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I was enlisted in the British Royal Air Force in 1941. After a few months basic training and service in England, I left in a troopship called Empress of Australia, bound for Basra in the Middle East. Shortly after the journey started, orders were received to change course and go to Singapore.

The Japanese forces captured Singapore during early 1942, and our ship was re-directed to Java, in the Netherlands East Indies (now known as Indonesia). After some time spent in Java we were sent to Sumatra, the neighbouring island without having been in active service at all.

The Japanese Army took control of the Netherlands East Indies. We were taken prisoners and transferred to Kalijata Airport, making repairs to the bomb damaged runways. By this time our British food rations were exhausted, and were replaced by Japanese food supplies, mainly condensed wheat blocks, fish and unpolished rice. Whilst at the Airport I realised my 21st birthday had come and gone, which was on the 21st April 1942.

We were moved after about six months to Makasura in java, and then to the Batavian port of Tandjon Priok. From here we were shipped to mainland Japan, via Singapore. Although we were cramped on board, the voyage on this vessel was bearable but unfortunately worse was to come.

Our journey from Singapore to Japan was on board a merchant ship called Dair Nichi Maru. This was a really terrible voyage. We were put in a hold and only allowed to move to visit the toilet. Dysentery was prevalent on board and many prisoners died as a result. Their bodies were unceremoniously dumped overboard.

I was overjoyed when the Dair Nichi Maru arrived close to the Japanese mainland. We disembarked, and were marched to a nearby railway station for the journey to the Inland Sea area. A ferry trip, in darkness, took us to Mukaishima. Apart from the food, which was provided in boxes and comprised of rice, fish and daigons, but being cold was not very appetising. The Mukaishima Camp comprised of six rooms holding up to 20 in each room, except for the officer’s quarters, and we were generally very pleased with the conditions. Food supplies became much better — we had a small cookhouse and bathing quarters. My weight was now desperately low, about 40 kilos, and I was very weak. I started work at the Mukaishima Dockyard on my birthday, 21st April 1943, our work being mainly unloading barges of coal or charcoal, and working with Japanese women with a male ‘hanchow’. I was now Prisoner Number 76 (nana ju rocu ban). We started our imprisonment in Mukaishima Camp with 100 men, but 22 died in the first few months.

The treatment we received was not too bad at all. I was only in trouble once (I cannot remember the reason) and our hanchow slapped me across the face and knocked my glasses into the sea as we were on a ferryboat at the time. He repented and arranged for me to be provided with a pair of spectacles (through which I could not see very well).

Our food supplies had been much better for the next few months and I started to put on weight. (It increased to 50 kilos or so). Unfortunately by July 1944 food rations were more limited. I became ill, no doubt a start of the tuberculosis infection, which was only diagnosed after my release! We realised the food situation for the Japanese civilians was also getting serious, and I think life was getting tough for them too. Added to all of this the winter of 1944 was very cold, but by June 1945 the weather was much different being very warm.

During August 1945 we realised that the War Front was getting nearer and on the 18th we were told the War was over. There were many American planes over the camp and we noticed a sign - PW Supplies, was written on the wing of one of them. This was on the 29th August and a day later several boxes of food attached to small parachutes were dropped near the camp. One large crate went through the roof of my room and landed on my bed space. Had I been in it I might well not have received any benefit from the food dropped.

During the weeks before we were moved from Mukaishima, I visited Onomich City to look at the shops and cinema, and I made a few clothing purchases. This was a great treat because as prisoners, we had been paid 20 yen per day whilst at work in the Docks, but until now could not spend it!

We left Mukaishima at 12 noon on the 12th September and travelled by train to near Yokahama Docks. We then transferred to an American ship for a short distance, and then boarded HMS Ruler, a British Aircraft carrier, for the journey to Australia.

After a few weeks convalescence in hospital and a private house in Sydney I boarded a ‘plane’ to England and eventually home.

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