Description
Mr. Bourbonniere tells a story about helping his sick brother before he left on a boat for Japan.
Armand Bourbonniere
Armand Bourbonniere was born on May 7th 1922 in Ericksdale, Manitoba. He was the youngest of ten children. His father worked in the dairy transportation business. Mr. Bourbonniere left school when he was 14 years old to work for his father picking up cream and eggs from local farms until he turned sixteen when he moved to Winnipeg and worked at a cleaning company picking up clothes until he joined the Army in September 1939.
Transcript
Then they moved me into an enclosure because they were going away, they separated us, you know. My brother was already in the one, they were all sick guys with beri-beri, you know, all puffed up and they had them against the board so they could breathe. They had electrical wire all around it. So I managed to get in there to see him before I was leaving eh. So when I saw him I couldn’t believe it. When he saw me he started crying, I told him I was going, I had to go and I can’t help it. I said, “I’ll see what I can do for you.” So I went out of there, I jumped the fence, took a chance. I traded a shirt, army shirt for some soy bean milk, you know with the Chinese, you know. And I brought the soy bean milk and I mixed it with water in a little can, you know, and I took it to him and said, “Here, drink that.” Hector, Hector his name was. I said, “Drink that, it will make you feel better.” He said, “No, no, no!” I said, “Yes, you are!” So I lifted his neck, and he don’t want to swallow, he don’t want to open his mouth even. Anyway I got it open and started pouring it in, slowly, he got a part of it in but you know the first night you know how many pounds he lost? Fourteen pounds of water. That’s what brought him back to Canada. Well all the guys told me after, the guys that were back, the guys that were in there then. They told me it saved his life, you know. Maybe he would have come back I don’t think so because he couldn’t breathe, just water, eh.