Posted on 09/16/2011 2:28:37 PM PDT by InvisibleChurch
Astonishing drawings of British soldiers in brutal Japanese Prisoner of War camps have turned up nearly 70 years later on TV's Antiques Roadshow. The lost sketches showing the appalling conditions the men endured were drawn by artist soldier John Mennie who gave them to fellow PoW Eric Jennings.
Mr Jennings never spoke about his wartime experiences and his family were stunned when they found the sketches stashed away in a shoe box after his death.
One of the drawings is a rare image of the 'Selerang Square Squeeze' - a shocking atrocity meted out to 16,000 PoWs in Changi, Singapore in 1942. The Japanese kettled the Allied soldiers in a cramped square for five days in unbearable heat to make them sign documents stating they would not try to escape. Many men died from disease and dysentery during the incident and four more were callously executed by their sadistic captors. A second drawing shows a British surgeon carrying out a life-saving operation on an emaciated prisoner in the open. Another picture shows a group of impoverished prisoners in their underpants singing Christmas carols to keep their spirits up. There are also 30 excellent pencil portraits of PoWs and six larger colour drawings that depict the horrors of the situation.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
I can see why he wouldn’t talk about it.
An Amazing Time Capsule.
bump for later read.
I’m surprised there wasn’t a sitcom about life in the Japanese POW Camp..
Look at the comments on the bottom, the site needs to be freeped.
They were treated so brutally that they could really find no humor there.
One humorous story though was the enterprising young man from NM who realized that getting VD was one of the most shameful things that could happen to a Japanese soldier. He carved a pill press and made plaster of paris “penicillin” pills and helped keep a lot of people alive with the food he traded for, I just always think what a sweet revenge he felt too.
The author James Clavell was a Japanese POW and often spoke of how grateful he and all the prisoners were to America for dropping the bomb and bringing their horror to an end.
Obi-Wan managed to keep a Stiff Upper Lip.
I know, but I was making a Hogan’s Hero reference..
Check out the article next month (if you remember) on a fellow named Maxwell! (Shot down in Pacific!) I'll try to link it next month, but you can review some stories here...
If you or a friend/family member are any former Veterans, career or "war theater" over 60 years of age (I spent two years on a tin can in the South China Sea, 66-68), there is a short waiting list here. The price is reasonable, and the place is quite good! Single rooms, mainly, but married quarters (both must be former vets!) Everybody has a view of the Gulf of Mexico, from their balcony or patio!
3 hots and much more than a cot!
And remember that today is POW/MIA Day.
I attended one of these observances the day my son was commissioned.
It is a simple and very moving ceremony.
The article says this drawing is of a British doctor, but the inscription identifies the surgeon as L/Col Dunlop (Edward “Weary” Dunlop) of the Australian Imperial Force (AIF), a famous WWII Australian surgeon and war hero.
After talking with some GIs and airmen who went through German POW camps, I always thought Hogan's Heroes was a sick joke - couldn't watch it. Thought "Bridge on the River Kwai" was sickening too after reading up on it.
For the record I wonder what was going through the head of the show creator and the Network with coming up Hogan’s Hero’s..
My dad was in the Korean war. When I was very young and stupid, I asked him if he ever shot anyone.
He kinda looked off in the distance away from me and never said a word...
It wasn’t until years later, after he passed, I found out he had been a medic...
Wish I had an hour to sit and talk with that man.
Really weird given how much he did for the troops.
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