Kamloops Kid Aka Inouye

Heroes Remember

Kamloops Kid Aka Inouye

Inouye, the Kamloops Kid, his dialect as a Canadian, he was born in Kamloops. He spoke the same as you and me, he had absolutely no accent whatsoever. But he spoke Japanese fluently you see. He'd go up to this guy and he says to him “What’s your name?” The other guy, lets say, his name was Bill. “Where do you live Bill? Which hut are you in? Where about do you live in that hut?” so he'd tell him. So old Inouye would find out where Bill lived. So he'd come along at night after dark, “Hey Bill! Hey Bill! Do you know what that Inouye did today?” and Bill would say, “Oh that son of a bitch, blankety, blank blank blank!” Inouye would come in, turn on the lights, beat up on about 15, 20 guys for Bill. He was a cagey buggar. Captain Norris was my OC, when I was with D Company at the prison camp. Captain Norris was a gentleman. One day on the parade, had all thousand of guys all lined up for roll call one morning for some reason or other, I don't know what it was down the line, I was in the front row, I seen all this, old Inouye smacking old Norris and knocked him down and put the boots to him, so they had to carry old Norris away on a stretcher, Captain Norris. He could have killed this buddy Inouye because he was a boxer. Inouye knew that, he’d found that out, he showed him how good he could box. These are the kind of tricks old Inouye was full of. He was a sadist bastard, that guy.

The Kamloops Kid was a notorious guard at Sham Shui Po. Mr. Flegg provides two examples of how devious and sadistic this man was.

Aubrey Flegg

Aubrey Flegg was born on October 18, 1917 in Welland, Ontario. His father moved the family to Northern British Columbia when he was three. Mr. Flegg describes living on a “stump farm”, and working from a very early age. Leaving home at sixteen, he trapped in winter and felled timber during warmer months. Mr. Flegg was married with a young family when the war started, but he enlisted out of patriotic duty. He joined Princess Patricia Canadian Light Infantry, and later reinforced the Winnipeg Grenadiers, thinking he would be going to Europe. Instead, Mr. Flegg found himself trying to defend Hong Kong from the Japanese against overwhelming odds. Imprisoned for four years, he survived the ravages of disease, starvation, abuse and forced labor in both North Point and Sham Shui Po Camps and the Oyama mines. Mr. Flegg offers an impassioned story of the Hong Kong experience.