大象传媒

JOHN CLOSE - JAPANESE POW Part I
Early Years
John William Close was born on 10th September 1914 in Debden in a cottage half way up Fox Hill. He had been conceived in the Seaford Road area of North Tottenham. His father had been in partnership with a Mr. Curly, building furniture for the Titanic. World War I started 4.8.14 and John鈥檚 parents, brother Walter and sisters Violet and Elsie moved from Tottenham to the country to be near Grandparents Banks. He was named John William - William after his mother鈥檚 cousin William Dennison who owned the cottages in Fox Hill. William Dennison was a wheelright for the Strathcona Estate at Newport. John鈥檚 father, Walter, commuted in pony and trap to Newport Station for a short while to continue business, but called up. Due to ill-health he was invalided out in 1916, and for a while he kept his rifle in a corner of the living room. After the War his father received 拢50 compensation for losing his business and he used it to build a shed to continue his career as a cabinet maker and antique furniture restorer. He was now doing work for Lex & Co. at Newport sometimes working at home and sometimes at Newport. At age 14 John started helping his father at Newport and one day his employer came into the workshop. John鈥檚 father was missing and so John was asked to do a job 鈥� fitting a lock into a bureau. The employer was so pleased with his work he sacked his father and took John on. However his father said he couldn鈥檛 take the job and use the expertise he had gained from his father. John never actually took a job as a carpenter, although his teacher at school had said he would recommend him to take it up as a career, and he would only tell one in a thousand boys to do so.

One of John鈥檚 interests as a teenager was the Scouts. He was in the Scout movement for 5 years and was a Rover Scout. At the age of 17 he was Assistant Scout Master to 14 boys 鈥� Scout Master in all but name, but he was too young to hold that position. Here he worked out on the trapeze, which helped build up strong chest muscles. Little did John realise that the fitness and strength gained at this time would help him later when he was a POW and would save his life.

John left school before his 14th birthday and for 3 months was a keeper鈥檚 boy at Debden Park, rearing ducks and pheasants. This was a happy time in his life. He earned 16/- a week which was very good pay. At the age of 15 John got a job with Englemans carnation nursery at Radwinter Road, Saffron Walden. Here he earned 12/6 for a 50- hour week (9 hour-day for 5 days plus 5 hours on Saturday. When he left at the age of 21 he was earning 31/-. He left in March 1936 when he got the opportunity to work for Napiers carnation nursery at Taunton, Somerset. A year later he got the opportunity to go to Bournemouth and work for suppliers of horticulture. He grew carnations for them (earning 拢2/10/- a week) for one year. He saw an advertisement for a carnation grower at Latchlade, Glos, and a friend drove him there to apply. He got the job and stayed for 2 years until the Second World War started. He was dismissed because carnation growing was reduced. He came home to Debden and went into farming. About this time his younger brother Stephen contracted peritonitis; when he was better he got a job at the aerodrome spreading tarmac for a runway. Their mother, Susannah (Sue), asked John to get a job at the aerodrome to make sure Stephen wasn鈥檛 overworked.

Army Call-up
It wasn鈥檛 long before the Government found out John had moved from a reserved occupation, and he got called up on 14th November 1940. John went to Bury St. Edmunds to be trained. Here he learned to shoot and at Ickworth (outside Bury) he trained as a Bren driver. He was asked to play football for West Lines and did very well for the team and got a runners-up medal. In June 1941 he joined the 5th Suffolks Batallion and was sent to Knoweseley Park, Liverpool. He was sent home on leave before embarkation on the Rio del Pacifico (Queen of the Pacific). On 26th October 1941 he sailed from Birkenhead to Halifax, Canada and experienced a very rough crossing. He was the only one not to be sick. While on this voyage he wrote a poem which he posted back to his family in Debden. The poem read:

We are sailing the blue Atlantic
We've left old England's shore
On a Queenly liner, converted
To carry troops galore.
We are on here in our thousands
From the stem right through to the Fore
In space where there's room for fifty
We are packed a hundred or more.
We are here for eating and sleeping
And a lot of time in between
It hardly seems possible, really,
That we are shipped on a peacetime Queen.
It's lovely on deck in the evening
Then on the flight of fancy I roam
Down the twinkling pathway of moonlight
To the dear ones in England, and Home.
The ship sways with the rolling Ocean
Though it's easy to think instead
That the stars with a butterfly motion
Are moving about overhead.
The ships are grey ghosts in the morning
Sailing on ocean waste
Till over the white laced rollers
The sun shows its friendly face.

John鈥檚 battalion marched from the Canadian part of Halifax onto US soil and embarked on US Wakefield (previously the Manhattan). There must have been Jap spies there who reported the US was helping Britain which led to Japan bombing Pearl Harbour. Soon after his ship sailed to Lake Tarmac, Trinidad where he went ashore for 4 days. The troops were fed very well on US Wakefield. The ship sailed down the coast of South America to keep clear of submarines, close to the South Pole, and then swung across to Capetown where they went ashore on 2nd December 1941 for 4 days鈥� leave. Here he met a Scottish girl, Ester Williams. He was welcomed by the family because South Africa was looking for immigrants and they hoped he might return after the War.

After 4 days they sailed to Bombay, disembarked and went to Armanaga to help protect the oil line across India. Cdr. Wavell was supposed to be coming and the company went on duty tour as guard; John was picked out as the best man on parade, or 鈥淪tickman鈥�; this accolade excused him all guard duties for a month but he had to be available to run errands and for this he was given a bicycle. He was only asked to do one job, to go to 17th Division. This gave him the opportunity to send a telegram home (uncensored) from a post office. He spent Christmas 1941 in Armanaga. The Australian Army was doing badly in Thailand (not being trained in jungle warfare), and John鈥檚 battalion was sent back to Bombay and once again embarked on US Wakefield . They sailed to Singapore (arriving on 29th January 1942) as Australian troops were retreating to the coast of Thailand. A bridge between Kuala Lumpa and Singapore was blown up and the pipe providing the water supply was turned off. So Singapore was without water and was being bombed.

Surrender
In February 1942 the Japanese had landed in Singapore. Under Commander Percival the 18th Division (comprising The Suffolks, The Norfolks and The Cambs) surrendered on 15th February 1942. John had always felt the decision to keep the 18th Division in the area was insane. The Repulse and another ship had already been sunk; The Wakefield was American and the Captain followed orders to continue. The ship carrying some of the bren carriers and armaments had been sunk before reaching Singapore. John had been sent to put a barbed wire fence along the coast at Pongle Point; he was working alone as the other men were drunk. A corporal came out in a truck to pick John up and take him back to Raffles College where the other men had been taken. The corporal told John 鈥渢he wrong people get made up鈥�; John remained a private because, he believes, he couldn鈥檛 spell! The men were still working in units and there were 6 units. John鈥檚 job was driver of a bren carrier working in a Unit of three with a Corporal and a gun firer. One day, John鈥檚 unit had dug in at the top of a Chinese cemetery and the Corporal and gunner had run back to Raffles College. John鈥檚 life was in danger as a 4鈥漨ortar dropped into the trench and killed a unit just 15 yards away. A tracer bullet came between his arm and body just missing him. He hid under a rubber tree before scuttling to Raffles College.

Life as a Japanese POW
One night, the troops were tipped out of Raffles College by the Japs, and they spent the night on the green. John had no ground sheet and was troubled by mosqitoes and so he prayed for a ground sheet. The next day at 2.00 p.m. the men were forced to march 23 miles round the east coast to Gibraltar Barracks. On the march, a Japanese truck carrying ground sheets passed and one rolled off the top and landed by John and he was able to secure it. He has always felt this was a prayer answered. At 5.00 am next day the cooks had made a bamboo fire to boil water to make a cup of tea. It was then John found a tin of marmalade that a Corporal had put down because it was too heavy to carry on the march (the cooks had dispensed their stocks before the march started). This marmalade was another prayer answered. John found rice and marmalade quite palatable. John had been used to eating rice at home (it was a cheap food) but for other men it took up to 6 weeks for their digestive systems to adjust. The men reached Gibraltar Barracks on the north coast of Singapore by 8.00 a.m., which was the ultimatum they had been given by the Japs or they would have been shot.

The British men were put into working parties to clear bombs and debris, but John had earlier volunteered to be a gardener. Another POW gardener became John鈥檚 鈥渕ucker鈥�, and he was 5th Suffolks ex-heavy-weight boxing champion. His name was Wally Boone, and John kept in touch with him after the War until he died in 1957. They grew sweet potatoes, keng kong (spinarch) and tapioca, and the gardeners were in a privileged position to be able to get a few extra vegetables to supplement their diet. John was there for 6 months. Other POWs were taken to build a bridge over the River Kwai at Colombo, then capital of Thailand. The bridge was built so the Japs could carry supplies from Thailand to India. John was one of the last POWs to leave Singapore to be assigned to bridge building, and by then the main bridge had been completed.

The journey from Singapore to Bankok took 6 days and 6 nights. The POWs were transported in cattle trucks on a railway built by the Swiss before the War started. There were 35 men - and a bucket 鈥� to each cattle truck, with sliding doors. The men took it in turn to stretch out. They would joke with one another 鈥渨hose feet are these? Must be a spare pair, chuck 鈥榚m out鈥�. John decided the conditions were too crowded and climbed out and got on the roof of the truck. He was able to pull himself up because of his strong chest muscles developed on the trapeze in the scouts. He was able to help others up too. They stopped twice a day for food and drink. When they reached Bankok they were assigned to building bridges over two tributaries of the River Kwai. For bridge building they used teak trees; some men were cutting trees but John was 鈥渟quaring鈥� and then mortice and tenoring them.

After the two bridges over the tributaries had been built, the POWs were moved from Bankok to Taso to continue work on the railroad. On this journey they came to a section of the railway going round a mountain which had been built a little too high and the engine jibbed. The men had to get out to push the engine with all the following trucks up the incline. The men were spread out but John was at the front. As the engine started to move again he had to pull himself up on to the train to avoid falling down the viaduct. He called out 鈥淪top鈥� to alert the men behind to the danger. John believes his strong chest muscles saved his life that day. After reaching Taso the men were working on the railroad again. The rail tracks were already manufactured and were carried in trucks running on rails already laid, pushed by an engine from Thailand in the direction of India via Burma. Australian POWs were building the railway from the other direction coming from Burma, but the railway was never finished. The men had to build embankments before laying the rails. Sometimes the men would deliberately try to sabotage the railway by adding to the soil tree and bush debris that had been cleared away. Much later when they were on their way home again, John remembered seeing trains that had been derailed and realised their attempts at sabotage had met with some success. At times the men had to build the railroad round a mountain, but other times they blasted through a small mountain with gelignite. John was on this job for a time; he used a metre long chisel and his mate used a 4lb hammer to dig holes in the limestone rock about 3鈥� deep into which gelignite was placed. One day a piece of metal from the chisel flaked off and went into his right arm and he bled profusely. The Japs took him to the doctor and he was not sent back to do that job again, but back to squaring trees. POWs were responsible for sharpening their own tools. At times, if they had done their allotted work they would be allowed to go back to camp and relax so it was in their own interest to work efficiently. John kept his axe well sharpened and on one occasion one of the Japs in command took John鈥檚 axe because he knew it would be sharp. The men鈥檚 diet on the railroad was rice and later dried vegetables soaked and then cooked.

During this time, John made friends with a Gurkha who asked him to become his blood brother to which he agreed. A small blood vessel was cut in both their wrists and their blood was linked.

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