The Doctors Thought we Were Telling Them a Bunch of Lies

Heroes Remember

The Doctors Thought we Were Telling Them a Bunch of Lies

Transcript

Of course I was in the TB asylum there, but I don’t think, even the doctors wouldn’t believe this story we’d tell them. They said, “You couldn’t live like that. It’s impossible.” But we did. No, we didn’t, the doctors, when we come back the doctors thought we were all telling them a bunch of lies. They said you couldn’t live like that. It struck me as odd because all I had when I got back to Canada was a pair of pyjamas. That’s really being poor. I never thought about it at that time because I was, I sure wasn’t very well but on thinking back on it I think . . . God. And then when they got to Shaughnessy, they had to issue me with a, I did get a complete set of American uniform and military dress but that was stolen from me. Somebody stole it from underneath my bed. When I got back to Shaughnessy, Vancouver there, they issued me a complete uniform to go on the train to go back to Manitoba. I didn’t have nothing. And there they dumped us off at Brandon and my parents and friends were waiting in Winnipeg for us but all TB patients at that time were dumped off at Brandon. So I was only in there maybe about a week. And then we were sent to Winnipeg. I was in the military hospital there, and then I got a leave to go home. Oh, my father was gone. No, he wasn’t gone but he wasn’t, he was home. He was too ill to come to see us but mother was there. She come to Brandon to visit us. Gosh, I got everything mixed up. I had Japanese, German, and English language. I was so confused. And I was feeling quite rotten to top it all off.

Description

Mr. Peters describes coming home and spending time in two hospitals before finally getting released. He comments about trying to communicate in a patois of Japanese, German and English.

Abraham Peters

Abe Peters, one of six children, was born in Lowe Farm, Manitoba, on November 12, 1919. His father was a farmer. Mr. Peters worked on the family farm, and was entrusted with the care of the horses. He left school after completing Grade eight to become a farm labourer. His parents were very upset to learn that he had enlisted in the Royal Winnipeg Rifles in June, 1940. Mr. Peters took basic training at Shiloh, Manitoba and Debert, Nova Scotia. He was ill in hospital when the Rifles shipped overseas to Europe, and once healthy, was sent to reinforce the Winnipeg Grenadiers, with whom he was sent to Hong Kong. As with other survivors of the Hong Kong theatre, Mr. Peters experienced poor training, inferior weaponry, capitulation and a life of misery in the Japanese POW and labour camps. He agrees with many of his comrades that it was a hopeless deployment.

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