A SON'S MEMORIES 

     In about 1962 (just after the 20th anniversary of the fall of Bataan) dad hosted a Japanese POW gathering at our place on 18th Ave. in Lewiston, where my mom still lives. It was quite the event and as a teenager I sat around enthralled listening to a 'bunch of really old guys'...you know, to a teenager, as they were in their mid to late forties...all talking about the "Japs". The stories were very familiar, similar to the ones dad talked about over the years with friends or neighbors during a barbecue or the like. In speaking of Fukuoka, dad's comments on the occasion, and on others, usually evolved around the following:

     Life in the mine was hellish. In addition to being literally starved to death and having to work long hours, prisoners were usually dehydrated most of the time. If a prisoner wanted or needed a day off, he had to injure himself, something like put a pick in his foot or have a limb broken.
     Dad often said he held no grudges against the Japanese...he called them "Japs", like most of his peers, it was just the term that was used, but not in a form of racism. Dad often remarked they (the Japanese) were just doing their job, like the American soldiers. He did make an exception, however, for Tojo and Hirohito. Dad was glad Tojo was found guilty of war crimes and executed. But dad thought the Emperor should have been charged also. He had little patience for the concept that we needed to save the Emperor in order to win the hearts and minds of the Japanese people against the rising tide of international communism. Dad did not think the Japanese would go along with the Russians, no matter what we did to the Emperor. They had always been natural enemies, to dad's way of thinking.

     Dad also remarked that when they heard the engines of the B-29's flying over on bombing missions, especially at night, he and his fellow prisoners figured it was just a matter of time before the Americans won. Dad said they did not know they were B-29's, but they did know they were some new kind of improved American bomber. He also mentioned they knew "the whole thing was all about over" after the first A-Bomb was dropped. They had heard from the guards about a "terrible new weapon", which only took one to destroy a whole city. Dad also said they knew the Americans were beginning to win and the end of the war was near because the guards started treating them like long-lost fraternity brothers!

     These are some of the things I remember my dad talking about. It has been over 3o years since I last heard his stories, but I believe I recall them correctly.

by Gordon Petrie,  January 2002

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