Christmas Propaganda
Heroes Remember
Christmas Propaganda
Christmas, 1944, we were told we wouldn't have to go to work that
Christmas day, and that we would get extra food to eat. And
Christmas morning sure enough we, we happened to be on the day
shift at that time, and Christmas morning dawn we got up, the
Japanese brought a tree in, which we decorated. They brought a
couple of big long tables in, which we put some of these linen
sheets on. Then they brought in a few loaves of bread, extra rice
oranges, even twenty-four quarts of beer. I don't, I think
possibly there was some pomegranates too, I'm not quite
sure. But all this extra food, there was quite a bit there and
they lined us all up around the table, took pictures, then took
the whole damn thing out again, and we went back down the mine
that day. That was hard, it was about, we didn't, we couldn't let
the Japanese know how hard it was on us. The guards came around
that night and, you know they, making fun of us about it, after
we'd come up from the mine and so we made fun,
we laughed about it too.
Interviewer: This was purely for propaganda purposes?
It was purely for Propaganda purposes. They had no intention
of giving us the food or anything else, no.
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