My grandad, a wireless operator, was captured and held on Hainan. When I turned 15 he decided I was old enough to tell me what exactly happened there. I have been a pacifist ever since. It is dreadful what one human being can do to another. No apology was forthcoming from the Japanese government in his lifetime, and I gather there has not been a full and frank one to this day.
The assumption of the authorities - and how could they think differently - was that a man who was not visibly psychotic as he emerged from incarceration was unlikely to be be burdened by any long term effects from his experience, and that any distressing memories would fade away over time, as he resumed his civilian life. It would take many years for the inadequacy of that assumption to be fully realised and accepted. This War was unprecedented in its scale, the territories and environments over and in which it was fought, the degree to which it was mechanised and industrialised, the extremity of the ideological conflict waged by the axis powers, and the numbed habituation to death and suffering that set in and took hold, as the conflict ground on for year after miserable year. The prosecution of the conflict being so novel, in so many ways, how could anyone know or foresee the traumatic psychological scars it would leave on the combatants and civilians caught up in it, or the length of the shadows it would cast over their lives, their families, and the lives of children as yet unborn?
My fathers Regiment, The Winnipeg Grenadiers, were nearly wiped out in Hong Kong, it's very few survivors were treated like animals as POWs, some were bayoneted, beaten with clubs, some decapitated with samurai swords by Japanese Sr NCO's or Officers, starved to death, worked to death and otherwise subjected to very brutal treatment......ill from disease or malnutrition....lack of any kind of medical treatment.......and, after their final liberation, the allied powers refused to force the Japanese government to compensate any of them......
My grandad, a wireless operator, was captured and held on Hainan. When I turned 15 he decided I was old enough to tell me what exactly happened there. I have been a pacifist ever since. It is dreadful what one human being can do to another. No apology was forthcoming from the Japanese government in his lifetime, and I gather there has not been a full and frank one to this day.
Poor, poor men... After all they went through...
Thankyou, my great uncle Fergus anckorn, my grandma's twin brother was a prisoner of war, he actually used magic to survive.
Where Can I see the complete segment or documentary please?
The assumption of the authorities - and how could they think differently - was that a man who was not visibly psychotic as he emerged from incarceration was unlikely to be be burdened by any long term effects from his experience, and that any distressing memories would fade away over time, as he resumed his civilian life. It would take many years for the inadequacy of that assumption to be fully realised and accepted. This War was unprecedented in its scale, the territories and environments over and in which it was fought, the degree to which it was mechanised and industrialised, the extremity of the ideological conflict waged by the axis powers, and the numbed habituation to death and suffering that set in and took hold, as the conflict ground on for year after miserable year. The prosecution of the conflict being so novel, in so many ways, how could anyone know or foresee the traumatic psychological scars it would leave on the combatants and civilians caught up in it, or the length of the shadows it would cast over their lives, their families, and the lives of children as yet unborn?
My fathers Regiment, The Winnipeg Grenadiers, were nearly wiped out in Hong Kong, it's very few survivors were treated like animals as POWs, some were bayoneted, beaten with clubs, some decapitated with samurai swords by Japanese Sr NCO's or Officers, starved to death, worked to death and otherwise subjected to very brutal treatment......ill from disease or malnutrition....lack of any kind of medical treatment.......and, after their final liberation, the allied powers refused to force the Japanese government to compensate any of them......
A great generation of men!
6 weeks leave?? very generous of our government 🥴
I know!! I had heard thst this is what my grandfather - a PoW - got, so it fits.
My Dad was one of these Men... after 3 and half years as POW at both Changi and OMi 13B 🥲