At that moment as well, many Japanese POW prison guards were deserting their posts, whether for fear of an invasion, or to look after their families that lived not too distant, was unknown. Dad said those guards that stayed were quickly overpowered by the throngs of prisoners, mostly emaciated but emboldened by the tide's apparent turn. Several guards were pulled limb from limb in pointed revenge for years of awful, abusive treatment of the prisoners.
In the days ahead, the prisoners formed parties that forayed into the countryside to find Allied troops, which they eventually did near Nagasaki. The prisoners were taken mostly by ship to Manilla, the Phillipines, where they spent the time through Thanksgiving of '45 to recuperate somewhat before being sent home.
When my dad appeared unannounced on his parents' doorstep (in Bandoeng, Dutch East Indies), they didn't recognize him, as he weighed 88lbs., about half his weight prior to the war. His grandfather and an aunt had died during his internment. All his relatives, who were Dutch, spent time in concentration camps, where they also found times were difficult under Japanese supervision.
And that was just some of what was going on slightly out of that frame.
Thank you, mightily!
HF
Great stories and history. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you for your story. I am always in awe of what people went through during those troubling times. I hope you have some old letters or have written down those stories to pass down to your children and grandchildren.
Thank you for sharing that fascinating personal background.
Years ago I read the book “The Happy Hooker” about the Dutch sexpert, Xaviera Hollander. She and her mother were both interned by the Japanese as was her father. She spoke of looking across the grounds and seeing him fenced in across the grounds. I think the reason she was happy as a hooker was that she had a great desire to make unhappy men happy, as she wished she could do for her father.