So Many Prisoners Died of Malnutrition

Heroes Remember

So Many Prisoners Died of Malnutrition

Transcript

A lot of prisoners died because of lack of the right kind of food and lack of the right kind of food. There was one prisoner that was in our room. He was 45 and we used to call him Old Bob. He was Bob Owen from Wales but he had a wife in Newfoundland and had four or five kids, children, but he hadn’t seen them in a long time. He was a merchant seamen. So Old Bob, he got sick and had this board that every time somebody got sick they put this board, you know, like a wedge type of board under their back so that it would raise them up so they could breathe better But once you got that in your room you knew that it was the end for some of the fellas that had that board. And Old Bob, he died once he got that board. And he couldn’t eat so he passed away. I went to the pilgrimage a few years back and the men that were in the cemetery, there must have been at least a thousand, you know, that takes up the British, and the Canadians, and all of the Americans. There must have been at least a thousand men in that cemetery that died in the prison camps from lack of medical and the right kind of food. It was quite a site to see so many grave markers in the Yokohama cemetery that was unnecessary.

Description

Mr. Yeadon mourns the loss of a friend who died of malnutrition and describes a later pilgrimage to Yokohama cemetery.

Francis Edison Yeadon

Francis Edison Yeadon was born in Spryfield, Nova Scotia, on September 24, 1924. He was the youngest in a family of eight. After leaving school at the age of 16, he joined the Merchant Navy in Halifax. Mr. Yeadon completed one successful North Atlantic convoy, before being captured at sea while transporting a shipload of arms to India. He remained aboard the German “raider” for several months, finally being turned over to the Japanese at Yokohama. Included is a good account of the American bombing(s) which led to Japan’s capitulation. Mr. Yeadon remained in the merchant marine after the war, due, as he says, to the lack of educational opportunities offered to Veterans of the Armed Forces.

Meta Data

Medium:: Video
Owner:: Veterans Affairs Canada
Duration:: 2:20
Person Interviewed:: Francis Edison Yeadon
War, Conflict or Mission:: Second World War
Location/Theatre:: Japan
Battle/Campaign:: North Atlantic
Branch:: Merchant Navy
Occupation:: Seaman

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Date modified:: 2019-04-03