Not Understanding the Language Gets him Beat Up

Heroes Remember

Not Understanding the Language Gets him Beat Up

Transcript

One morning he comes in, a little Jap just about my size, “Good morning, good morning.” “Good morning, sir.” I says, “You talk English?” He says, “Yes, me go school in Edmonton, go to school in Edmonton, Calgary, Calgary, go to school in Calgary.” I said, “Yeah, and you come here on a visit?” He says, “No, they send me here to work.” So, anyway, one day he says to me, “Me and you, wrestle.” I says, “Oh, no, no wrestle.” So there, jeez, oh boys they got, the old foreman says ..., “No work, okay, you can wrestle.” That went on and about maybe three or four months. Three or four months later, I was there one morning. I come in, a piece of coal, picked up a piece of coal, went and shoved it in my hand, like you’d shove out your hand and caught him this way and I threw him over my shoulder and in the coal bin, he caught him. “Come again, try again. That’s good, you learn good.” The first thing, boys, I had this piece of iron rod about the size of that there across the back. I fell to my knees and the young fellow went over to tell . . . he went to the young fellow, come and he hit him; a slap across the face. The little fellow was crying. I felt sorry for him but when I went to get up he gave me another one boys, across the back. There, I fell down. Two guards come to beat me up. I had a cut across here, bleeding nose. After they beat me up the Japanese guards beat me up, each their turn. There were two of them. I asked to go to the banjo. I went to the banjo, to the washroom and I washed the blood off from there. I says, “This is my last day. If they come back onto me, I’m taking the shovel and going to slash them across the face with it and I’m taking the rifle and I’m shooting until its empty.”

Description

Mr. Hunt describes having a Japanese wrestling buddy when things weren’t busy, and being badly beaten by a guard who saw one of their encounters. He reveals his plans to fight back.

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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