Wartime Experiences of Robert Percy Edmunds conclusion

Robert Percy Edmunds was my father. During the Second World War he was a prisoner of the Japanese. In his own words, this is his experience:

I Was There

The War Time Experiences of a Prisoner of War

By Bob Edmunds

Part Five

After landing in Java it meant another long train journey to Batavia, eventually we arrived at St Vincentrous, a school turned into a hospital. Fortunately Red Cross medicine had just arrived and I was given vitamins for Beri-beri, I also had Jaundice and Enteritis. Once we had been deloused and washed things began to improve. Next to me the man had his legs with weights and pulleys to straighten them, in great pain but thankful to be alive as he was nearly given up for dead on the train.

It was to be another year before we were released, meanwhile I started to walk again and gain some strength, hoping to avoid further drafts being formed for Taiwan, Thailand and Japan. I moved to several different camps, we received our first Red Cross parcel, one between 5 men in 1945, some had been pilfered by the Japanese. In July I was among 5000 prisoners at Bandoeng, in hut's built of atap - very thin interwoven wood strips - it was said, if American or Allied troops landed our camp would be set alight, as all Jap. C.O.s had orders to dispose of P.O.W.'s in the quickest way if the enemy attacked in their area.

It was some days after the atom bombs when we were told the war was over. Then the Japs. had to protect us against the local natives, who were rebelling against their former masters, the Dutch.

I arrived hole in late September after a journey via Singapore and the Suez canal. After a long leave I was demobbed in April 1946. I was told I could not receive the Pacific medal because I had not served 6 months in this country before I went overseas' I would only receive the 1939-45 Service Medal. I refused to sign. They wouldn't let me go home until I did, so I signed, and after a medical exam that lasted about five minutes I was discharged as A.1 fit! my back pay for 3 and a half years amounted to £247, later on we all received £75 which was from the sale of the now infamous railway and other assets, NOT from the Japanese Government, as we are often told.

This is roughly my story of captivity, you have probably not heard of Ambon; P.O.W.s were sent to work on two more islands i moved around as work progressed Of the 1100 men who arrived at Ambon only 247 were alive at the end of the war. On one ship that left in October with men from three islands nearly 300 died. In Borneo 500 men set out on a march, only a handful arrived at the destination. a ship bound for Singapore from Batavia without markings, carrying P.O.W.'s and native labourers, was torpedoed off Sumatra by an Allied submarine with the loss of 2000 lives

When I reflect on all these things I think how lucky I am after 50 years to be able to write how I saw life in P.O.W. camps. I thank God that I am still mobile and able to enjoy the beauty all around us, but whenever I see something Japanese I remember those I left behind in the East Indies (now Indonesia). At that time the cream of British young men, most were tokens of Churchill's intent to defend Singapore to appease the worried Australian Govt; worried about the rapid Japanese advance toward their homeland.

My father died in 2001.

Note: Liang was his camp in Ambon