Misinterpreting the Word “Banjo”

Heroes Remember

Misinterpreting the Word “Banjo”

Transcript

Prison camp ..., I was taken there, sent into work on the foundries, and the foundry was where they used to put the iron, they call that pig iron in English. They put it in big furnaces there, they take it out and a big trolley overhead, it goes back and forth to go from the furnace to the press where they press the iron. There was a long pole about maybe 15-16 feet long and a cup like at the end of that and we’d go and shove it on that piece of pig iron that’s in the furnace and they’d back it out. Then we’d turn that and the trolley would bring it to the press there and we’d get there, had little rakes there, iron handles, rakes - iron, and when they’d come down with press on the iron, it would all turn up just like cornflakes. We’d have to take that off as quick as you could. Sometimes you’d back up ... “C’mon, work, work.” One day a fellow come to me, he says, supposed to be the interpreter, he says, “You go on the wash, on the banjo.” “Banjo, I can’t play the banjo.” You know what the banjo is, right? I thought it was an instrument. So, anyway, called two guards, beats me up. Well, a little foremen comes from behind the furnace. He says, “Ahh, you make fun of ...” I says, “Me, no.” He says, “Yes, you say you can’t play banjo.” So he had his book here in his pocket and his pen. And I said, “Give me a piece of paper.” So, anyway, he gives me a piece of paper and I draw the banjo. “Ahh, that’s not banjo, banjo means go pull down your pants and go . . .” I felt like hitting him but still I . . . oh my God, a few days after a fellow comes, the interpreter, he says, “Me sorry, you not understand.” I says, “Too late now.”

Description

Mr. Hunt describes working in the steel mill near Niigata, and being beaten for misunderstanding his Japanese supervisor. * banjo = bathroom in Japanese

Arnold Joseph Hunt

Arnold Joseph Hunt was born in 1910 in the village of Pabos on the Gaspe Peninsula, Quebec. He was the eldest son in a family of 16. His father was a river guide, and as a boy Mr. Hunt would carry provisions upriver to the fishing camp for his father. He also worked cutting pulp and cooking in a lumber camp, earning 50 cents a day. Mr. Hunt enlisted with a French regiment, but transferred to the Royal Rifles, one of three brothers to do so. He describes his captivity and in particular the severe beatings he endured, as well as other brutality that he witnessed. He also describes a desperate effort to save a friend. Mr. Hunt questions both the Hong Kong deployment and Canada’s commitment to its Hong Kong Veterans.

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