No Mercy from the Japanese by John Wyatt Cecil Lowry

Author:John Wyatt, Cecil Lowry [John Wyatt, Cecil Lowry]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Military, World War II, Biography & Autobiography, Historical
ISBN: 9781844684526
Google: UdXIDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Published: 2009-04-21T00:30:02+00:00

Chapter 8

The Hellships Asaka Maru and Hakusan Maru

With work on the railway finished we were told to pack up our belongings and be ready to move out of Sonkurai. It was around about the middle of February 1944 when we were finally lined up and marched down to the track and herded onto a train. The train was made up of the same kind of steel cattle trucks we had travelled up from Singapore in over a year earlier, and it took an eternity to travel the fifteen miles or so to the base camp at Thakhanun. The heat was unbearable as we crawled along at a snail’s pace, stopping every few miles in sidings to allow trains packed with Japanese troops to pass on their journey north.

We spent a couple of weeks at Thakhanun camp before setting off again in a train to travel the 200 miles to the main base of Non Pladuk, a journey that had taken us two weeks on foot, but now took less than a day. It was a perilous trip and we were always afraid that some of the badly constructed embankments and bridges would collapse and all our efforts to stay alive would be ended below this ‘awful’ railway.

It was now spring 1944 and with the tide turning against them, the Japanese Navy was coming under intense pressure from the Americans in the Western Pacific and the South China Sea. Over the previous two years, they had stretched themselves to the limit on several fronts, and needed a sustained industrial effort back in the homelands to provide the necessary war materials to keep up their offensive and defend territories they had conquered. With most of their able-bodied men away fighting the war, they were short of labourers to keep their industries going to support the war effort. But of course the Japanese had already proved that they were ruthless towards their captives and found a ready solution to this problem. They simply shipped the POWs back to Japan to make up the shortfall. This happened throughout the Far East as fit men were transported to Japan; if you could stand up you were classed as fit. Initially they asked for skilled men and at Non Pladuk we were lined up in front of the officer in charge. It was an amusing sight. He sat behind a large table in the middle of a clearing with his sword in front of him and a pet monkey on his shoulder. He then asked each one of us if we had a trade in England. The first bloke was a carpenter and he was immediately pushed to one side. ‘You Japan,’ grunted the officer. Word quickly spread down the line that if you did not admit to having a trade then you just might get out of being sent to Japan. At that point everyone started telling the officer that they were a window cleaner. When it came to Mick’s turn he said, ‘Me window cleaner – me clean Crystal Palace.

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