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Don’t forget the Japanese POW camps

Times Colonist 13 Aug 2022

In response to a letter decrying the use of the atomic bomb in Japan

Hindsight has 20/20 vision and so does history. My father fought in the Battle of Hong Kong. Few people know about this battle but it was the first battle Canadians fought in the Second World War. It was a disaster.

Untrained, poorly equipped young men were sent to a British colony to protect it from battle-hardened Japanese troops. Hong Kong was surrendered on Christmas Day, 1941.

The Royal Rifles and the Winnipeg Grenadiers were captured and sent to POW camps that were just as bad as concentration camps in Germany.

They stayed there, starving, tortured and dying until August 1945, when the dropping of the atomic bombs freed them. Released, many of them died on the way home.

I was lucky my father made it home weighing 85 pounds and spent the next two years in Deer Lodge hospital being treated for a variety of diseases and problems due to the horrific conditions.

I, two brothers and many other people would not have been here without those bombs being dropped — so I say bravo for the United States for ending the war.

Catherine Sarginson
Victoria