Description
Mr. Forsyth remembers an electric fence being installed after four Winnipeg Grenadiers attempted to escape, and all other POW’s being made to sign an oath to not attempt escape.
Thomas Smith Forsyth
Mr. Forsyth was born on a farm just outside of Pipestone, Manitoba, on April 26, 1910. He worked on the farm and attended school until grade 11, joining the army the following year when war was declared. After being accepted into the Winnipeg Grenadiers, Mr. Forsyth was briefly stationed in Jamaica guarding German POWs before being posted to Hong Kong. Captured in the Battle of Hong Kong, Mr. Forsyth was interned as a POW in North Point and Sham Shui Po prison camps, before being sent to Niigata Camp 5B in Japan as a slave labourer. After years of heavy labour, physical abuse, and terrible living conditions, Mr. Forsyth was liberated from 5B when Japan surrendered. He returned to his family in Manitoba soon thereafter.
Transcript
You, you heard a dozen times about the four men, four Grenadiers, that tried to escape, and they were caught, and they were tortured, and they were tortured and executed. So then, the Japs put electric fence around, and the first, the first victim on the electric fence was the Jap Camp Commandant's dog, a big black dog, and early one morning, there must have been fifteen or twenty Chinese standing, ready to grab the dog when the current was, was cut off. And, and when the current was cut off it was safe to grab the dog and they, they, they fought over the dog. They were starving, they were starving, they fought over the dog.
Interviewer: Tell me the four Grenadiers that attempted to escape and were caught, tortured and then executed, when that happened, aside from the electric fence being erected around the camp, was there anything else that the Japanese expected you men to do? Was there an oath that you were expected to sign?
Yes, yes, ya, that's true, that's true
Interviewer: Can you tell me about that?
Well, it was quite, the, the sergeant, one of our sergeants said to me, he said, he said, "If you, let's put it this way, if you're forced, your under duress, if your forced to sign that, to sign that, it's not binding. If you're forced to and then it is not binding." And the men that, that refused to sign, they were, they were, they were put in a special little prison and they were starved for a week, then men that refused to sign, the men that refused to sign that.
Interviewer: Did everyone eventually sign?
I believe they eventually, everyone, everyone did sign eventually.
Interviewer: Tell me the four Grenadiers that attempted to escape and were caught, tortured and then executed, when that happened, aside from the electric fence being erected around the camp, was there anything else that the Japanese expected you men to do? Was there an oath that you were expected to sign?
Yes, yes, ya, that's true, that's true
Interviewer: Can you tell me about that?
Well, it was quite, the, the sergeant, one of our sergeants said to me, he said, he said, "If you, let's put it this way, if you're forced, your under duress, if your forced to sign that, to sign that, it's not binding. If you're forced to and then it is not binding." And the men that, that refused to sign, they were, they were, they were put in a special little prison and they were starved for a week, then men that refused to sign, the men that refused to sign that.
Interviewer: Did everyone eventually sign?
I believe they eventually, everyone, everyone did sign eventually.
Meta Data
Oath to Not Attempt Escape
Medium
Video
Owner
Veterans Affairs Canada
War, Conflict or Mission
Second World War
Location/Theatre
Hong Kong
Person Interviewed
Thomas Smith Forsyth
Branch
Army
Units/Ship
Winnipeg Grenadiers
Occupation
Garrison Military Police
Duration
02:44