Description
Howard Bembridge
Mr. Bembridge was born May 22, 1923 in Saskatchewan. His father was a sergeant major in the First World War and rarely spoke about his service. Being the third oldest child of four, Mr. Bembridge achieved a grade 8 education and at age 14, went to work with the Canadian National Railway. At age 17, he decided to join the military and enlisted with the South Saskatchewan Regiment and moved to Fort William, Ontario for six months. Having a rocky relationship with his sergeant, Mr. Bembridge made a quick decision to join the Winnipeg Grenadiers who were destined for Hong Kong. Having experienced harsh and brutal conditions during his captivity, Mr. Bembridge was hospitalized for a period of time and later returned to Saskatchewan with his family.
Transcript
Interviewer: And what would have happened if you had of hit one of them?
I was dead. I knew that, that’s why when I come home I had two black rings around both hips like that. And they cut a little section there and turned the skin back and scraped that dry blood out of there, I guess I pinched myself so hard and hanging on to keep myself from belting him one, you know.
And the next morning, he come back. So he smiled at me, so I looked just straight forward. I never smiled. So he turned, went two guys past me, I thought well, that’s it, we straightened that up now, you know. No goddamn way, he turns right around and comes back, whack, whack, he whacked me around the face, you know. Because that way, I didn’t know what that was for. First I got it for smiling. Next time I didn’t smile so what the hell am I suppose to do now, you know.? So I never smiled or nothing I just let him pound me.