The Experiences of the POWS and Internees
In 2004
we looked again at how the original idea of Fr Cowin to set up a permanent,
living, memorial to those who died and to those who survived the Japanese
prisoner of war camps might be updated using the tools we have available today.
To any generation who did not pass through the World War II years it has become
impossible to comprehend the privations and horror of being a Japanese POW. It
is important their experiences are not forgotten, not in order to permanently
castigate the Japanese and others who helped them, but as a permanent reminder
of how low the human condition can fall without universally and internationally
accepted norms of human behaviour. It only seems necessary to define the others
as “inferior” or “sub-human” and atrocities will follow - none of us are immune.
Here
then are the recorded experiences of some who survived the camps, as they
remembered them during 2004 and 2005. It is worth recording that even 60 years
after, some POWs and those who helped in their liberation remain too traumatised
to record their experiences. And some nationalities cannot now be remembered in
this way – the last Indian POW died in 2003.
Tragic
too are those recorded in our database that died in 1946, long after the
liberation, but the toll on their mental and physical state was too great to
allow them to enjoy the fruits of peace - as it was for the many others who
later died prematurely.
Let our
tribute to them be that we do not forget the lessons to be learned – even now,
the world has seen too many terrible events since 1945 for us to ever relax our
vigil.
Listen to:
Please be aware that some of the descriptions of
conditions and ill treatment can be harrowing.
Cpl Norman Wright, RAF
L/Cpl Frank Buttifant, Royal Corps of Signals
Spr. Maurice Rooney, 288th
Field Coy. Royal Engineers
Gnr/Dvr. Bob Lister RA, 11th
Indian Division
Sgt. Ron Needham, 6th Bn. Royal
Norfolk Regiment
AB Jim Mariner, HMS Peterel
AC1 Les Stubbs, RAF
LAC Jack Plant, RAF
Medical Branch, Mentioned in Despatches
Sister Pat Gunther, Australian
Army Nursing Service
L/Cpl Bruce Cadoret, Royal Rifles of Canada
Mrs Joan Wight, mother, taken
into Internment at Singapore
Rose Raymond, taken into
Internment in Java
Keith Martin, schoolboy, taken into Internment at Shanghai
Suus van der Wal-Meyneken, taken into internment in Java
Marjorie, widow of Dvr. Ernest Parker,
Royal Corps of Signals
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