Labor in Japan

Well, they took us from North Point, they put us on a coal barge, in the hold down in the coal barge. And then we went first to Formosa. We stayed two weeks in Formosa living on bananas and fruit there, in Formosa and very little rice we had, in Formosa, the two weeks we were there, about a week and a half, just about two weeks I guess because they said that there was too much bombing and everything between Formosa and Japan where we were going. And they figured there was too many submarines out in there, that we'd get torpedoed. So then all of a sudden one day the boat started moving we didn't even know where in the hell we were going. Then we landed up in the Yokohama docks. They wanted us to work, in the mines, in the coal mines and in the nickel mines and in the factories. And they wanted us to work on the docks. Well, I never worked on the docks myself, I went to a coal mine and a nickel factory and a nickel mine.

Mr Lynch talks about the trip to Japan in the hold of a coal barge and some of the jobs that he and his soldiers performed while in captivity.

Wilbert Lynch

Wilbert Lynch was born in Portage, Manitoba on April 6th 1923 and was raised on a farm with two brothers and three sisters. He left home when he was 13 years old and worked for five dollars a month plus room and board at a few local farms. Three days after turning seventeen he joined the army and trained on the Bren gun in Camp Shilo and became a member of the 18th Manitoba Reconnaissance Battalion.