Hi,
No pictures today as a mark of respect, today 80 years ago Japan surrendered marking the end of World War Two, I know that many of those fighting the Japanese did not come home for many months after they surrendered.
My mother was a Japanese POW, I have no idea when she finally arrived back in the U.K., she never talked about it and only rarely, she was a nursing sister assigned to the Royal Navy, the ship she was on was torpedoed and she was captured by the Japanese, she spent two and half years in a POW camp.
At different times in my life things were revelled, like when I was five and in Italy we were walking down the street in Rimini, when a strange man was shouting Bubbles, we turned around and there she was talking to him, it turned out that was her nickname in the Royal Navy, and he was on board one of the ships she was on.
Several times throughout my life she was recognised, did she remember them not sure but when there’s three thousand men on one ship, she could not remember all of them, even if they remembered her.
I remember moving into a new house, I was unloading the car and a voice said “never thought I would see you again”. My reaction was who are you, he was talking to mother, they talked about different things that happen, he said if she thought the men needed exercise she would match them around the deck even in a force nine gale. He then set her a challenge to march the young boys working on the site, to see if she could get them marching, challenge excepted, by the time they reach the end she had them all in step, marching.
I did try to find her war record, unfortunately I failed, without her service number and what camp she ended up in, there’s no where left to find her record, I was told one day something might pop up well so far nothing, I was told that when they went into camps the records of those POWs in them was destroyed by the Japanese
Mother died in 2014, but I have the memories of life that the Japanese ruined, I remember one Christmas I was not very old I was unwrapping a Christmas present and she saw written on the box made in Japan, the box was taken out of my hand and thrown in the dustbin. Nothing that was made in Japan was allowed in the house, she would not buy anything made in Japan, Over the years she did sort of accept items only because it was not made anywhere else. Her injuries yes she had a lot, she had to have a new hip, it was pinned in Japan during the war, I took into the hospital, along came a junior doctor, Japanese doctor, she was in so much pain, I thought she was going to walk out, but she stayed sitting, after the operation in recovery, she must have heard his voice, Whatever she said he got a mouthful, a few days later I was asked does your mother not like the Japanese, the nurse had an answer she was not expecting. After that he would come to bed, she would pretend to be asleep, he would bow to the bed, she used to say if I could lift my leg he would get it. A few years before she died she moved and had a new doctor, he was taking her blood pressure and saw some marks on her arm, he asked who did this, looking at me, she said nothing so I told him much to her disgust, they are Japanese war wounds.
Mother like thousands of POWs never spoke much about their time in the Japanese camps, it was certainly not a bed of roses, today people say we should forgive and forget, it’s not hard to forget when you grow up with a disabled mother, she suffered a lot, and my life suffered to in many ways.
We should never forget the past and hopefully learn from it,
Margaret
