Japanese POW rememrance?

Question

Do you know of our brave allied prisoners?

Today in George Square, Glasgow there will be a remembrance walk to commemorate for the first time the acknowledgement that while Britain celebrated Japan's surrender the POW's, regimental and civilian, were still suffering at the hands of the Japanese army.

The FEPOWs (Far East Prisoners of War) endured 3 ½ years of the most horrific mental and physical treatment, including starvation, diseases, over-work, beatings, torture etc. Those lucky enough to return home continued to suffer in silence with ongoing nightmares and bad health, yet they endeavored to try and live normal lives, never complaining or asking for anything. They have never been fully recognized for all the mental and physical torment they went through, and we would like to see that they are permanently honored with a memorial day in their name.

Please post their name, rank and regiment in memoriam.

I would like to honour my great uncle who was prisoner in Kinkaseki and forced to work down the copper mines.

MACKIE R. GNR. 155TH FIELD REG’T. R.A. (KI) (T6)

To add a loved ones name to the roll of honour please visit

www.powtaiwan.org

Thanks Molly

There were so many good men lost during this war and many who lived after and are still living the nightmare everyday. God bless them all and the freedom they gave us.

Did you know that in 1962 on an island off Japan holidaymakers came across four Japanese soldiers who immediately surrendered not knowing the war had finished 16 years earlier.

Thanks Bronwen

Sorry about the private message thing but there a some extremely offensive people who take advantage of the ability to IM so I no longer allow it.

Angella F

Although I get where you are coming from I doubt very much that the European statement was meant in a derogatory way.

My post is to hightlight the suffering off all our Allied POW's. It is not a contest to see who suffered more.

Rover thanks

Many thanks to all out Allied troops without whom our world may have been drastically changed.

Answer 1

Gill:

I was going to send you a private message, but find I must do it here. I am in the US, so I don't know anyone who was a POW over where you are, but my father-in-law did serve in the PTO, as a nose gunner on a US Navy Bomber (the B-24 Liberator, which was slightly different from the Army Air Force Liberator). He was fortunate to not be shot down and taken prisoner, but I have a friend whose uncle was a POW in the Pacific Theater--he was taken prisoner early in 1943, so he spent 2 1/2 years living in absolutely miserable conditions. I have heard of the horrible things that happened to those in Japanese custody. While being a POW is never pleasant, I can tell you one thing for certain: it was much better to be a POW in Europe than it was to be one in Asia. Some of the things I have read or been told have literally made me feel queasy.

I think it's wonderful that you are getting the word out. When I consider WWII, I don't think in terms of where the soldiers were born--I think in terms of ours and theirs. The brave men from the UK who fought with our men from the US are heroes to me--anyone who wore an Allied uniform is. I am glad those who suffered so greatly are being honored.

Be well,
Bronwen

Answer 2

I sorry but my father was a pow of the Germans while my uncle was a Japanese pow, the youngest Australian solider at 16 taken into captivity on Ambon. Both men suffered extreme deprivation, PTS issues and had trouble for years accepting that there was enough food to go around, which is why both men ended up obese, and most of their families did too.

You cannot compare the the Asia theatre with the European theatre both were different forms of warfare, as where both enemies.

I found the remark that the European pow had it easy to be quite offensive, particularly when I know that my father couldn't nurse any babies including me, because he had seen dead babies on the end of bayonets in Prague the capital of Czechoslovakia. I also know that my dad witness homosexual rape inside the pow camps and other war crimes.

I would be the first to say that the Japanese were barbarians to their prisoners - the Germans though circumstance were not much better.

you do have a permanent reminder of the Japanese pows - its called hellfire pass, is located in Thailand and was hand dug by Australian pows.

Answer 3

There were so many that were tortured and who endured unimaginable ill treatment. But I would like to offer two names of people whom I have been privileged to know who were prisoners of the Japanese.

Sr. Vivienne Bullwinkle who was Matron at Fairfield Hospital when I was a trainee nurse many years ago. She was the only survivor of a group of nurses who's ship was bombed by the Japanese as they fled with wounded soldiers from Singapore. She spent the rest of the war in a Japanese POW camp. She was an amazing woman.

(Dr) Sir Edward "Weary" Dunlop who was so called by his mates because of his untiring devotion and stalwart support of the soldiers who lived and died while working on the Burma Railway as POW slaves under the Japanese military. Sir Edward came from Benalla and took a keen interest in the health services and aged care facilities, particularly for returned service men and women in North Central Victoria and I worked in that regon for a time in the 1980's.

Both these astonishing people displayed a rare personal humility and genuine love for people that I have never seen before or since. They were a rare breed.

And both these reluctant heroes would urge us to remember all those who suffered and gave their lives so that we might live as free people. God Bless them all.

Lest We Forget.

Answer 4

My Father in law suffered in a Japonese POW for three years, he later suffered from PTSD due to the treatment he recieved there. Lter in life he worked down the pits before succoming to a heart attack, aged 84, after hearing stories from his friends but never him, he talked very little about it, i learned that to the best of my knowledge he was one of the bravest men i have ever met. He was also awarded the Burma Star. God bless him and his comrades

Answer 5

Many have been killed, extra crushed and starved. there's a(n) (in)in call for photograph of an Australian pilot being beheaded by ability of a eastern officer. the eastern observed all POWs as cowards who surrendered as against die, which replaced into the doctrine of the eastern protection tension (dying in the previous dishonor actual). the eastern could under no circumstances renounce and many times could lay traps. Wounded infantrymen could call for a corpsman, and while he have been given close to, the eastern soldier pulled the pin on a grenade.

Answer 6

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Answer 7

Geoffrey Bunce, RSM Kings African Rifles (later Royal Signals). Died in captivity whilst working on the Burma railway. My grandpa who I never got to meet.

Thank you so much for the post and I hope they ALL get recognition, regardless of their country of origin.

Answer 8

How can we ever forget the deaths of 10,000, the greatest single loss of life. In Memorial:

The Bataan Death March

Answer 9

Please lay some flowers for all the Aussie and NZ soldiers, nurses and all the others that saw great cruelty and are still living with it everyday.
Lest We Forget