Rifleman Vince A. Calder - Hong Kong POW

(…) Our Christmas dinner in 1943 was quite a farce. We were seated at the meal tables with roast beef, boiled potatoes, vegetables, bread and butter, oranges, candy and beer placed before us. Pictures were taken of our smiling, happy faces while the Japanese guards served us. When the pictures were finished, the Japs ordered us to leave the tables without having touched the food. While we were leaving the tables, 1 chap was caught swiping some candy. 5 Japs nearly killed him for taking it. He was unconscious for 2 days and when he woke up, he claimed that he had the best dinner of all of us. At New Years, they tried the same thing but we surprised them by eating everything while they were taking the pictures. We only got 1 oz. of rice daily for the next 2 weeks, but we had a good New Year’s dinner out of it. (…)

(…) When Christmas [1944] rolled around, we had nothing to look forward to except steamed rice and hot water for tea. It was pretty gloomy until 11:00 when the Jap sergeant came into the dining hall and said he needed 50 volunteers to carry Red Cross packages into camp. Every man that could walk or crawl volunteered and although we were pretty weak and skinny, we walked 2 miles to the station and back by 2:00. We couldn't believe it when we saw that there was a parcel for every man in camp. The commandant said he had held them back for 2 weeks so he could give them to us for Christmas. Our opinion of him went up another notch and when we tried to give him and the sergeant some candy and cigarettes, he simply thanked us and refused, saying that we needed the things much more than they did. In addition, we were given some candy, 1 bottle of beer between 2 men and 1 oz. of saki. He told us that we could have the run of the camp on that day and as long as no one tried to escape or got drunk, we would not be bothered. Well, I'll admit that I really got a glow on, the first drink in exactly 3 years and I really celebrated. I paid for it the next day with a terrible hangover. We had a concert in the afternoon and you would be surprised at the amount of talent there is in a crowd of men as we. We had home made instruments and I guess we sang every song anybody knew as well as some that were written in camp. (…)

Credit: Hong Kong Veterans Commemorative Association

Date modified:: 2019-02-14