I got Alongside of a Porthole

Heroes Remember

I got Alongside of a Porthole

Transcript

They would line us up and they would come along and they would say, “hush, hush, you, you” and they would take out so many, but if a fellow was all just, say like the fellow, the flesh sticking on the bones, and full of beri-beri something, they would say, “Hush, you stay there.” And they would pick the best looking fellows, and the best shaped guys and like me, I looked alright because I had beri-beri, I was all swollen up. And then they would put you aside and then they would, the boat was in the harbour. They would take you to the harbour, and they would make you walk up the gangway, and this was the Tatuta Maru. But the [Lisbon] Maru had left with a bunch of English guys before but they had been torpedoed off of Formosa or some place and a lot of them were drowned. Then I was marched up, and when we got up there, there was a stairs to go down about eight or nine steps. Well, there was some Japanese there, they were, they spoke perfect English. They were from maybe San Francisco, or California, or anywheres in the States, actually the fellow could have been from Florida, but they’d give you some kind of a push, and tried to knock you down the stairs. Everybody was going down in the hold. But me, I didn’t go down in the hold. I went up into the front of the ship. And when the hold was filled, they sent them where I was. There were four or five of us went up into this place. And I got alongside of a porthole and I tried to open the porthole, if we were torpedoed that I could sneak out because it didn’t take a very big port, you know, just a little hole like that. So we opened the hole and watched, you know, we could get out if something happened. And when we went to Japan, well we went to Nagasaki. We arrived in Nagasaki, and we were taken off the ship and we were brought ashore, and there was a bunch of those Japanese girls, was dressed in Red Cross outfits. And they lined us all up and they give us each a sour bun, a bun made out of dough but had been cooked with steam and had been cooked maybe three, four days before. And they give us each a bun, and then they lined us up and they told us we were going on a train. So they walked us all through the city of Nagasaki, and finally we got on this train, and we pulled out. And we went about maybe thirty, forty miles, and then they told us fellows, we were about maybe two hundred, “You’re going to Omine.” So we got off at the station and they marched us up to this mining camp, it was Omine. And we were given barracks. There was straw mats. But we were about ten, ten to a room, about this big, I suppose, and all, we slept all on the floor on those straw mats. But the mats was full of fleas and the fleas chewed the hell out of you. And then we started, they took us out and they’d give us lectures. They would tell us we were prisoners to the Imperial Army, and if we didn’t obey their orders, we’d be shot or beheaded or whatnot, and we knew they would. And I heard the officers tell us, “There’d be nothing done about it, if we kill you’s all. After the war, it’d be all, that’ll be finished.” And I didn’t believe them, but now I believe them because our government didn’t give a good goddamn about us. We were prisoners of war, and we had been taken prisoners and according to them we were, we should have stayed there and got killed, all died there.

Description

Mr. Murphy describes being selected for labour camp, the boat ride to Nagasaki, and moving into the Omine mining camp.

Leo Murphy

Leo Murphy was born September 3, 1919 in New Richmond, Quebec, where he grew up and completed his elementary education by 1931. He was one of nine children. Before enlistment he was a day labourer working in a sawmill, construction, excavation, farming, and a lumber camp. Mr. Murphy enlisted with the Royal Rifles on Nov 25, 1940, and took his basic training in Newfoundland and Val Cartier, Quebec. He was overseas for four years, spending all but the first three months as a POW in Hong Kong and Japan. The emotional impact of the Hong Kong deployment started early for Mr. Murphy, when on the same day his brother was killed beside him and he took the life of a Japanese soldier. During his captivity, he suffered from beri-beri, dysentry, pellagra, had his foot crushed in a mining accident, and developed liver problems. At the time of his liberation, he was a mining coal in Omini, Japan, as a slave labourer. Mr. Murphy arrived back in Canada in October, 1945 and was discharged February 5, 1946. From 1947 to 1960, he was employed as a brakeman with the Canadian National Railroad. Mr. Murphy was married on Sept 1, 1947, to Yvette Savoie. He died March 26, 2001.

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