The Military Museums

My Experience of Becoming A Prisoner of War

By Ralph MacLean

A personal account of a member of the Royal Rifles of Canada during the Defence of Hong Kong, Dec 1941

The process of becoming a Prisoner of war was an experience that I want to share for many reasons. Since my release in August 1945, many of the acquaintances I have made since then want to discuss the exact way that it happened.

To me it was a very traumatic and frightening part of my life and remains almost as vivid as when it happened. I was young then, nineteen years of age, I had joined the Canadian Army as a recruit in the Royal Rifles of Canada. Ralph MacLean

 Return to Hong Kong, 1941


Introduction

This Regiment has many military honors, and is the only regiment with the distinction of marching in our Parliamentary City of Ottawa with fixed bayonets. For me it was a careful decision and I was proud to be a member, in those days my patriotism was for me a duty of citizenship to help the country in any way that I could.

Becoming a Prisoner of war in Japan was something that had never entered my mind. I knew the consequences of being a soldier in the Canadian Army, I had been proud of what our country had produced in time of war. In my mind the war was to be fought in Europe.

We were sent to what was to be a Garrison Duty in Hong Kong, Japan had been making threats, but the reason given to us was that we were to relieve the British Troops that were stationed there; this was a way to free up British Forces for home service.

Our briefing included the schedule of training that we would be occupied with, and given to understand that we would begin on arrival so as to be ready for this event if and when it happened, in this way we would be in a position to have full control and build a Military Force strong enough to defend against whatever came.

Garrison Duty in Hong Kong

It did not turn out that way. Within a month of arriving there the threat became a reality, and we found ourselves trying to defend an Island that had very little flat ground, it is mostly mountains, our equipment had not arrived and our enemy was huge. We had very little training and of course I had read some accounts of wars and conflict in my life.

The pattern given about a surrender was that all of the surrendering units lined up in military order and the senior Officer would Salute the Victors and give their Senior Officer his pistol “butt” first as a sign of Surrender.

After the Japanese Army began their invasion of the Island and the major battles were lost due to the size of their forces, the fighting ended in “Bits and Pieces” which caused much tension and fear. Palm Villa, was the place that had been made R. R. C. Field Headquarters, and it was the day before Christmas 1941. Our Major McCauley had been ordered to send men onto Mount Butler with ammunition, and to reinforce our troops that were fighting there.

I was to be included; as we were being readied to leave, an urgent message arrived to say that our troops had been driven off. “Another change” this is the way it had gone for the past seventeen days and nights.

We then were immediately given another assignment; eight or ten men were to take up a post across the bay from Stanley Village, we proceeded under the command of a Lieut and myself, we arrived at our destination between midnight and 2am, we could not see far in the dark and had no idea of what our terrain looked like, there was little cover and we dare not expose ourselves. Just as we arrived and settled into our position a Japanese scout party passed close enough that we could hear them.

We did not shoot for fear of giving our position away but we did throw hand-grenades amongst them. As daylight came we were able to take stock of our position. We managed to find some scrub-brush to take shelter in. Then we shared a tin of “bully beef “ three men to a tin, then we rested for a couple of hours, sleep was impossible.

Christmas Day 1941

Suddenly without warning the enemy opened up with machine guns; the whole mountainside seemed to be full of them, it was difficult to tell where it was all coming from. They had spotted us and we had very little cover, we were defending ourselves with rifles, bullets began to kick up the dirt, our officer ordered us to find a better position for shelter.

Four of us ran for a cliff nearby and as we ran the branches of the scrub-brush we were in began to be cut off with enemy bullets. We jumped over the cliff and dropped quite a few feet before we found a small ledge. While trying to save ourselves from going further down the cliff, our rifles fell beyond our reach.

Suddenly a loud voice was heard, it came from a Japanese Officer with a megaphone. He made this announcement “The Island has surrendered, I give you safe passage to cross the valley to my post”. He gave this order in perfect English; this was the same place that we had occupied during the night. We did not have much time to decide were faced with no other option, they were prepared to cut us down, we made our way to where he was.

We did not know what to expect. When we arrived where the Officer was with his men, we were asked for our identification. The Japanese Officer walked up and down with his drawn Samurai sword.

My feelings were a relief from exhaustion, everything would soon be over, I was aware of my consequences, lack of sleep made the situation more acceptable, all the men were quiet this is a sign of fear in them also, I suppose one could say that I had become docile. Because of lack of sleep for days meant exhaustion, I did not really comprehend the situation I was in. Everything was so quiet, no guns firing, or noise from anywhere.

That afternoon the Japanese marched us across the Island to Happy Valley Race Track, and there they tied our hands together and then tied us all together. We had passed some of our pillboxes on the way and places where some of the soldiers in them were tied together and bayoneted or shot, we were left alone and I drifted off to sleep thinking of the many Christmases that I had that were a lot more pleasant than this one.

It had rained so we were able to get a drink in the puddles of water; there was no food since the “Three men to a tin”. That day Major McCauley’s prediction had come true, “More meal hours than meals would be our lot”.

Next day we were taken to where the Indian Troops had been made prisoner, then we were taken to North Point, which was being made into a Prisoner of War Camp. It had been built by the British to house the many Chinese Refugees that had fled in order to escape the War that the Japanese were waging when they invaded China.

We soon found out that the place was infested with bed bugs, lice and flees. Here we were met by the remnants of our Regiment and then I knew that the Japanese meant to keep us alive. Every one seemed to be discussing the possibilities of liberation, some had it that Chiang Kai-shek would, others had it that the British would come to our rescue.

I somehow felt that these were false hopes. We had come to know the general attitude of our captors from the shoving; slapping and being yelled at, we also never forgot the comrades we passed that had been murdered with their hands tied.

We must remember them as we contemplate the cost they paid for our freedom.

Ralph MacLean, Royal Rifles of Canada, POW Jan 1942 - Aug 1945

 Return to Hong Kong, 1941

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