Elements for Survival

Heroes Remember

Elements for Survival

Transcript

We fought three things. We fought to keep alive. We fought to get food and we fought everything against the Japanese that we could, did everything against them that we possibly could. Whether we gained anything or not I don’t know, but I’ll tell you if you had to have any medical supplies in Japan, how do you think they removed an ingrown toe nail or any nail? The doctor who was German would get four or five fellows to hold you down. He’d take a pair of scissors and drive them in under your toe, split it in two, one left one that way and you could hear screeches all over the place. Now if they had an amputation, they use an ordinary saw. They had amputations there. They had appendicitis operations with no anaesthetic whatever. Now how do you survive conditions like that? We would get the old Chinese uniforms, discarded uniforms with the seats out of them and the knees out of them and we’d use our rubber shoes. The split toe, split toe shoe. They’d give us an issue of these about once every year. Over and above that we used wooden clogs. Made our own wooden clogs and we used clogs for going back and forth in the winter time, snow and everything we trampled through it all and they gave us no clothing whatever. Now we do think there was ample Red Cross supplies. I never received Red Cross parcel the whole time I was in that camp.

Description

Mr. Ford describes the torture endured by the POWs and their continuous fight to survive.

John Ford

Mr. John Ford was born March 25, 1919 in Port-aux-Basques, Newfoundland. Both parents were previously married and Mr. Ford was raised in a family of 14 children, him being one of the younger children. As a child he attended school at the United School Academy graduating in Grade 11. After school he worked with the Newfoundland railway as a machinist for three years. In May of 1940, Mr. Ford decided to join the Royal Air Force. In August he went overseas onboard the Nova Scotia and landed in Liverpool, England. During his service, he was captured as a POW in Japan experiencing horrible conditions. He has dedicated much of his time to the Legion and volunteered as a board member for over 13 years. Mr. Ford is an active participant in visiting local schools and educating the youth of what life was really like as a solider and as a prisoner of war while serving with the Royal Air Force.

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