Swimming in the Johore Straits

[Tony Morcom]

B*gger that, I would have been off the bus right behind the driver!!

[Lou Barron]

In them days wnen the japs was on top the straits was a very interesting placewith the floating dry dock being damaged by the navy and the japs trying to get it back to use and the japanese warships coming and going but the most interesting was the SS HUARAKI that was anchored not far from us on th LO YANG and the japs use to get us to row over to the ship and the japs would go aboard her but not us the crew was of the HUARAKIwas still living aboard her but we suppose to have no communication but some times we did one time we use to pass messages to them and as they still had the availabilityto the ships stores we asked them for soap as we had very littleso we managed to get a fair bit given to us but a few days later back on the LO YANG a fight started between one of the americans and a guy of the DALHOUSIE it was over the soap it was a fair go but the japs got into it and the two who was fighting was made to stand on the upper deck in full sunshine and it was hot they stood till they both collapsed just over a bar of soap you could never figurehow the japs would behave

[happy daze john in oz]

Hard times during the war. I was born in East dulwich and my mother told me about half an hour after I came into the world a bomb was dropped on the local train station, some welcome! My father was in Gibralta so we lived with an aunt and uncle, the stoty goes that his first task when the siren went was to grab me in a blanket and off to the air raid shelter. A bomb went off close by blowing in the front door. For six weeks the house had no door.

[Lou Barron]

As i have mention about swimming in the straits the japs did not mind when we were not working it was also one way of keeping clean but it was not at all agood thing i was not going to mention this but it shows we did have a bit of humour after all as we use to swim in the nick one day a few of us were have a dip when i felt something around my body then my orchestra stalls all of a sudden a felt a stinging sensation on the old john thomas i had been stung by a jelly fish and was it painful when i got out of the water every one started to laugh the penis like the bloody traffic lights it was sore for days i was not the only one to get stung a couple of other guys to but not were i got stung so i always put my shorts on when i had a swim

[Tony Wilding]

HELLO CHARLES, with regard to your experiences as a POW, Were the Japs cruel to there treatment of fellow japanese, or just to non japanese, ? i believe a lot of japanese guards were korean, were there any decent ones, i know they recruited koreans as guards, also as comfort women for there troops, filipina women also, forced against there will. very soon going to live in phillipines, i will visit Bataan where the infamous death march took place, certainly were a fanatical race, i remember about 10 years after the war ended they found a jap soldier hiding in the jungle, still in uniform and armed, they had to find his old CO in japan to meet him to tell him the war was over. when they realised the war had ended, did there attitude change to the prisoners, did they just disappear and leave. ? or were they rounded up by the prisoners, must have been a time lapse between surrender of the japs and allied troops comeing to you. would be interested to know the atmosphere there when they surrendered. best wishes , tony wilding.

[Lou Barron]

Hi Tony the japanese forces used corporal punishment also we had Korean guards when we worked on the changi air strip and they where as bad as the japs they use to give us a hard time also the Indian soldierswho had turn over to the japs they was not the best of the guards in on instants when we went on a working gang we had to salute the iIndian guards on one party i was on going to the airstrip my mate Barry Lane did not salute so the pulled him out and gave him a hiding he never liked the Indians since in 1993 when my wife and i took a trip to the UKand i had the good fortune to meet up with Barry he lived in HEMEL HAMPSTEAD as we was talking about the pow days over a few pints i mention about the Indians Barry said those B*****B Barrys wife told him off for swearing but we all had a good laugh after that i was to meet up with Barry a couple of times we was in the UK but Barry passed away a few years ago there were one or two japs who was not to bad but over all the Koreans and the japs was a bad lot

[Tony Wilding]

hi Charles, well u learn something new every day, never realised indians sided with the japs, but then again in war anything can happen, i know some british POW,s fought in the german army. have read many books on japanese treatment of prisoners, problem was they looked down on them , especially if they had surrendered, that was unthinkable to them. brainwashed from birth they knew no different, death was an honour, if the atomic bomb had not ended the war i think they would have fought to the last man, was only because the emperor told them to stop fighting they did, i look forward to any more stories u have to tell, all the best to you, Tony Wilding.

[Lou Barron]

hi Tony Yes some of the the Indians turn over to the japs Indian called Bose i think that was his name start a mob called The Indian Free Armry with the help of the japs not all the Indians turn over but the japs kept them in a seperate camp also the Gurkhas who was loyal to the british near the end the japs told us they would keep on fighting and kill all the pows it was a couple of weeks before we was to see any british troops that was some para troops dropped by planes the japs just dissapeared

[Tony Wilding]

hello charles, it must have been an unbelieveable situation, to wake up and find all the japs had gone, expect hard to understand at first, to suddenly find you were no longer prisoners, were you getting any news about the war while you were a pow, after the japs disappeared did the local population help you with food, what did the indians do who sided with the japs, or did they disappear also, this story is so interesting, could talk about it for hours, when the allied troops came to get u all it must have been like a miracle. The story u told about swimming and the toilets was great, expect only one of many such incidents, the film bridge over the river kwai gave an idea of prisoners treatment, hope you keep the stories coming, best wishes, tony wilding.

[Tony Wilding]

HELLO CHARLES, you got me interested in the Indian defectors, checked on Wikipedia , over 40,000 defected, were formed into regiments and armed by the japs, a lot faught with the japs in Burma against the British. but it must be said many brave Indians died fighting with us, many Victoria crosses were won by them, many Indians at that time wanted the British out of India, maybe they saw it as a way to make it happen, but even if it did and the japs took india, they would still have been slaves of the Japanese. the japs certainly spread themselves around, even got to bomb Darwin in Aussie, was amazing how quick it all happened there, and the amount of prisoners they took, they certainly proved how ineffective ships were against aircraft attacks, well my bed time now, regards, tony wilding.