On May 22 a year ago, Horace (Gerry) Gerrard, a Canadian Hong Kong veteran, died at age 97. He was one of the 1,975 Canadian soldiers who were sent to defend the British Crown Colony of Hong Kong against a Japanese attack in December 1941. The Battle of Hong Kong was one of the Japanese multiple attacks on the Allied nations on December 7/8, including the Pearl Harbor attack. 290 Canadian soldiers died in the battle that ended with the British surrender on Decemeber 25, and those who survived, like most of the other Allies' POWs, were put to slave labour, suffered from harsh living conditions, malnutrition, diseases and violence for 3 years and 8 months until Japan surrendered in August 1945. 264 more Canadians died during that time. With the death toll of 554 and approximately 500 more wounded, the casualty rate was more than 50%, "one of the highest casualty rates of any Canadian theatre of action in the Second World War" ( Canadians in Hong Kong, Veterans Affairs, Canada). Those who survived and returned to Canada continued to suffer physically and mentally from the wartime trauma, with its impacts on the second and the third generations.
Back in October 2016, I had an opportunity to interview Gerry, one of the few surviving Canadian Hong Kong veterans, with the help of a friend Lee Naylor, another Hong Kong veteran's son. I was told then that there were only two veterans who were still able to talk about their experiences, one in the East, and one in the West of Canada, and Gerry was the one in the West. My two-part article on Gerry was printed in the February 10 and 17, 2017 editions of Japanese weekly political magazine Shukan Kinyobi.
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| Gerry Gerrard interviewed at his home near Victoria, Vancouver Island. Photo by author. |
ジェリー・ジェラード氏（2016年10月6日、バンクーバー島のジェラード氏の自宅で。筆者撮影）
Here are the articles.
知られざるカナダ兵日本軍捕虜の歴史 生存者ジェリー・ジェラード氏の証言
Unknown History of Canadian POWs of the Imperial Japanese Army - Testimony of a Survivor, Gerry Gerrard
（上）飢えと虐待の収容生活
Part I: Life of Hunger and Abuse, at the Concentration Camp
（下）屈辱だった日本の「謝罪」
Part II: Humiliating "Apology" from Japan
URL: http://peacephilosophy.blogspot.com/2017/02/interview-with-gerry-gerrard-canadian.html (The text is in Japanese, but you can look at photos.)
I have not had a chance to publish Gerry's story in English yet, so I will do so now, on the first anniversary of Gerry's death.
After being captured, Gerry was put to forced labor for one year in Hong Kong under harsh living conditions. Then he was among the 500 Allies' POWs who were sent to Japan in January 1943. He was placed in the Tokyo 3D Tsurumi Prisoner of War Camp (Nippon Kokan Tsurumi Shipyard), located in Yokohama, and there too, persevered slave labour, abuse, and beriberi under the cold weather. He witnessed the Tokyo Air Raid on the early morning of March 10, 1945. Later he was transferred to Sendai POW Camp #4-B (Nippon Seitetsu Ohashi Branch) that was located in Kamaishi, Iwate, and stayed there until the Japanese surrender of August 1945. Since he hadn't thought he was going to survive another winter in that camp, it was the moment he knew that he was coming home alive.
Gerry was only paid a minuscule amount (after the food expense was deducted!) only once, while he was at the Yokohama camp, when the Red Cross came. The Japanese government never compensated for the unpaid work of Canadian veterans. In 1998, the Canadian government paid 24,000 dollars to the Hong Kong veterans and widows who were alive at that time. They were not happy that the money came not from the Japanese government, but from Canadian taxpayers (see CBC Digital Archives).
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| Lee Naylor and Gerry Gerrard. Photo by author. |
In 2011, then DPJ (Democratic Party of Japan) government made an "apology," one that was really not an apology and delivered in a humiliating manner as described in the article. It was delivered behind the closed door, without a proper document signed by the prime minister. With no presence of media, Japanese people were not informed of this "apology."
Apology can be only acceptable when the history is made available widely to the citizens of the perpetrating country and it is taught to the children of that country so that the history is not repeated. The Japanese government has failed to deliver such an apology to the Canadian Hong Kong veterans (let alone many other victims of the Imperial Japan's wartime atrocities).
This is why it was such a precious opportunity for me, as a citizen of Japanese ancestry, to interview Gerry and publish his story in a Japanese media outlet. I am grateful for Lee Nayor, without whom I could not have met Gerry. Having avoided Japanese products where he could, it must have not been such a pleasant thing for Gerry to meet me, but with Lee's introduction, he agreed to be interviewed. He even kindly took a photo with me.
Gerry thanked me for shedding light on this history in Japan. He said at the end of the interview, "I meant to ask the Japanese government, 'Have you apologized to your own people?' I am sure they suffered a lot." I was surprised and moved that Gerry, with all the suffering of himself and his comrades on his shoulder, extended such thought to the Japanese war victims.
I will continue to tell your story, Gerry. Rest in peace.
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| Gerry and author. Photo by Lee Naylor. |
[Below is an English version of Gerry Gerrard’s story printed in two parts in the February 10, and 17 editions of Japanese weekly magazine Shukan Kinyobi. Please note that some parts are not word-by-word equivalents of the Japanese version, as I tried to use original expressions by Gerry as much as possible in the reverse-translated English version.]
Part I
[Headings]
Unknown
History of Canadian Prisoners of War in the Battle of Hong Kong: Part I
Story of
Survivor Gerry Gerrard
Hunger and Abuse --- Life at the POW Camp
[Lead]
Not much has
been told about the former Canadian soldiers who were captured as POWs by the
Imperial Japanese Army in the Battle of Hong Kong.
We have been
fortunate to hear a story from one of the survivors. It reveals the abuse of
POWs then and the fact that Japan has not provided a proper apology to the
Canadian veterans.
Satoko Oka Norimatsu
(Page 36)
-
Please tell
us about your background.
I was born in Bolton, Lancashire, England, on January 19, 1922.
When I was four years old, my family moved to Alberta. During the Great
Depression, it was not easy for the family, with six children. I left school in
Grade 9, and did any job I could find to help support the family.
When I was sixteen, I faked my age to be eighteen and joined the
army reserves. I was able to do that because I was in the scout and I knew signaling.
On September 2, 1939, just before WWII broke, I was called up and went to the
West Coast by train. In Victoria, I was trained as a gunner and a signaler.
Later I became a member of the Royal Canadian Corps of Signals and was
stationed in the East. I received infantry training too.
In the middle of October, 1941, I was one of those called out for
overseas duty. We went to the West Coast by train. Joined by Royal Rifles, and
not even given time to say goodbye to family, we boarded the troop ship Awatea
at Vancouver, and headed for Hong Kong. On a separate ship were all the
equipment, gear, ammunition, vehicles, etc. It went as far as the Philippines,
and there Americans used them. We arrived in Hong Kong on November 16, and for
three weeks, we were at Sham Shui Po, and were taken around to different
defence places.
Transferred
to Japan
-
The Japanese
attack on Hong Kong was December 8, 1941?
Yes. It was 8 A.M., several hours after the attack on Pearl
Harbor. Hawaii wasn’t even thinking what was going to happen to them, but we
were prepared the day before. We set up a temporary wireless station right in
front of the quarters. I went to breakfast at 7, and came back, let other guys
go for breakfast and I took over. That was when the planes came over.
-
(The
British/Canadian) forces were defeated and were taken as POWs in Hong Kong.
What was the experience there?
We were transferred back to Sham Shui Po. When we got there, every
wood was stripped down. All my stuff, all my gear were gone. There was no door,
no window – all taken. I had no blanket. I found somewhere a light canvas – big
enough to lay. For a pillow, I bundled up my clothes and put underneath that
canvas. That was my pillow.
Food was terrible. Everyone was hungry. Beri beri, dysentery,
typhoid, diphtheria – all these serious diseases. With beri beri, you couldn’t
stand on your feet. I was in Hong Kong for a year, repairing and extending Kai
Tak Airport. We had to mix cement with hand. The Jap guards didn’t know how to
make cement. We would do things like making one batch with half sand, and
another with too much cement.
-
Later you
were transferred to Japan.
On January 19, 1943, five hundred of us were transferred to Japan.
The name of the ship was Tatsuta Maru. It was my 21st birthday. They
just let us right down into the hole. Guys kept coming down, and if we all
wanted to sit down we had to sit between the legs of the guy behind you. We
landed in Nagasaki. As soon as we landed, they gave us five small buns. We went
by train from Nagasaki, and there they fed us the same food as their own. A little
square, a half-inch deep. One for rice, and one divided into 6 compartments – a
little bit of fish, a little bit of meat, and a little fruit. Good, except the
amount was really small. We got off at Tokyo and got on an electric train. We
went to Kawasaki, and they marched us to 3D (Nippon Kokan Tsurumi Shipyard
Tokyo No.3 Camp).
(Page 37)
Days at the
Camp
-
What was the
camp like?
There were platforms, each for twenty men, sleeping head to head
with the next guy. All they had was straw mats, about half an inch thick. Every
two feet was strip of woods. They gave us four blankets. We couldn’t believe
this, but they were all made of shredded wood, pressed together. There wasn’t
much warmth. The siding of the building was about half an inch and there was no
lining in the inside. It was freezing cold. They had sometimes snow. There were
stoves, but never used because there was no fuel. There was a bathing tub that
would hold about thirty men, but there was no fuel so it only got used a few
times.
When we first got there, one of the commanders at the camp spoke
to us, and after talking about rules and punishments, he told us “Some of you
may never see Canada again; in fact, none of you will. Canada will be divided,
and Japanese will govern.” I was shocked to hear that.
-
What was the
work condition there?
We marched to and from work. I think it was about 5 miles. When it
snowed, they marched us to work one way and back another to break trail.
One thing we didn’t want to do was to get caught in the
compartment by yourself with a couple of Japanese. Not that I found civilians
mean, but when there was bad news they weren’t good; they take it out on us. If
you do something you weren’t supposed to do or if you are caught doing
something… I just take it easy and don’t get excited. They are going to get
their way anyway.
-
There was
much violence at the camp, wasn’t there.
The army guys had guns and factory guys had sticks. I wasn’t
beaten up so badly. The worst thing of course was the slap in the face; it was
pretty bad. One day at Sham Shui Po we were lined up to be counted… and we were
short by one. This interpreter, the Kamloops kid (Japanese-Canadian Kanao Inoue
who was notorious for his abusiveness), he beat up our officer. It was pretty
hard to take when guys stand behind you with a rifle. You know what they can
do.
At 3D, one guy got caught for smuggling cigarettes. They beat him
up. He was stood up all night and every hour, they poured cold water over him.
He survived.
[In the
column on the left side of Page 37, Interviewer Satoko Oka Norimatsu gives a
brief background of the Battle of Hong Kong, including how these almost 2,000
Canadian soldiers were brought to fight the hopeless battle; the massacre at
the St. Stephen’s Hospital; casualties of the battle, the worst (in terms of
rate) among all the Canadian missions in WWII; soldiers who survived the battle
being taken as POWs for the 3 years and 8 months of life under slave labour and
abuse in Hong Kong and Japan; and veterans suffering various forms of PTSD,
affecting children and grandchildren. On October 6, 2016, an interview took
place with one of the 18 surviving Canadian Hong Kong veterans, 94-year old
Gerry Gerrard, at his home near Victoria, on Vancouver Island. Gerrard is one
of the perhaps only two surviving veterans who are able to tell their stories.]
(Page 38)
War ends at
last
-
At the end of
March, 1945, you were transferred to Kamaishi (Sendai POW Camp Sendai No. 4, or
Nippon Seitetsu Ohashi Kogyosho).
It was because the bombing got bad. They never expected they were
going to get bombed. In fact, they never made preparations for the population.
They had no place to go. They built air raid shelters. This is funny. They dug
it down and they put a board across and put sod on the top. That was an air
raid shelter. One night they bombed out a strip about a mile wide --- Yokohama,
Tokyo (air raid of March 9/10). We spent the whole night in the shelter. There
was light, bombing noise, and loudspeakers…
I was at Kamaishi for 6 months. There were Americans, Dutch,
Javanese, Australians, British, and Canadians. Most worked in the mining, but I
was put on one of the fires working for the blacksmith. Hammering everything…There
was nobody else around. Nobody else spoke English. I was in the same building
where the machine shop was. Americans were running the machine shop. I never
saw anyone, but I used to get messages. Somebody would walk by and say the news
quickly. By the time I turned around, they would be gone. There was a radio at
the machine shop.
-
How did you
know about the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki?
It was about four days later we found out what it was. I got the
story from one of the Americans who was talking to one of the kids and that
said that… one bomb, the whole city was gone. The Japanese had their heads
down… they were really upset. So that’s what we assumed it was. We knew then
that the war was on its way to end.
-
What was your
feeling then?
Well, I think, we are going to make it. We knew that we weren’t
going to make another winter up in that mountain, so half the time I used to
tell myself. If you had told me people could live under that condition, I
wouldn’t have believed it. It is amazing what you can do when you have to.
-
I remember reading
in your story that at the beginning the Japanese commander told you that you
weren’t going to see Canada again.
That’s right. That was what kept me going.
-
How was the
day Japan surrendered, August 15?
We all knew that the end was coming. They used to call people in
the loud speakers. On that day, when the guy came, he just didn’t stop and he
says the war is over. We went back to the camp. The guys weren’t so excited.
There was no cheering and all that… I guess most of them hadn’t heard yet. Things
were the same the next morning. We would get up and then were going to see what
was going to happen, because we weren’t going to work. For sure. They left
overnight. We were ordered to wait there, and we were there for another month.
Part II
[Headings]
Unknown
History of Canadian Prisoners of War in the Battle of Hong Kong: Part II
Story of
Survivor Gerry Gerrard
Humiliating “Apology” by Japan
[Lead]
The war
finally ended, and the POWs of Allied Nations were able to go home.
After the
war, the Japanese government repeatedly rejected the former Canadian POWs’
requests for an apology, and the “apology” that did happen in 2011 was far from
sufficient.
Canadian Hong
Kong veteran Gerry Gerrard carries a gentle tone, but his nightmare will never
disappear.
Satoko Oka Norimatsu
(Page 38)
-
How did you
manage the month you spent at Kamaishi while waiting for rescue?
Americans dropped the food by air. We got K-ration, dehydrated
fruit, cigarettes. Chewing gum. Oh, kids. Bubble gum. They go around saying
“gum, gum.” I made sure that I didn’t overeat. I liked chocolate bars though.
Americans picked us up on September 15, 1945. It was Nimitz fleet.
They went up and got the train. We got aboard the train. We went on the
destroyer, down to Tokyo Bay. From there we could see the shipyard where I
worked. On 18th, they put us on the hospital ship. It wasn’t
originally a hospital ship but they made it into a hospital ship. There were
2,500 passenger on that, mostly American troops. We were eating for 5,000. We
went to Guam first. A few days there. They had a B29 airport. Big planes.
Running their bombing from there (to Japan).
Home at Last
-
Did you lose
a lot of weight at the camp?
One time they weighed me in 1942, and I was 136 pounds. 113 in the
camp. I got worse than that. I never had a chance to weigh. My normal weight
after I came home was 155-6. I am 167 now.
-
Did the
letters you received from your family encourage you?
Not too much. All they let me know was that they were alive.
Didn’t mean too much. Sometimes these letters were a couple of years old. I
thought, at least they know I am alive. I am not going to worry about them. I
am just going to worry about this guy (me). I guess these (other) guys get too
upset, you know… I guess it depends on your own makeup. For me, since I was
told I wasn’t going to see Canada again, I was determined that I was going
home.
-
Did you ever
get paid, in Hong Kong or in Japan?
The only time was when Red Cross came in, they gave some of the
money they owed us. 10 cents a day. So much off for our food. I don’t know how
much they owed us. I was at 3D. We were not allowed to talk to Red Cross. They
just came in, looked around, and went out. They (Japanese) brought extra food
while the Red Cross was there, and when they left, they took out all that extra
food out again.
I was never paid at Kamaishi. It was Japan that had to pay us. It
was asked, but nothing came out of it. Canadian government gave us money
(24,000 dollars, in 1998). Canada sort of settled the war by just claiming what
was the Japanese property overseas, so they signed it off (in the San Francisco
Peace Treaty). That was why they (Japan) didn’t pay us. Japs couldn’t pay all
those POWs anyway. That would have cost a fortune.
(Page 39)
Is This an
Apology?
-
How did you
get from Guam back to Canada?
I was in San Francisco for a few days. We boarded the train. We
were dressed in Navy dungarees. Blues jeans, and hats. They gave us 20 dollars.
From Seattle, we got on the ferry to Victoria. We disembarked right in front of
the legislature. My girlfriend was there. Speller had sent a telegram while I
was at San Francisco. He knew where she lived. Evelyn. I married her on
November 27.
I wasn’t ready to get married. I needed some breathing time. But
she waited that long. What the hell. I needed a place. She was pushing me. Our
first child Bev was born on July 13, 1947.
-
What work did
you do after you went home?
I never stayed in the military. I signed the release at Calgary,
and got discharged. It was December 1945. I went into a hospital. I had abscess
on my tailbone, since before I went to Japan. I got by okay. They just cut it
open and drained it.
I got apprentice as an electrician. I worked in construction; went
to work on a lot of houses. I worked at a shipyard for a year. In between
layoffs. Finished one job, then don’t know another one or not. I built a house
shortly after.
-
You went to
Japan a number of times after the war.
The first time was 1995, then 2005, 2010, and 2011. Four times. I
went with a group, with other veterans and families, organized by HKVCA (Hong Kong Veterans Commemorative Association). I went
back to the shipyard in Tsurumi. They don’t build ships anymore; they build
engines. We went to Yokohama War Cemetery too.
-
2011 was when
the Japanese government offered an apology?
Yes. It was really a farce. We were not to tell anyone that we
were going. We went to Hong Kong, then we went to Japan. The minister (Steven
Blaney, then Minister of Veterans Affairs) met us in Tokyo. At the apology,
there were three veterans in the room, and three more attended. Derrill
Henderson was allowed in. From the Japanese side were the parliamentary
vice-minister of foreign affairs, his aide, and the translator. There were no
reporters. No cameras. Nothing. I had a phone call from a fellow, after I got
back, whose son lived in Japan for 29 years. He said no media, none of the media
reported it. So people don’t know the apology. They wanted us to agree to their
apology. It was all about friendship, making trades and so on and so forth.
That was probably what it was all about. To me, an apology is not worth if you
have to ask for it. That was asked once and it was refused, and that was it. I
was not even in favour of going over, but in the end, I agreed to it. We took
pictures of the guys afterwards but none of the Japanese were in it. After they
finished, they just walked off and that was it.
[In the
column on the left side of Page 39, Interviewer Satoko Oka Norimatsu provides
additional background such as the large role Canadians played in the WWII (with
more than a million military members participation out of the then population
of 11 million); relative emphasis of war memory on Europe overshadowing the
Hong Kong experience; Canadian’s Veterans Affairs website specifically noting
that POWs under Imperial Japan went through harsher experience than those of
Nazis; the 2011 “apology”, after decades of rejected requests, being a
humiliating one]
(Page 40)
Feelings towards
Japan
-
Was there a
document signed by the prime minister?
No. I don’t think we signed anything. I just agreed to it. At the
meeting the vice minister read out the apology and each of us responded. I just
questioned. Why? How come it took so long?
The minister didn’t understand what you were saying anyway. So
there was an interpreter. You don’t know what’s going on between them you know.
We’ve been all through that in the prison camp. If you got charged in the Jap
camp…. You couldn’t defend yourself or your fellows, so you depended on their
interpreter, you know.
-
What else did
you tell the Japanese government?
I told him, if it is about peace and future, that’s okay. That was
why I agreed to it, for that, but not for what you did in the past.
-
In the end,
you didn’t think it was the right apology.
No, no, I didn’t. It was Derrill’s death wish. There were people
who wanted it (an apology). I didn’t care. I didn’t think you should have to
ask for an apology.
-
After the
war, did you have trauma?
No, I did quite well. Health-wise. I have two daughters, five
grandchildren, and eight great-grandchildren. My daughter lives here. That’s
one reason why I am here. There are two grandsons, with families here. They said
we can see you, but I never see them!
-
I am sure you
had anger during the camp.
Yes.
-
Do you think
you have forgiven them, or?
I can’t hold somebody here responsible for what somebody else did.
Right now there are not many left. I’ve never held anything against them, but I
don’t go look for Japanese cars when I buy a car. Something like that… but I
ended up buying some (Japanese products) anyway… it is hard to avoid.
But I don’t hold any grudge… I guess I just have to relax. I might
lose a few nights sleep after this, you know. All these interviews they do…
prey on your mind. I used to wake up with beri beri --- it wakes me up at night
kicking and all that. Got me into single beds.
-
(Doing an
interview) must be a lot for you.
It is nice to know people are remembering this. You know one day
we are going to die and it will be lost. The kids (the second generation) took
up the organization and they deserve a lot of credit. Thank you people too for
bringing this to light… though it won’t prevent any war, I don’t suppose.
There is something when I went up to this apology. I came out, and
I meant to ask them, “Have you apologized to your own people?” I am sure they
suffered a lot.
Interview in collaboration with Lee Naylor
Satoko Oka Norimatsu, Director of Peace Philosophy Centre
