my dads uncle talking about hong kong
- Thread starter rempel429
- Start date
Some Canadians did escape from Hong Kongafter the surrender and one wrote a book on the escape.
It was called "Bridge with Three Men", by Hewitt, Anthony.
Also "To Freedom Through China":
Escaping From Japanese-Occupied Hong Kong, 1942; by Hewitt, Anthony
It was called "Bridge with Three Men", by Hewitt, Anthony.
Also "To Freedom Through China":
Escaping From Japanese-Occupied Hong Kong, 1942; by Hewitt, Anthony
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My father had a co-worker quite a few years ago who was a Hong Kong vet and he spent the rest of the war as a POW of the Japanese. My father told me when the poor guy learned that a group of technicians were coming from Hitachi for a few weeks during an overhaul he requested a leave of abscence from work. He said he couldn't guarantee that he wouldn't become violent if one of the Japanese even spoke to him in the wrong tone. His leave was granted. Apparently time does not heal all wounds.
Thanks for posting. It is a subject that receives very little attention in the media.
Thanks for posting. It is a subject that receives very little attention in the media.
my uncle was a pow from hong kong as well till the end he nothing good to say about the japanese and he could never eat rice again ...once he walked into a honda dealership and demanded a new car for all the free labour he did ...he was a little nuts too ...wonder why ? hey did the canadian gov ever get an apology for our vets from the japanese gov...
The Japanese have never apologized for any of the horrors they committed in WW2. The WW2 history courses taught in Japanese high schools are still a total whitewash of events.
highlander
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Newfoundland
A Newfoundlander named Jack Ford, a member of the RAF stationed in Hong Kong, was also captured by the Japanese and held as a POW until their camp was liberated by the US Army in 1945. He was also worked as a slave at the shiopyard in Nagasaki, and was there and witnessed the A Bomb being dropped on that city. He wrote a book on his experiences a couple of years ago. A really good story, especially on how the Japanese treated their POW's.
I served with an NCO who was a boy soldier in The Royal Rifles of Canada and who I believe was the last Hong Kong vet to serve in the CF. He retired around 1978 or so and never had anything good to say about the Japanese. He spent his time as a POW doing slave labor in the shipyards and coal mines and emerged as a physical wreck. He refused to buy or use anything Japanese throughout his life. In spite of the privations that he suffered he lived a long and fulfilling life. I also served with his son who I last saw about 10 yrs ago and learned that his father had died.
My grandfather was a POW as well. The japanese were savages to them. He had severe physical issues when he came back. Cdn govt did nothing for them. Instead they apologize for japanese internment camps here during the war. Embarrassing and shameful.
That is an excellent website. I just checked it and found the name and photo of the Hong Kong vet who I served with.
The Japanese captured large numbers of UK, US, Australian and Dutch servicemen and interned varying numbers of civilians of these same nationalities who suffered many of the same privations as the POWs. A couple of months ago, while vacationing in Honolulu, I met a Dutch born American whose family had been interned by the Japanese when they overran the Dutch East Indies. He was a 10 year old boy at the time. Both of his parents died in captivity, but he made it through after spending time in Japan. He said the Japanese weren't too harsh on child captives, small comfort given that both of his parents died. It was a bit surreal to be sitting on the beach in Waikiki talking about all of this in the midst of hordes of Japanese tourists. Steven Spielberg produced an excellent movie in the late 1980s, called "Empire of the Sun", about civilian captives of the Japanese.
While in Hawaii I took the opportunity to visit Pearl Harbor and see both the USS Arizona Memorial and the memorial battleship USS Missouri on whose deck the Japanese surrender was signed. There were many Japanese tourists in both locations, with lesser numbers seen on the Missouri. There is an excellent US Army museum centered on the Pacific war at Ft DeRussy. It was interesting to see some young Japanese girls quietly taking photos of a display case full of captured Japanese small arms and a Japanese "tankette" on display in front of the museum. I wondered just what they were thinking as they looked at some of the artifacts of the initial Japanese triumphs and ultimate surrender in the Pacific War. On a personal note I found myself thinking about the fate of a family member who went missing while serving in the US Army on Corregidor in 1941-42. One place I never saw any Japanese tourists in the Orient was when I visited the large Commonwealth War Cemetery at Kanchanburi, Thailand in the late 1980s.
The Japanese captured large numbers of UK, US, Australian and Dutch servicemen and interned varying numbers of civilians of these same nationalities who suffered many of the same privations as the POWs. A couple of months ago, while vacationing in Honolulu, I met a Dutch born American whose family had been interned by the Japanese when they overran the Dutch East Indies. He was a 10 year old boy at the time. Both of his parents died in captivity, but he made it through after spending time in Japan. He said the Japanese weren't too harsh on child captives, small comfort given that both of his parents died. It was a bit surreal to be sitting on the beach in Waikiki talking about all of this in the midst of hordes of Japanese tourists. Steven Spielberg produced an excellent movie in the late 1980s, called "Empire of the Sun", about civilian captives of the Japanese.
While in Hawaii I took the opportunity to visit Pearl Harbor and see both the USS Arizona Memorial and the memorial battleship USS Missouri on whose deck the Japanese surrender was signed. There were many Japanese tourists in both locations, with lesser numbers seen on the Missouri. There is an excellent US Army museum centered on the Pacific war at Ft DeRussy. It was interesting to see some young Japanese girls quietly taking photos of a display case full of captured Japanese small arms and a Japanese "tankette" on display in front of the museum. I wondered just what they were thinking as they looked at some of the artifacts of the initial Japanese triumphs and ultimate surrender in the Pacific War. On a personal note I found myself thinking about the fate of a family member who went missing while serving in the US Army on Corregidor in 1941-42. One place I never saw any Japanese tourists in the Orient was when I visited the large Commonwealth War Cemetery at Kanchanburi, Thailand in the late 1980s.
The Japanese commanders on the spot were enraged that the largely untrained Canadians and the Hong Kong Volunteers (mostly British WWI vets) held them up for about two weeks. They fell behind schedule, "lost face" and were no doubt told off and marked down by their superiors. I remember reading somewhere that when one Canadian officer said he had a company of men, the Japanese officer he was surrendering to slapped him in the face as he thought he was insulting the Japanese by under-stating his force.
The Japanese culture of diligence is admirable and we should emulate it more, but the capacity for sadistic cruelty and barbarity is apparently bottomless. In Hong Kong the wounded were bayoneted in their hospital beds and some of the nurses were gang-raped on a pile of hacked off arms and legs over the space of several days. The Chinese civilians fared even worse.
The number of franc tireurs sniping at our troops behind the lines was remarkable. Whether these were Japanese living in Hong Kong or Chinese collaborators is unknown, probably both.
The Japanese culture of diligence is admirable and we should emulate it more, but the capacity for sadistic cruelty and barbarity is apparently bottomless. In Hong Kong the wounded were bayoneted in their hospital beds and some of the nurses were gang-raped on a pile of hacked off arms and legs over the space of several days. The Chinese civilians fared even worse.
The number of franc tireurs sniping at our troops behind the lines was remarkable. Whether these were Japanese living in Hong Kong or Chinese collaborators is unknown, probably both.
It's so sad that no one around the world cares that an estimated 200,000 to 300,000 disarmed soldiers and unarmed civilians where tortured, murdered, (women) gang raped to death by the Japan Imperial Army during their occupation of Nanking.
Prince Yasuhiko Asaka (a member of the Imperial Family) who lead the Japanese army in the Nanking Massacre was granted immunity by the American allies after the war. WTF???
Japan still denies that the Nanking Massacre took place and wrote it out of their history books.
Why so many western cultures see the Japanese as honourable but the German Nazi as evil puzzles me. They were both allies during WWII and acted with the same sadistic, cruel, and barbaric manner during the war.
Sad but true quote, "History is written by the victors".
Prince Yasuhiko Asaka (a member of the Imperial Family) who lead the Japanese army in the Nanking Massacre was granted immunity by the American allies after the war. WTF???
Japan still denies that the Nanking Massacre took place and wrote it out of their history books.
Why so many western cultures see the Japanese as honourable but the German Nazi as evil puzzles me. They were both allies during WWII and acted with the same sadistic, cruel, and barbaric manner during the war.
Sad but true quote, "History is written by the victors".
highlander
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Newfoundland
You bring up an interesting point. While the numbers of people that were killed/murdered by the Nazis is pretty well known, the numbers killed/murdered by the Japanese and even the Soviets are pretty obscure. Now that more history is coming out, particularly after the fall of the Soviet empire, it would appear that both the Japanese and the Soviets make Hitler look like a Boy Scout when you compare the overall body counts.
The only difference is that the Germans are pretty open about what was done by them, whereas the Japanese and Soviets went to extreme lenghts to cover up their wrongdoing; in the case of the Japanese, even going so far as to change the official version of history.
My son taught english in Japan and told me what a racist country it still is. There is no discussion on WWII and they blame the Americans for everything that happened. To this day they do not accept any responsibilty for their actions.
When my son attended University he had two friends that were from mainland China, I met them and they were great young men. They were more than adamant that "someday" China was going to invade Japan and "get even"...they were completely serious.
When my son attended University he had two friends that were from mainland China, I met them and they were great young men. They were more than adamant that "someday" China was going to invade Japan and "get even"...they were completely serious.
