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Interviewer: So when did you return to Canada?
I think it must have been sometime in October,
cause we spent 20 days in Manila.
We were, the war was over on the,
I think the 15th of August we knew about it,
and the first ships arrived about September 3rd.
One ship came to our side and thirty two
went to the other side where there was no
more prisoners but there was civilian
prisoners were there, Stanley,
them all at Camp Stanley.
But had one Canadian boat came over
to our side and started,
I went to the hospital so I missed this,
but they started taking all the fellas in,
gave them a shower,
gave them a shot of rum,
gave them something to eat and
then sent them off just continually
until the war office in London, England,
heard about it and they ordered that boat
away from the pier out to the middle of the,
I think it was about 4 miles between
Hong Kong, out in the middle of it.
So then what they did, but lowered
the life boats, come over with life boats,
and put the soldiers on, took them back.
Now I never got, made this trip but
I saw what was happening
Interviewer: So when you land back in Canada,
is there anyone waiting there for you?
No. Vancouver, I had relatives in
Vancouver that I stopped and I did see
before I came, before I left.
I went and checked into a hotel at first,
debating if I should phone them and I did.
Interviewer: So they knew you
were coming home.
Yeah and then I stopped in Calgary, my,
this, it was an aunt and uncle in
Vancouver and cousins.
And I stopped in Calgary and my aunt
was still there, my grandmother with two
aunts were still there and a couple
of uncles or whatever.
Interviewer: So knowing what you went through,
through and first time you saw your
mom and dad, can you explain that?
I got off the train... on the train was
six guys that I knew from the camp
very well and they had told me
"Get to a bootlegger and get us a bottle
of rye", and that's what I'm doing,
I'm getting off the train and
I'm gonna run to the station as fast as
I can and get a, I knew Regina fairly well,
get a cab, tell him
"Take me to a bootlegger" and he'll know.
And I got off the train and who's standing
here... my dad, my mother, my sister,
my brother-in-law, and her father-in-law.
So this guy Jimmy Young,
I shouldn't say his name,
but Jimmy Young,
I could still see the look on his face,
he's not going to get any rye.
Interviewer: You had to say hello.
Right.
Interviewer: They must have been
glad to see you.
Oh yeah, very emotional at that time.
Interviewer: Did they ever know what
you went through?
Not at that stage of the game, no, no.
My mother knew I was hungry for
some reason or other,
she couldn't eat a steak,
that's what she told me
"I just couldn't touch a steak John".
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