Reflections on his Survival

Me, I didn't know if I was coming back or not, if I wasn't coming back it was alright. The only time I got lonesome was when the full moon would come and we'd see it out. You'd think about home. The Christmas I come back, I went and I sat down, I had a few drinks and my mother said, "You're back?" I said, "Yes, I got friends that are not back." That come to me, you know, I had to go and sit down and it passed after a while. I couldn't, I was thinking on them. I said, "They are the same as me, they should be here too!" But they didn't come back.

Mr. Devouge describes how a full moon over the POW camp would leave him homesick, and reflects on those who weren't lucky enough to return home as he had.

Cecil Devouge

Cecil Devouge, the eldest of eight children, was born in Belle Anse, Quebec in 1913. As the eldest in the family, he was required to work with his father cutting pulp to support his family, and thus never attended school. After working on his own for as little as a dollar a day, he enlisted in July, 1940 in Gaspe at the request of a recruiter for the Royal Rifles. One month later he was married. Before going overseas to Hong Kong, Mr. Devouge spent time in several maritime military bases; St. John and Sussex, New Brunswick, and St. John's, Newfoundland. After the Hong Kong garrison surrendered, he became a POW, eventually being sent to Japan to work as slave labour in the Niigata foundry. After the war, Mr. Devouge returned to his home in Gaspe.