PoWs lived with poor medical care, constant beating, cholera deaths
By Phan Ming Yen
LIFE as a prisoner-of-war meant living with captors who regarded punishment and constant beatings as a sport, and under poor medical conditions which let untreated ulcers grow until limbs had to be amputated, and when hundreds died from cholera.
And there was no use escaping, because there would be capture ultimately and then execution.
Mr Charles Simon experienced and witnessed these and other horrors as a former PoW on the Death Railway in Thailand and later in Japan, where he was sent to work in a factory and as a coolie during World War II.
He said that the PoWs were all treated as criminals because the Japanese thought that they should have committed hara-kiri (ritual suicide).
"For the Japanese, that would have been the honourable thing to do in defeat, and as we did not do that, we were cowards," said Mr Simon, now in his 70s and the past president of the Ex-Services Association, who worked on the Death Railway for about two years from June 1942 to June 9, 1944.
About 16,000 Allied PoWs and some 90,000 Asians died building what was then known as the Thailand-Burma railway.
Mr Simon, who was with the 3rd Battalion Straits Settlements Volunteer Force, was taken prisoner on Feb 15, 1942, and imprisoned at Changi until June 26 when he was sent to Thailand, then known as Siam.
He said of the train journey to Thailand: "There were 34 of us who were put into a cattle carriage. The door was closed and there was no ventilation.
We had to do our ablutions inside that carriage.
"We would get off the train to relieve ourselves whenever it stopped, but then there were some who were too weak to get out."
He added that at the end of the five-day journey, two people in his carriage had died.
In Thailand, the prisoners were sent to places like Takanun, Chungkai and Banpong where they were ordered to lay the lines for the railway.
Mr Simon said that at Banpong, they had to cut bamboo while clearing the jungle and making their camp.
"That was a nasty job because when you make contact with bamboo, the bamboo can easily scratch you and you can easily bleed. Moreover, the bamboo was poisonous."
He added that because of that and their weak state and the lack of food, almost all the prisoners had ulcers on their hands, arms and legs.
"Unless treated, the ulcers could grow until they bit into bones. I knew some people had to have their hands, legs and arms amputated because there was no treatment given to them."
The lack of medical facilities was shown up during an outbreak of cholera in October 1943.
He said: "The cholera was the most horrifying thing that happened and neither Japanese nor Korean soldiers set foot on the camp during that time.
They just did not do anything." (The Japanese had recruited some heavily-built Korean soldiers to work at the railway.)
He added: "A person could die very fast of dehydration from cholera and I saw many men die within a day of contracting the disease when the epidemic happened."
Mr Simon himself suffered from dysentery, malaria and beri-beri.
Malnutrition was another aspect of a PoW's life. Rations consisted mainly of rice and dried vegetables and no meat.
"We were all walking skeletons," said Mr Simon, who saw his 63-kg frame whittle down to 41 kg while working on the railway. He added he had seen men who weighed about 82 kg going down to about 41 kg.
Punishment and beatings was an everyday occurrence.
He said: "It was like a sport with them. They would just beat you for no reason and for the slightest excuse."
The beatings continued at the factory in Amagasaki, a suburb in Osaka, Japan, where he was sent to work.
He said: "I had quarrelled with a guard who wanted me to operate two machines instead of one. I was given a severe warning and then beaten on the face many, many times.
"After that, whenever I walked past or met a guard, I was always called up and slapped on the spot for no reason."
Mr Simon, who had also worked in a grave-digging party after the completion of the railway, was not untouched by the deaths which he saw and the suffering he endured.
He said: "In Siam, we grew to become callous like the enemy and grew to accept that life was cheap. One cannot help but feel this at a time when there was so much death around us.
"There was a time when I felt just like putting my hands around a Japanese soldier and strangling him. I too had become an animal like my captors."
When asked what kept him going, he replied : "It was the thought that we would be liberated at Christmas or the next, that kept us going through those years.
"It was also a will to live which I cannot explain. It's difficult to imagine this 'will' unless one has lived life as a PoW."
In spite of his experiences as a PoW, he said he seldom thought about those years.
"No doubt those years changed my life in ways that I find difficult to explain.
"But you see, I like to see the bright side of things. It is best to look back on it as a good lesson.
"You cannot live life with hatred inside you all the time."
First published in The Straits Times, 28 February 1992
Next:
The guard said 'ichi'
and PoWs started scratching
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