Coming Home

Heroes Remember

Coming Home

Transcript

We took eight days to come back and we got on the boat there and I went to a little island and there was a boat waiting, the back lowered down and we walked right aboard. And then they took us to an island and we was three days there. And then they said the boat's coming, the boat's coming and we all went aboard. Boy, what a nice boat. There was a big Red Cross boat tied up by the wharf, the ones that were sick went to the Red Cross. They only come a while after us. We come right away. Me, when I come back after, I was eating. I went up to a 170 but it was all bloated, water. My legs were swelled a half inch over my shoes and my face was like that at night. And I went to the hospital and they used to give me two needles a day. When I'd wake up the bed was soaked, drawing the water out. But there was a pile died from that, beri beri they called it, drowned your heart after.

Description

Mr. Devouge first describes his trip home to Canada and goes on to discuss the lingering effects of beri-beri.

Cecil Devouge

Cecil Devouge, the eldest of eight children, was born in Belle Anse, Quebec in 1913. As the eldest in the family, he was required to work with his father cutting pulp to support his family, and thus never attended school. After working on his own for as little as a dollar a day, he enlisted in July, 1940 in Gaspe at the request of a recruiter for the Royal Rifles. One month later he was married. Before going overseas to Hong Kong, Mr. Devouge spent time in several maritime military bases; St. John and Sussex, New Brunswick, and St. John's, Newfoundland. After the Hong Kong garrison surrendered, he became a POW, eventually being sent to Japan to work as slave labour in the Niigata foundry. After the war, Mr. Devouge returned to his home in Gaspe.

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