Japanese P.O.W
LeEnfield
Active member
We had a quite of number of men that were Japanese POW's working for my old Company, most of these men had to retire early due to failing health. Those years of torture, starvation, neglect and tropical disease took a heavy toll on them in later years and I don't think I knew of one of them that worked to his retirement age.
JulesLee
Active member
I heard the tests they did was very scary too... tons of people were cut open live and such to see reaction and such.... UGH so sick..... its worse than being shot and dying peacefully...
imagine surviving after getting chemicals stuck up you while ur opened up or something.... ugh.. scary thoughts... ugh if I was a japanese tester/surgeon.. i would not do the job.. because they are people too.. ugh...
imagine surviving after getting chemicals stuck up you while ur opened up or something.... ugh.. scary thoughts... ugh if I was a japanese tester/surgeon.. i would not do the job.. because they are people too.. ugh...
bulldogg
Milforum's Bouncer
Jules, you have to realise the rampant racism at play during WWII. These prisoners were seen as sub-human so for them it was no different than dissecting frogs in high school biology class. It is one of the dynamics of war on individuals. Many come to view their enemy as less than human in order to ease the psychological pain of taking a life. The fact you don't understand this fully is a blessing.
AussieNick
Forum Digger
There should be a lot of info around. I'll see what I can find for you. Your grandfather was a lucky man to make it. I have much respect for him and those who went through Changi and the Burma railway.
A good example of this is the fact that in Papua New Guinea the Japanese soldiers ate Australians, and tortured Australian soldiers within ear shot of the Australian lines to try and get a rescue attempt started (only to ambush them)... Although it was a common agreement between Australian soldiers that if they were being tortured, no matter what, they didn't want their mates to come after them and risk their lives as well. Totally inhuman what the Japanese did to the Australians and also to the PNG "Fuzzy wuzzy angels".
Charge 7
Master Gunner
My mother's only brother was a POW of the Japanese. He was a doctor who arrived in the Phillipines just in time to be captured in its fall. He was on the Bataan Death March and was held for a time in China and then sent to work in condemned coal mines in Japan as slave labor. These mines had long been unsafe to be in and each day the ceiling sagged lower and lower until they had to crawl in to mine the coal. Of course many men died. My uncle was often beaten for his efforts to treat his fellow prisoners. The company that owned that mine and who to this day does not acknowledge their crimes let alone talk about any kind of compensation is Mitsui.
Bory
Active member
A Great Uncle of mine was in the 8th Division, and was taken prisoner at Singapore. He was in Changi, but he lost quite a few of his mates, we don't know where, because he never talked about it.
He returned to Australia in late '46 after going through Rehabilitation, but he was still pretty thin, had horrendus scarring, and frequent nightmares until he died.
He never talked about the war at all. Never put his medals on display, never marched on ANZAC Day. The only enlightenment of what he went through was one night, my Aunty was going to thrw some leftover food in the bin, and He went off at her. He yelled at her about wasting food, how lucky she was, and made everyone finish up all the leftovers.
Other than that, he was perfectly normal and quite religious.
He returned to Australia in late '46 after going through Rehabilitation, but he was still pretty thin, had horrendus scarring, and frequent nightmares until he died.
He never talked about the war at all. Never put his medals on display, never marched on ANZAC Day. The only enlightenment of what he went through was one night, my Aunty was going to thrw some leftover food in the bin, and He went off at her. He yelled at her about wasting food, how lucky she was, and made everyone finish up all the leftovers.
Other than that, he was perfectly normal and quite religious.