Hong Kong POW

Heroes Remember

Hong Kong POW

Transcript

I suppose I could cite one case where a Chinese-Canadian called Kamloops was the interpreter in our camp and we, that`s when we fell into this whole area of diphtheria. And I was a night orderly looking after diphtheria patients and five, six, seven a night would die and a, our friend, the Japanese interpreter, Kamloops, as we called him because that`s where he came from, he would really harass the doctors and people that were having responsibility for trying to keep some level of conduct within the camp. And he was unusually, unusual in the sense that he continued to say, "Look, it's my turn now and you guys are gonna pay for it. That's the way you treated me when I was there in, when I was at home in Canada." which wasn't the case at all but that's his way of sort of defending why he was as cruel as he was. He was, he was brutal. Even brutal to the patients that were, you know in the, in the, what's considered a hospital but all it was laying on the floor. And to see these people with diphtheria so badly that they would even take a toothbrush and try to change the block in their throat before they'd choke to death. He, he would come in there and, just unbelievable, his attitude and the other guards too, but primarily the interpreter. The only salvation I had was at night, being on night duty, the bodies had to be taken over to what used to be called a meat locker. And if you were carrying a dead body, you were quite safe. You could walk anywhere because they just a, they were very fearful of dead bodies And, but we would have five, six, seven a night and then I developed diphtheria and then there was a great how do you do whether or not the serum had just arrived and Dr. John Crawford who you've now maybe heard of, he said look, he made himself available for looking after these people and then going to insist that he get the serum even though it was considered that it was too late for me. But anyway, I think it may have saved my life at that time.

Description

Treatment of the Canadians at the hands of the Japanese guards is painfully remembered by Mr. Purse

Ross Purse

Ross Purse was born in Roland, Manitoba on September 10, 1918. He has one brother and five sisters in what he describes as a close-knit family. Their father died when Ross was just 10 years old. He enlisted with the Winnipeg Grenadiers within hours of Canada declaring war on Germany in September, 1939. Following training in Winnipeg, he was sent to Jamaica in defence of the island and for duty at prisoner of war camps for captured Germans. He returned to Winnipeg and was put aboard a train travelling west, eventually arriving in Vancouver from where he and his comrades sailed for the British colony of Hong Kong.

Meta Data

Medium:: Video
Owner:: Veterans Affairs Canada
Duration:: 02:55
Person Interviewed:: Ross Purse
War, Conflict or Mission:: Second World War
Branch:: Army
Units/Ship:: Winnipeg Grenadiers

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Date modified:: 2019-06-20