Description
Mr. Ewing gives a vivid account of life as a slave labourer in Japan during the Second World War.
Kenneth Alexander Ewing
Kenneth Ewing was born in 1925, the 4th oldest of 12 children. His father was a civil engineer for the province of New Brunswick which enabled them to manage fairly well during the Depression. His father was a Lieutenant in the First World War and signed up as an engineer in the Second World War from 1942 to 1945. Mr. Ewing quit school in Grade 10 at the age of 15 to join the army. He was unsuccessful in his attempt to join the Merchant Navy and joined the militia in the spring of 1940. He then joined the N.B. Rangers (militia). In November 1940, he went active with the Royal Rifles. He did his basic training in Botwood, Newfoundland, guarding the port. He did further guard duty in Botwood, Gander, and St. John's, Newfoundland, Valcartier, Quebec, and Saint John, New Brunswick. He was posted to Hong Kong as a rifleman in "A" Company. He was taken POW and sent to a slave labour camp in Japan where he endured beatings, disease, and very poor living conditions but considered himself lucky since other Canadians had been executed.
Transcript
Slave Labour in Japan
The Selection Process
Well I think that, that they, they chose those who were the healthiest but even so they had a quota to meet and some of the, some of the prisoners that were selected were anything but healthy.
Nagasaki
The prisoners were split up in Nagasaki on the dock. Some, some went to one location, some to another and so on. I, and I was, was with the biggest route that went to Tokyo and ended up in 3-D.
The Work
We were there to work in the shipyard, Nippon KoKan Kai Tan, I think, NKK, and my job there, or I was put on the, I, what we call the heavy gang, it was doing the actual construction of the ship, putting the, the plates on, the bow, the bow and the, and the, and the, and the decks and so on. We bolted them and the riveters would come along and, or the reamers, we bolted them and reamed them and the riveters would come along and, and rivet them. So, that's the type of work that I was doing.
The Rations in Tokyo
Originally, when we, after we came from Hong Kong, the, the, we had adequate rations, or, or at least better rations, and I felt good and I enjoyed, I enjoyed being able to work. For one thing it, it made the time pass, the, we, we were split up and I would be working, at any one time, I would be working with, with three or four of our own guys along with three or four Japanese, and so I enjoyed it. But then the rations were cut, and they were cut again, and cut again, and then it became a great chore to, to march out every morning and, and there was, there, there was certainly no enjoyment. But the, I suppose the good part only lasted maybe a month or six weeks. And I use the term ‘good' relatively.
Japanese Civilian Supervisors
Well, some of them were very, were good, and actually the boss we had, fortunately, and his supervisor were quite, quite good. And, for instance after I, when I really got low and I knew I had tuberculosis, not that I had gone to the doctor about it, but I was spitting flecks of blood in the sputum and so on. And one winter day, I just couldn't face working so I, I went from one rivetting forge to another to try and keep warm and, and I did that for three days and, before I finally went back to the gang that I was working, supposed to be working with. But the Japanese bosses covered up for me, other, if it had got back to the, to the guards or the military in charge of us I would have, I would have been very savagely beaten, I think.