area of the world. We didn't have to pay for anything in a single shop, cafe or pub when we went ashore. When they asked us what ship we were on, and we said "H.M.S. Ruler" the world was our oyster and their generosity was overwhelming because they knew we had brought the prisoners back.

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