Recollections of a Japanese Prisoner of War by Gwynne Hodge

This article is dedicated to --

All those who fought a daily battle to survive

Introduction

 from Larry Owen

'Gwyn Hodge is a legend in his own lifetime, a Welsh international gymnast, the longest serving league table tennis player in Swansea, Welsh weightlifting champion and a survivor of three and a half years in a wartime Japanese death camp.  His experiences there were immortalised in the book "No Surrender";

           I first met Gwyn in 1953 when I was playing table tennis for Mumbles and he was playing for Jack Cowley's - a league team formed by a table tennis playing local newsagent.  Until I left Swansea in 1960, I saw Gwyn mainly when I needed new clothes,

as he was the manager of Burton's in High Street.  My meetings with him until I retired to Mumbles in 1998, were infrequent, but since then we saw each other regularly . . .

  1) Life as a POW in Macassar, in 1942

‘I was on the HMS Exeter when the Japanese fleet in the Java Sea sank it. After a few days on the deck of a destroyer, we were taken to Macassar, the capital of the Celebes, a tropical island now called Sulawesi. There, later in the day we landed and had to walk a few miles, most of us without shoes, so with the very hot road, many suffered from blisters for days after. Over the three and a half years working on building roads and in a rock quarry, we were to regret having discarded our shoes when taking to the water.

    When we arrived at the barracks, there was nothing there, so we slept on a concrete floor for over a month, then we were given bed boards, but no bedding. The worst thing was lack of food and to get a little more we traded with the locals but if we were caught, we were beaten with a crowbar, but our Officers complained, so they beat the whole party with a baseball bat instead.

    With malnutrition we lost one in three’.

3) Extracts from NO SURRENDER

by W.E. Johns and R. A. Kelly

Bill Johns, kindly dedicated this copy of the book-

'To Gwyn Hodge, Who fought a Daily Battle to survive,

Sincerely, Bill Johns'

p 113

'B' Garage Party was notorious for the punishments meted out, and became known as the poko, or 'beating-up', party. Men came back from work bleeding and sick, not as a result of the hard work-Lord knows, that was bad enough-but of the general beatings they had suffered during the day. The party was in charge of a Nip Chief Petty Officer, with a PO second in command, ad an appropriately cruel and mean set of ratings who never missed an opportunity of savaging a prisoner.

    At the end of the working day  the prisoners, physically exhausted after non-stop cement-mixing, or carrying heavy loads, were told to fall in, while grinning with delight, the Nip guards would rush off to fetch their implements. The POWs would wait apprehensively in rows of five for the proceedings to begin.

The Chief would then walk along the front row asking questions in Malay. If answered correctly he would repeat the question in Japanese. If no answer was forthcoming the unfortunate individual would then be pulled from the ranks and literally thrown to the waiting guards, who would start beating and kicking him, then throwing him judo style until either he lapsed into unconsciousness or his limbs gave under the assault.

On other occasions we would be drilled, with the orders rapped out in Japanese. Soon chaos would ensue, as none of us knew any but the basic commands. A mass beating would then take place, no one being excused. Tools for this beating would include baseball bats, bamboo canes split so that they cut the flesh, the occasional horsewhip, which usually managed to churn out pieces from flesh was left on our bodies. The most cruel and terrible weapon was a solid one-inch-diameter iron bar, whose owner was known as the 'Iron-Bar Merchant'. Such treatment was to say the 

 least, poor recompense for a hard days work.   

p 115

. . .This in many case would be the last straw for men who had literally slaved all day, been beaten up savagely, and wearily walked back to camp then to be savaged again by Yoshida and his sadistic guards. The example set by Yoshida to his ape-like guards made sure that a tyrannical standard of toughness and unveiled cruelty was maintained. and punishment was only a portion of the cross we had to bear-there was in addition hunger, disease, backbreaking toil, and the complete severance from our homes and loved ones. to them we were now the legion of the dead.

p 158

For many POW's survival was linked to their initial physical condition and the amount of hardship and punishment they were able to withstand. Those who were tough and strong when they first marched through the gates of Macassar  camp had a head start on their less fortunate brethren, and though nearly all of us eventually fell sick, those who had the initial reserves of strength managed to weather those critical

years of imprisonment. . .

p 184

. . .As the third year of our captivity drew on, the deaths mounted. It seemed a long while since we had been shocked by the news of five men dying in one day. Now the death cart was kept waiting at the end of each day, waiting just in case of a 'late departure'. Then it would be rushed off to the burial ground, where the prisoners were interred with indecent haste and virtually unmorned. It made my blood boil to realise that in the hospital less than a mile away were medical supplies that could have put the cart out of business.

    Such was the apathy at this stage that as the grim burial party passed through the camp entrance only one question was asked: How many today?

The eerie parting note of the bugler sounding the 'Still' was the only record of their departure; but they had gone beyond  the walls of the camp and the guards would

molest them no more. . .

p 185

. . .Virtually everyone in the camp was now sick. All men who could stand, and many who could not, were forced out of camp to work. . .

. . .The guards showed a sadistic delight in the pain and torture endured by those

poor wretches.

p 196

Inside the camp there was much speculation. One story was that the war was over. . .. . .We waited apprehensively as the Dutch Commandant climbed on to the platform and began to speak in Dutch. We listened without comprehending, but as he spoke we began to sense his meaning, confirmed for us by a Dutchman in the ranks who muttered, 'The war is over, The war is over'. . .

. . .pandemonium broke loose; tears, shouts, screams, kissing and handshaking.

p 202

Things now began to move, Event followed event, sometimes in bewildering confusion.

4) PERTH On the way home at last

HMS Maidstone arrived in Fremantle, the port near Perth, on September 30, 1945, to a rousing welcome from the Western Australian public.

Its crew of 440 officers and ratings of the Royal Navy had been prisoners of war at Macassar (Celebes). 

5) HMS Exeter, 6th Battle Honour, Sunda Strait 1942

  1 Arising from correspondence with the Chairman of the River Plate Veterans during 1980/81, the Admiralty Board has awarded the Battle Honour 'Sunda Strait 1942' to HMS Exeter commemorating her final action during the morning of1 March 1942.

Commemorative window at Exeter Cathedral

A commemorative stained glass window featuring St. Andrew exists in the Chapel of St. Andrew within Exeter Cathedral. 

The dedication reads as follows:

'Dedicated in memory of the officers and men who gave their lives in the last two actions of HMS Exeter in the Java Sea on 27th February and 1st March 1942 and those of her company who died in Captivity. And a thanks offering to Almighty God from those who surviving the dangers of the sea and the violence of the enemy by His Good Grace returned to their Native Lands.'

St. Andrew. Cruiser Crest of HMS Exeter.

Semper Fidelis.

The HMS Exeter Association 

HMS Exeter was involved in one of the most significant sea battles of the 2nd World War; The Battle of the River Plate. Following that battle, HMS Exeter went onto further battles and met its demise at the hands of the Japanese on 1st March 1942, with the loss of 50 men. During 3 years in Japanese POW camps, a further 150 crew lost their lives. 

Survivors clubbed together enough funds and on the 1st March 1948 the HMS Exeter Window of ‘Christ Walking on Water’ was placed in St Catherine’s Chapel of Exeter Cathedral and dedicated in memory of the Officers and Men of HMS Exeter who were lost in the Java Sea.

Each year since 1948 on the weekend closest to the 1st March, the survivors and their descendants have met to pay their respect to those who served during Exeter’s final days or suffered during their time in the POW camps.

Tolling of the HMS Exeter bell

The service usually begins with the former ships bell of HMS Exeter being rung, for which the Cathedral is a custodian. In previous years, including 2018, the service included wreaths being laid by the Lord Mayor of Exeter, the Deputy Lieutenant of Devon and the Association.

A crystal rose bowl was presented in 2018, on the 70th anniversary from the Association to the Cathedral to give thanks for the ongoing support to those Exeter men and their families, some of whom are no longer amongst us.

The service also includes readings, prayers and a two minute silence where a Royal Marine bugler played the ‘Last Post’.

More about the HMS Exeter Association

The HMS Exeter Association is a unique one, the following quotation being given by Dougie Leask; “As an association with a very small number of actual survivors from HMS Exeter, there is no loss of dedication. In fact, many families and descendants, of those who were lost or survived, carry on the pilgrimage to Exeter to remember their loved ones and ancestors.

Likewise, veterans of the Type 42 Destroyer HMS Exeter will arrive from all corners of the country and overseas to remember their old ship and lost comrades. It is a fitting tribute to those who have served on these illustrious ships.”

Details: Exeter Cathedral