Impression of Japanese Captors

Heroes Remember

Impression of Japanese Captors

I’ve heard of these people being called guerrillas and that’s just what they look like to tell you the truth. Of course, their build is very short and they were stocky and they were pretty rough looking people. Of course, I guess they were battle experienced men and certainly their clothing wasn’t, well it showed like they’d been fighting men, you know, there was nothing neat about them and nothing clean about them and they were pretty rough. But they were a little hesitant on how to treat us, I think. I think it was more or less, I got the impression that maybe it was the first real contact they had with white people and at first they were a little hesitant, you know. Of course there’s always some that aren’t, that they’re the other extreme but the ones I ran into just seemed to sort of hold their distance, to a point.

Mr. Gerrard describes the rough look of the enemy, and how his Japanese captors are initially hesitant to approach the captured Canadians.

Horace Gerrard

Although born in England on January 19, 1922, Mr. Gerrard's family emigrated to Red Deer, Alberta where his father died when he was six years old. Once he was old enough, he hunted game to help feed his family as well as cutting wood for heat. Mr. Gerrard left school after grade nine, working at odd jobs. He joined the 78th Field Battery as a reserve when he was sixteen. He later joined the permanent force in 1939 with the 5th Heavy Battery. Eventually Mr. Gerrard joined the Royal Canadian Corps of Signals, with whom he served in Hong Kong. He worked with both British and Canadian battalions during the Battle of Hong Kong, before being taken prisoner by the Japanese.