Parade to Changi Jail

We’re in Java now. Now they decide they’re going to take us back to Singapore. This morning they parade us down from our King William the 3rd School, they parade us down to the dockside and they put us onboard of a coal tramp. A terrible looking old ship. Put us aboard a coal tramp and put us down the hole of the ship. Oh she was filthy. Anything is good enough for prisoners of war cause they all treat us like dogs anyhow. You’re going down the hole of the ship, they’d bar you down the hatches. And the only latrines you had was a bucket on a long rope, anybody that wanted to do feces or water, you had to do it in the bucket, and there probably 500 or 300 men down there and when you’d haul that bucket up, the swaying of the ship, you know would go all over everybody. And half of the people there died of dysentery and malaria and everything else on account of all this. They put us in this old coal tramp anyhow, barred us down below decks. In the meantime, funny thing about it, they barred some people below decks and some they barred on top. It depended on the ship obviously, but we had to be down there below. We arrived in Keppel Harbour in Singapore and then they put us ashore on the dockside and they said, “We’re going to march you people now to the Changi jail.” And we started out from Keppel Harbour with a temperature about 90 degrees in the afternoon to go to Changi which is about 7 or 8 miles. Whatever clothes you had, your bag or your little bit of clothing cause our clothing was getting bad by this time cause they only gave us Chinese old uniforms they got from China. That’s all they ever gave us. They gave us nothing. Took all our uniforms from us, all our British stuff. We had our battle dress and everything. They took all that. They wouldn’t give us anything. And they took us down to Changi. As we started to parade from Changi in the afternoon fellows couldn’t make it, they were so weak they couldn’t do it. There was hundreds of people fell by the wayside. Do you know what happened to them when they fell by the wayside? Stayed there, they never moved. Stick a bayonet in them. And we carried on and when it came dark they decided we couldn’t make it before dark, they send out a truck for us to pick us up. They took us into Changi jail and on the way between the Keppel Harbour and Changi there were literally dozens and dozens of Chinese heads strung up on fences, on posts as we went along. This was to tell us what would happen to us if we got up against them, like the Chinese. They massacred thousands and thousands of Chinese. Now this is something to see, peoples heads strung up all along the posts. Now how could you afford to be anything only to cooperate with people like that you know.

Mr. Ford describes his voyage from Java to Singapore, where he and his soldiers would march to Changi Jail, witnessing the horror of seeing Chinese heads strung along the roadside

John Ford

Mr. John Ford was born March 25, 1919 in Port-aux-Basques, Newfoundland. Both parents were previously married and Mr. Ford was raised in a family of 14 children, him being one of the younger children. As a child he attended school at the United School Academy graduating in Grade 11. After school he worked with the Newfoundland railway as a machinist for three years. In May of 1940, Mr. Ford decided to join the Royal Air Force. In August he went overseas onboard the Nova Scotia and landed in Liverpool, England. During his service, he was captured as a POW in Japan experiencing horrible conditions. He has dedicated much of his time to the Legion and volunteered as a board member for over 13 years. Mr. Ford is an active participant in visiting local schools and educating the youth of what life was really like as a solider and as a prisoner of war while serving with the Royal Air Force.