The Cost of Information

Heroes Remember

The Cost of Information

Transcript

Now the Kai Tek airport was just a short little thing at that time and we had to lower, cut down some Chinese burial hills in the background right back to the mountains. Today if you’re... and then of course they reclaimed a lot of land out in front. Not us. But our job was to get this land all flattened out. So we had wooden rails were made, the Japs got some wagons, oh about, I’d say they were about four foot by two feet high by two feet wide, like railway things and we’d roll them around these wooden tracks, fill them up and move them and dump them out toward where they wanted to flatten it out and spread it around. We had that, at least I . . . some of the junior officers, not all, went out with the men, in order to keep the morale up with the men. You know, work along side them. So I was out there, we went out one particular week I remember, we would go out around six o’clock in the morning up, get a little bite of breakfast, which would be a little rice and away we would go on a barge to Kai Tek area, get off there and go and do the work, stay until we get home in the dark at around eight o’clock. Tired out absolutely, no chance to wash our clothes or wash ourselves while we were on the job, of course. It was a pretty rough time, we alternated and I can remember that. There was one bad thing on this work thing at Kai Tek airport I told you about. There were senior officers anyway, I personally didn’t know and I don’t think the junior officers did at the time, that there was a radio and they were getting information and finally one of the truck drivers coming into camp did something that the Japs caught onto and they grabbed him, tortured him and made him talk and he pointed to two junior officers. There was Cpt. Phillips, never mind the two of them they’re in the books anyway, it’s in the history. They got these chaps and took them over to Stanley Prison. There were a couple of senior officers that they didn’t get, our officers, and they tortured these two poor fellows over there and finally executed them. That’s what the cost of any little information we were able to get, we got there, you know that way but, hardly worth it.

Description

Mr. White describes being in the Kai Tek airport work gangs, and the cost of the subversion which occurred there.

Harry Leslie White

Harry Leslie White was born in Wolverhampton, Staffordshire, England, on May 24, 1907. His family emigrated to Winnipeg, Canada, in 1911. His father, a First World War Veteran, became a policeman. After finishing grade 6, Mr. White had numerous jobs to help support his family. He did some reserve training and was also taught to box by his father. After being turned down by the air force, Mr. White joined the Winnipeg Grenadiers for basic training in Kingston, Jamaica. Here he also helped guard a POW camp holding German and Italian naval personnel. Once in Hong Kong, he joined E Company. Mr. White was captured, but unlike so many others, spent his entire time as a POW in Hong Kong, working on the Kai Tek airport. After the war, Mr. White established an orchard, and later returned to Eatons, where he had worked prior to the war.

Meta Data

Medium:: Video
Owner:: Veterans Affairs Canada
Duration:: 3:42
Person Interviewed:: Harry Leslie White
War, Conflict or Mission:: Second World War
Location/Theatre:: Hong Kong
Battle/Campaign:: Hong Kong
Branch:: Army
Units/Ship:: Winnipeg Grenadiers
Rank:: Lieutenant

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The Cost of Information

Heroes Remember