Keeping their morale up

Heroes Remember

Keeping their morale up

Interviewer: So you must be thinking, is it going to end? Hope... hope. We'd, you know, hunger was the big thing, was no question about it, it was worse then the beatings. I can't describe hunger and I've never saw it described, what it really... It's just something that you can't describe it's just... especially after you get your little bowl of rice, boy are you hungry then. Interviewer: So how could you possibly keep the morale up? How did you keep going? Well, we, most of us did something, would say something to somebody, everybody else that you know, something positive and sense of humour. Now we are starving to death and that, this is the first camp we were in, North Point, I felt that they were starving us to take our energy away from us. Afraid of us, afraid of us escaping and they were building wire fences and all that stuff continually. But, in our, in the camp, the British navy had about 10 officers and they had girlfriends or friends on the outside and the Japs allowed them to come up to the fence and hand them small parcels. One day we were walking along and I'm looking at the hut and I see something and I walked up to it, here's a banana peeling nailed to the wall and underneath it a sign says "stranger then fiction". We hadn't seen anything to eat so it was strange to see a banana peel. Those are the kind of things that we'd try to, you know, laugh at, to keep us busy...

Mr. McGee explains how little things would keep their spirits up even though it may not seem funny today.

John McGee

Mr. John McGee was born in Saskatchewan, on May 3, 1923, and comes from a family of two brothers and three sisters. He now resides in Edmonton, Alberta, with his wife and family. Mr. McGee joined the army and left for wartime service with a group of thirteen men. Although very excited to be going overseas, he recalls the sight of seeing young men jumping overboard when the ship began to sail; the fear of the unknown was causing many to turn back and stay at home! Mr. McGee was determined to go and serve his country. Mr. McGee shares with us his personal experience of being captured as a Hong Kong prisoner of war (POW) and hardships he endured at the camp. He considers himself very fortunate to be alive today, as many of his friends were left behind. After six years of serving in the army, Mr. McGee returned home to be what he terms an "Entrepreneur" buying a few hotels and later on getting into the sales business. Civilian life was a very positive outcome for a soldier who had endured such hard times and poor health during his time in the prisoner of war camps.