Engaging the Japanese

The officer come and told us, “Now get ready, we are going to the hills.” And now he says, “If you see anybody pointing a rifle at you, shoot” he says. So, anyway, we got in the boat and crossed over to Kowloon, took the hills on the other side and was one of our officers and a fellow from... Crossman. They got shot getting off of the boat. We started up to the hills and we had to jump off of the truck, they were firing at us. And there was a river there and a bridge, and on the other side of the bridge, the camps was all afire. We went down, one fellow wanted to take the boat across the river and when he went to the boat, two shots and I said, “Get out of there.” Anyway, we went up under the bridge and we crossed under the bridge and up the other side and then we took to the hills and from then on it wasn’t funny. When we was up in the hills, climb up on the hills and we had these dugouts, they call, pill boxes and one night, evening Captain Price says to me, “You go down and get the blankets at the other place, I forgot my blankets.” When I went down, I took the coveralls, shoved the blankets in the coveralls and I pulled them over my back this way. I was coming up to the little valley and first thing, “Bang, bang, bang, bang.” And I just crawled on my hands and knees until I got out of the firing and I come up to the camp and I told them I says, he says “Forget about that,” he says “we’re under fire and you’re lucky you’re back here.” So anyway the next day, jeez, we go down, like it was a prison like here, a hospital was like there and across that was the graveyard. So anyway one group stayed up on the hill and we went down there and Jesus Mary, we were coming around the corner of the prison and I guess it was Henry Lines met face to face with the Jap and he just let him have it through the guts. Henry Lines didn’t miss him. So anyway, kept on, got over and anyway ... got shot here and anyway Major Parker says, “Arnold, go and pick up that guy.” So, anyway, I threw my rifle over my shoulder, ran down, picked him up and brought him into the hospital and the fellows took my rifle as I went in and took my rifle as I went in and when they took my rifle, I went in and there was already one young fellow in there with a shot through the body here and I went out. The fellow was gone, my rifle was gone.

Mr. Hunt describes taking to the hills to engage the Japanese, and losing his rifle after taking a wounded soldier to the field hospital.

Arnold Joseph Hunt

Arnold Joseph Hunt was born in 1910 in the village of Pabos on the Gaspe Peninsula, Quebec. He was the eldest son in a family of 16. His father was a river guide, and as a boy Mr. Hunt would carry provisions upriver to the fishing camp for his father. He also worked cutting pulp and cooking in a lumber camp, earning 50 cents a day. Mr. Hunt enlisted with a French regiment, but transferred to the Royal Rifles, one of three brothers to do so. He describes his captivity and in particular the severe beatings he endured, as well as other brutality that he witnessed. He also describes a desperate effort to save a friend. Mr. Hunt questions both the Hong Kong deployment and Canada’s commitment to its Hong Kong Veterans.