Liberated POW's

Discussion in 'War Against Japan' started by STEVEN, Feb 25, 2004.

  1. STEVEN

    STEVEN Senior Member

    I have for an indefinate period,the loan of the papers,documents and photo's relating to one of my Dad's uncles and his service in WW2.

    I have a small red hardback book his "certificate of service".in it,it lists all the countries he served in.one of the last entries in it simply says POW (Japan) 15.02.42 to 17.11.45. amongst the other bits and pieces is a green U.S. Navy Medical Department,Patients Identity Tag,for the U.S.S.TRYON.

    I have been told that this is because he was shipped to the US to recuperate.is this right ?? and how common was it ??.i have also been told that as they neared the point of recovery the ex POW's were house with "locals".There is a photo (dated) of him in a bar with another Ex POW and an American sailor,there is also a postcard from the family that "put him up".which was sent to him once he got back to the UK.

    So there doesn't appear to be any doubt he was in the US after his Liberation.I am interested to find out if this story is true and if it was common practice.

    Steven :unsure:
     
  2. BeppoSapone

    BeppoSapone Senior Member

    Originally posted by STEVEN@Feb 25 2004, 12:13 PM
    I have for an indefinate period,the loan of the papers,documents and photo's relating to one of my Dad's uncles and his service in WW2.

    I have a small red hardback book his "certificate of service".in it,it lists all the countries he served in.one of the last entries in it simply says POW (Japan) 15.02.42 to 17.11.45. amongst the other bits and pieces is a green U.S. Navy Medical Department,Patients Identity Tag,for the U.S.S.TRYON.

    I have been told that this is because he was shipped to the US to recuperate.is this right ?? and how common was it ??.i have also been told that as they neared the point of recovery the ex POW's were house with "locals".There is a photo (dated) of him in a bar with another Ex POW and an American sailor,there is also a postcard from the family that "put him up".which was sent to him once he got back to the UK.

    So there doesn't appear to be any doubt he was in the US after his Liberation.I am interested to find out if this story is true and if it was common practice.

    Steven :unsure:
    I know that some ex-Japanese POWs were repatriated via Canada, so America also seems likely. It would make sense to "build up" prisoners who had been starved in Canada/USA before sending them back to Britain and rationing.
     
  3. STEVEN

    STEVEN Senior Member

    Originally posted by BeppoSapone@Feb 25 2004, 04:25 PM

    I know that some ex-Japanese POWs were repatriated via Canada, so America also seems likely. It would make sense to "build up" prisoners who had been starved in Canada/USA before sending them back to Britain and rationing.


    Makes sense when you think about it,doesn't it.With the severe malnutrition they would have been suffering,sending them back to the UK before they had recovered,could have finished many of them off.

    Considering he weighed 6 stone when he (Charles) was liberated his stay in the US did him good.He looks a picture of health in the Photograph,taken in the Bar in San Francisco.

    Steven :)
     
  4. STEVEN

    STEVEN Senior Member

    Attatched is the Photo of Charles Wells taken in a bar in San Francisco shortly before his return to the UK,the date on the back of the folder it's in is 27.10.1945.
    That date according to his service book shows him as been a POW,so i assume that during his recuperation in the US he was classed as a POW.

    Charlie is the second from the right.I wonder what happened to the others in the photo particularly the sailor ??

    Steven :unsure:
     
  5. STEVEN

    STEVEN Senior Member

    The attatched image is of the cover that the previous photo is in.Really made me smile this."you will never meet a jerk at 70 turk" don't think you could get away with advertising like that today do you??.

    Do any of our US based members know if the bar still exists ??

    Steven :D
     
  6. Friedrich H

    Friedrich H Senior Member

    Thank you very much for the photos, Steven! ;) They're very nice. B)
     
  7. STEVEN

    STEVEN Senior Member

    I am still sifting through Charlie's documents.I found this in his service book,how this must have stuck in his gut having to sign it.Mind you shows his strength of character i think,because despite the mistreatment he never did try to escape (to the best of the families knowledge).

    Steven
     
  8. Joy Dean

    Joy Dean Junior Member

    My uncle Charles Cartland was a POW, down the mines in Japan. I have been told that he came home 'the long way round' on, I think, the Queen Mary.
    Joy
     
  9. STEVEN

    STEVEN Senior Member

    Originally posted by Christopher and Joy Dean@Mar 14 2004, 04:27 PM
    My uncle Charles Cartland was a POW, down the mines in Japan. I have been told that he came home 'the long way round' on, I think, the Queen Mary.
    Joy


    What regiment was your uncle in and where was he taken prisoner ??.If he came home the long way on the Queen Mary,it sounds as if he was in the US as well,recuperating.Do you know where he stayed until well enough to return to the UK.

    It would be interesting to see where the various ex-pow's went to in the US after liberation from the various camps/mines etc.

    Steven :unsure:
     
  10. Joy Dean

    Joy Dean Junior Member

    My uncle Charlie Cartland said very little about the time he was a POW. Not surprising really. I think that he was captured when Singapore fell. I think that he stopped briefly in Canada on the way home to England. I do not know his regiment. I think that he stayed in a hospital - sort of convalescent place in England before going home to my aunt Phyl. He died in 1990. I shal have to ask my aunt.
    Joy
     
  11. lionboxer

    lionboxer Member

    The 18th (East Anglian) Division went into the "bag" at Singapore in 1942. Amongst them were three battalions of the Norfolks. After the war some POW's were sent back to India for treatment before going home the long way to get fattened up. My father met some of his former mates from the Norfolks in hospital in Bangalore and what a sorry state they were in. They were the true heroes after enduring three years of capture in the most barbaric conditions imaginable. Some never recovered and ended their days wrecked both physically and mentally. How they ever lived with the fact that they were let down so badly at Singapore I shall never understand. Just hung out to dry.
    Lionboxer
     
  12. STEVEN

    STEVEN Senior Member

    Originally posted by Christopher and Joy Dean@Mar 23 2004, 04:57 PM
    My uncle Charlie Cartland said very little about the time he was a POW. Not surprising really. I think that he was captured when Singapore fell. I think that he stopped briefly in Canada on the way home to England. I do not know his regiment. I think that he stayed in a hospital - sort of convalescent place in England before going home to my aunt Phyl. He died in 1990. I shal have to ask my aunt.
    Joy


    Charlie Wells never spoke about his experiences either even to his wife.I say never spoke to anyone,thats what we all thought until recently !!.

    I have a piece written by one of Charlies nephews,Allan,Charlie had obviously opened up to him at some time just before he died.Some time after his death Allan was speaking to his Aunt (Charlies widow) and told her what he had been told.

    She was absolutely astonished,because in the near 40 years together,he never told her a thing about his experiences as a POW.

    Allan is a little embarassed about the piece for some reason,i personally think it's quiet moving.It's written as Charlie spoke it.Some of the things are graffic and quiet frightening to the reader and it's no wonder many of the POW's never spoke of their experiences.Charlie i feel was quite brave in doing so,given that the memories that had lain buried for 40 years were painful ones.

    Steven.
     
  13. jetson

    jetson Junior Member

    During my army national service in the early fifties, some of the field officers, warrant officers and senior NCOs in our unit were surviving ex Jap PWs captured on the fall of Malaya and had worked on the infamous Burma-Siam railway. Our Orderly Room Quartermaster Sergeant was one such and he once told me "If a day went by without you getting at least a clip around the ear, you considered you had had a good day!" Incidentally he was a great man whose language was oft a mix of English, Hindoostani and Japanese, what a character!
     
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