i My fallen comrades of the media are remarkably loud on

ij some things, yet silent on others. There is editorial silence,
for example; on whether Canadian survivors of Japanese
prison camps should get some money out of Tokyo for the
miseries they endured. But there’s a regular hubbub when it
comes to whether Japanese-Canadians should be compen-

sated for what happened here.

Editorial writers on wimp dailies
across the country grovel about
how guilty we are in that matter,
and call on Ottawa to make Roy
Miki of the Nationa! Association
of Japanese Canadians happy by
handing a lot of our dough over to
that. group, their ancestors having
allegedly been robbed by you-
know-who during World War
Two. °

P-. I have observed . no similarly
strident cries, however, on behalf
‘of our men, who want ‘the
Japanese government to give them
ten bucks for every day.they spent
in hell. Which, if you ask me, is

_ cheap at the price. They also want"

a similar paltry sum‘ to go to

prisoners’ widows, of whom there

is no lack, things “having been
. what they were. .

a

‘| Cathy Dasitva :

| Daryll. Kirby

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For the Love of God, Give.

Most people are aware that be-
ing a prisoner of the war-time
Nips wasn’t exactly like being i ina
Club Med, but because we're all
friends now the story has been
dropped. In the April issue of
Legion magazine, though, there
was a reminder from RCAF

Squadron Leader Leonard Bir-

chall (now Air Commodore,
retd.) of just how things were.

Birchall was shot down while
warning Ceylon that it might be
visited by the Japanese Fleet. Asa
result, he spent three years in
Japan. ;

Starvation, vicious beatings and
more sudder. forms of death were
routine. But it is the details that
score with the reader.

“One bad effect (of starvation).

was hot feet,’ he states.
“Malnutrition affects the nerve

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ends, causing the feet to get hot
and sore. It got so bad the lads
would put their feet inte buckets
of cold water or walk around on
the cold cement in their bare feet,
resulting in cracked skin, infec-
tion, and often gangrene. A cou-
ple of chaps fost their feet before
we could stap the soaking and
walking bit.

“The nerve-end deterioration
also affected the eyes and could
cause blindness. Neither the hot
feet nor the blindness could be
cured. To this day when I get tired

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out or out of sorts my feet get hot
and I have to sleep with them out
in the cold.”*

Medical supplies were almos«
non-existent. But someone in this
Yokohama camp managed to get
three pain-killing pills.

“We agreed that only with the
unamimous approval of the camp
would one ever be used... We had
quite a few cases where the
prisoner-doctor recommended we
use a pill, but in every instance ("2
one negative vole was cast by the
chap who was to get it. This in the
face of amputations, surgery, and
in one case, to help a poor chap
over the last hump. When I Ieft
that camp after two years we still
had the three pills.”

To be sent to hospital meant
certain death,

“The Japanese in charge was
one of the most sadistic men I
have ever known -- an animal who
beat and tortured the sick. He lik-
ed to think of himself as a doctor,
and would read up on medical
books, then try to perform
surgery...Only when we knew

death was imminent did we ask fo
have a chap sent to hospital.”*

In winter it was bitterly cold,
but there was seldom anything to
burn. To dry their clothes after
long hours working in the open,
the prisoners just slept in them,

and many had no blankets.
“About 35 per cent of all
prisoners in Japan died that
winter (of 1942-43).""

The Japanese sergeant of the
guard needed no excuse to abuse
sick men. He would wallop on the
huge boils the prisoners developed

. on account of having pellagra. In
defending onc of his men, Birchall
struck the sergeant and was
beaten and hung up by his
thumbs. He was to have been
beheaded, but escaped that fate.

J have an idea for Miki, who
claims we owe $443 million in to-
day's dollars for what the
Japanese lost in Canada:

When he gets it, he could give
our guys their $12 a day out of it.
After all, there aren’t many of
them left, so it shouldn't cost that
much.

~ AQUAVELET

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