Tough Medicine

Heroes Remember

Tough Medicine

Transcript

And I was in Bowen Road Hospital for awhile, I had diphtheria. When I was in the hospital there was some crying, some praying, all night. I'd get up to go to the bathroom, fall down and I'd crawl out on my hands and knees. Interviewer: And during this time, did the Japanese provide any medicines or drugs for you men? No, nothing, they wouldn't give nothing. They wanted to get clear of us. And I couldn't walk. I'd fall down, my feet. I had beri beri on the feet and I couldn't walk. I even got, we'd go and sit around the bathtub, put our feet in the cold water to keep the pain down. One morning they took me out to work and I had a foot swelled up as big as that. When I got out there I couldn't walk so the doctor Jap, the doctor said, "I m gonna take him in." So they hauled me in to the camp. And he said, "I'm going to lance it!" He took and he put cotton wool about the size of my finger and he slipped the bayonet and cut her open, the rot rolled out, now if you grinned you got a slap on the face, I never, he said, "Hurt?" I said, "No," Then he squeezed it out and he took a rag about that long and he pushed down in with a needle, and he pushed down in there with a needle, a pin like and jeepers that hurt. He said, "Hurt?" And I said, "No." He left them sticking out and the next morning he pulled it out. He said, "Hurt?' I said, "No." I would have got slapped on the face, I was just as tough as him, I wouldn't grin or nothing, he said, "Hurt?" "No." And in the end when he seen that I was so tough, here, he gave me a pack of cigarettes. Interviewer: This was a Japanese.... A Japanese doctor.

Description

Mr. Devouge describes first contracting diphtheria and then beri beri and the therapy he received.

Cecil Devouge

Cecil Devouge, the eldest of eight children, was born in Belle Anse, Quebec in 1913. As the eldest in the family, he was required to work with his father cutting pulp to support his family, and thus never attended school. After working on his own for as little as a dollar a day, he enlisted in July, 1940 in Gaspe at the request of a recruiter for the Royal Rifles. One month later he was married. Before going overseas to Hong Kong, Mr. Devouge spent time in several maritime military bases; St. John and Sussex, New Brunswick, and St. John's, Newfoundland. After the Hong Kong garrison surrendered, he became a POW, eventually being sent to Japan to work as slave labour in the Niigata foundry. After the war, Mr. Devouge returned to his home in Gaspe.

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