The Jack Ford Story: Newfoundland's POW in Nagasaki

By Jack Fitzgerald

When the atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki on August 9, 1945, Jack Ford was there - in a prisoner of war camp. In this riveting story, he shares his memories of that horrific time in his life, his rescue and his long-awaited journey home.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Breakwater Books Ltd
• Release date: Nov 1, 2007
• ISBN: 9781771030274

Jack Fitzgerald

Jack Fitzgerald has worked as a journalist and political columnist with the St. John’s Daily News; a reporter and public affairs writer with CJON and VOCM news; and as the editor of The Newfoundland Herald and Newfoundland Chronicle. He lives in St. John’s.

Book preview

INTRODUCTION

Most of us are ordinary people who, despite our efforts, live ordinary lives. Jack Ford has the appearance of an ordinary man. Pass him on the street or see him in a crowd – he’s a regular person, just like the rest of us. Ask him about his World War II experience as a POW (Prisoner of War) in Japan, and he instantly becomes larger – unintentionally but dramatically.

Jack Fitzgerald has taken Jack Ford’s story and exposed the savagery inflicted on Ford and his fellow prisoners in detail. Camp Fukuoka, the prisoner of war camp where he was held, was rampant with rodents. The POWs were infested with lice. Guards constantly taunted them. Long hours of labour in the Mitsubishi Shipyards exhausted their bodies and spirits. A diet of meager rations of rice reduced healthy men to mere skeletons. Those of us who have grown up in a civilized society will find it difficult to understand the physical and psychological assaults endured by these men.

This is a story of determination, of perseverance. It is a dramatic accounting of events which demanded unusual strength of character. The story of Jack Ford and his comrades in one of Japan’s wartime prisons will live long in the memories of its readers.

BOB RUMSEY

RETIRED SCHOOL TEACHER

ST. JOHN’S, NL

CHAPTER 1

JACK FORD ENLISTS

IN ROYAL AIR FORCE

The Kamakura Maru struggled through the China Sea on its way to deliver fifteen hundred POWs to Japan. These prisoners were destined to work as slave labourers, replacing Japanese workers being conscripted into the maw of the powerful Japanese war machine. This former Japanese passenger ship, now turned into a POW transport vessel, was tossed from side to side, rode the tip of a giant wave and crashed downward into the sea only to resume the same motions repeatedly. Unlike some of the other Japanese carriers which forced POWs to remain in the ships’ holds for the entire trip, the POWs on the Kamakura Maru were crowded onto the decks and kept there for the two-week trip that took them from Singapore to Formosa, then to Japan. It proved to be a tormenting and stressful ordeal for the prisoners.

The POWs had very little room to rest. There were no sleeping quarters; prisoners had to lie down on the deck to sleep. There was nothing except the railings of the Kamakura Maru, and the tattered and worn, discarded Chinese Army uniforms they wore to shield them from the biting cold wind sweeping in from the China Sea. The swift change in temperature encountered on the trip caused many prisoners to become ill, and many of them died. The temperature was 100 degrees Fahrenheit when the ship left Singapore in late November 1942. As it sailed north into the China Sea, temperatures dipped to winter levels, and the POWs huddled together to keep warm. It was absolutely forbidden for a prisoner to go inside the ship, even for toilet needs. Their captors had constructed wooden, scaffold-like latrines on the sides of the ship for the POWs to use. One of those prisoners was Jack Ford from Port aux Basques, a small community on the west coast of Newfoundland.

When Ford joined the RAF in 1940, the Pacific War had not yet started. Jack had never heard of a place called Singapore even though he had monitored the radio at home and at work for every mention of the war that was raging in Europe. News from the battlefront was not encouraging. Hitler was invading country after country and England was in a precarious situation. The United States was still a neutral country. Ford knew deep inside that the day would come when he would have to take up arms and fight to defend his country. Not that I was looking forward to it, mind you, Ford explained, but when your country calls you, then the cards are on the table. You either volunteer or you stay home.

Although only twenty-one years old, Jack already had three-and-a-half years experience behind him as a machinist with the Newfoundland Railway. It was a job that offered security and a good future. One day, Jack was on a lunch break from his job and had gone to the local post office to pick up the family mail. As he was leaving, his attention focused on a proclamation being put up by Magistrate John Pius Mulcahey from St. John’s, who had come to Port aux Basques that day to conduct the circuit court proceedings.

Ford stepped closer so that he could read the poster. The day he had long anticipated had arrived. The proclamation was from Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill appealing for volunteers to join in the war effort. The message contained Churchill’s most famous quotation; I have nothing to offer you but blood, sweat, toil, and tears. Years later, after experiencing Japanese brutality and surviving an atomic bomb attack, Ford would recall the Churchill pledge with a touch of humour, Churchill gave all he promised and more.

Ford didn’t hesitate. As he left the post office, his decision had already been made. He was going to accept the Churchill challenge and stand with thousands of other Newfoundlanders in defending his country and freedom.¹

Although he was still a single man, Ford had a girlfriend. He described how they met:

I met Margaret Payne at a church-sponsored Basket Hop in 1938. Basket Hops were popular social gatherings in those days, especially for the young crowd. They were called Basket Hops because we all brought along a food basket and midway through the dance there would be a break for something to eat. I remember the night well. There was accordion music playing, the dance floor was crowded and everyone was having a wonderful time. I got up enough nerve, and I went over and invited Margaret out for a dance and she said ‘yes.’ We danced the rest of the night together. After that, we began seeing each other regularly. It was the start of our life-long relationship.

I never doubted that Margaret or my parents would support my decision to join the Air Force. Although Margaret didn’t like the idea of me going off to war, she knew me well enough to respect my decision. She supported me all the way. After all, there was a war going on, and volunteers were going overseas from all over the west coast of Newfoundland. When I told Margaret of my decision, she gave me encouragement, and she promised to wait for me.

When some of Ford’s friends questioned his decision to abandon a good job to go to war with all the risks that entailed, he replied:

My country calls me and I have no choice but to go. Germany was giving us a rough time, and remember, we nearly lost it. Not that I was a saviour, but many hands made light work. I volunteered and then shortly after, went to Corner Brook and then on to St. John’s.

Ford described the events that followed his decision:

I went to Corner Brook and got a medical. There I joined the Royal Air Force, but in order to get in, I had to go to St. John’s and be attested² in the Royal Artillery. This attestation was carried out down at the King George V Building on Water Street. I was given an Army number so that I could get to England and join the Royal Air Force. That’s how it was done if you were joining the RAF in Newfoundland. After receiving my number, I was sent to the Church Lads’ Brigade Armory on Military Road for my square-bashing.³ This lasted about two or three weeks then I was sent to England."

Those going overseas had to wait until a convoy was ready to cross the Atlantic. British intelligence had learned that there was a large concentration of German U-Boats in the Cape Race area. From that area they would launch their attacks on ships crossing the Atlantic. It was this intelligence which led to the practice of sending ships from Newfoundland to join up with larger convoys leaving Halifax. According to the History of the Royal Canadian Navy:

This action began to counter U-boat thrusts south of Cape Race. The Admiralty ordered escorts to Halifax to provide coverage west of the Newfoundland rendezvous, which took place just as the RCN was attempting to establish its Newfoundland operation on a firm footing. To solidify these emergency arrangements, long range sloops and corvettes would run between the Canadian coast and Iceland, and shorter range destroyers from St. John’s would provide reinforcements east of Newfoundland. Although the extended run put a serious strain on men in the long-range escorts, it offered the possibility of reducing the very great costs of base development at St. John’s while allowing the new Canadian ships to work from Halifax, where they could be supported more adequately.⁴

The northern route, followed by the convoys, was not popular among military strategists. Rear Admiral L. Murray noted, …the long diversion to the north drained the fuel of escorts and reduced the scope for evasive routing. Other senior officers agreed and felt this long route meant encounters with Atlantic storms that presented a fatal danger to the convoys.

When it was safe to leave St. John’s to join the convoy on the mainland, Ford and the other volunteers were instructed to go down to Harvey’s Pier and board the Nova Scotia. Ford explained:

Ships could not leave here without a convoy. Once you stuck your nose out through the narrows, you could be torpedoed. It was the early part of August when we left St. John’s with the Bell Isle and a couple of other ships. We headed for Halifax to join a much larger convoy to travel across the Atlantic. Before crossing the Atlantic, we headed south to Bermuda, picked up more ships, then headed north towards Greenland.

Ford got his first glimpse of the devastation of the war when his convoy came under attack by German U-boats. This was an intense period of the convoy trip. Ford recalled:

Crossing the Atlantic at any time during the war was dangerous. We were always conscious of the possibility of being torpedoed. Sailing through oceans of pulpwood, parts of ships and other floating cargo, the remains of convoy ships that had been torpedoed, was nerve-racking. Nobody knows how much we actually sailed through. We had to be really cautious and alert for an attack that might come at any time. We had several alarms on the way that prompted us to take ‘abandon ship’ positions. We were attacked by U-boats on several occasions. Four or five vessels in our convoy were sunk. We could see and hear the explosions when the torpedoes hit. We witnessed the battles when our escorts attacked the U-boats. We were angry and saddened to know that others in our convoy were being killed, but there was nothing we could do about it except pray. It seemed that about every hundred miles we would run into debris and broken lifeboats from ships sunk by the U-boats. It made you think about what this war had in store for us. We had about forty ships in our convoy by the time we left. We sailed towards Iceland and came down through the Irish Sea. This was done for safety reasons because of the many German U-boats patrolling the Atlantic. England was not prepared for war and at this time they were still short of destroyers and cruisers, so convoys were very important in getting supplies and troops to England. The trip took us seventeen days. We arrived in England on September 3, 1940. I was on the Nova Scotia which went to Liverpool; others in the convoy went to South Hampton.

The new recruits were happy when they finally arrived in port. Ford described their feeling:

Liverpool, although it had been bombed by the German Air Force, was a welcome sight. There was a general sense of relief for having survived the crossing. Many of the volunteers threw away their coats and hats because they were so happy they had arrived on soil after seventeen days at sea.

Among those arriving to join the RAF were seven Newfoundlanders. The day after their arrival, the volunteers were sent to the Army camp at Brook House in Sussex. Also stationed at Sussex were the 57th⁵ and 59th Newfoundland Artillery Regiments. The British displayed a strong sense of humour during this time of great crisis in their country. They jokingly referred to the German bombs dropping in their cities as the Bob Hopes. To avoid a dropping bomb you bobbed away and hoped it would miss you.

Hitler was confident that Germany had won the war after the Battle of Dunkirk. All that remained was for his troops to cross the English Channel and take over that country. At this point, both England and Germany were interpreting circumstances differently. Hitler firmly believed that the only reason Britain had not surrendered was that it expected the United States or Russia to come to its aid. The British, however, felt that Germany would face a severe economic crisis by mid-1941. According to British Air Chief Marshal Sir Michael Armitage, It was a classic case of reciprocal mis-appreciation.

Germany had clear superiority on land and in the air. Hitler could justifiably boast of 120 Army divisions with a recent string of military successes to their credit in Poland and in France. The Luftwaffe held massive strength and capability throughout Europe with 3000 fighters and bombers.

Against Hitler’s 121 Army divisions, Britain had only twenty-one divisions, lacking in adequate arms and equipment. The Royal Air Force strength was 1200 aircraft, less than half the German strength.

At sea, the story was quite different. Britain was in clear control of the seas. Germany had a total of 111 vessels, including forty destroyers and sixty submarines. The British outnumbered the German Navy three to one, with its 330 vessels that included 250 destroyers, five aircraft carriers and sixty cruisers.

The German strategy was to overcome British naval superiority with the German Luftwaffe ‘Air Force.’ Hitler had set the date for the invasion of England as July 6, 1940 in a secret operation named ‘Sealion.’ Some German military advisers were less optimistic of their chances for success with the invasion plans. They argued that the Luftwaffe could not be expected to decimate the RAF and still have enough power to provide air protection for the invading forces.

During the three months after Dunkirk, while the Germans debated their next move, England was moving rapidly to replace lost equipment. In just three months, they had built over 1400 aircraft. Along the English coast, they installed 1000 heavy artillery guns, 600 light pieces, manufactured 3000 machine guns, installed 4000 search lights and had organized a Civilian Observers Corp. England also had the advantage of the recently invented radar which could detect the approach of enemy planes.⁶

The Battle of Britain began in mid-August. By the end of September, Britain had won, forcing Hitler to delay, then drop his invasion plans. The outnumbered RAF fighter pilots flew six to eight missions daily, and were in constant combat.

In the British House of Commons on August 20, 1940, Sir Winston Churchill paid tribute to the airmen with his famous quote, Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.

Jack Ford was beginning his military training just as the Battle of Britain was ending.

When we arrived at Sussex, we were still in the Army and under Army control, remarked Ford. Jack and the men with him received basic training at Sussex and were given their vaccinations. Those going to the RAF were given military uniforms and new identification numbers. From Sussex, the RAF volunteers were moved to the Air Force base at Uxbridge for a short stay, then went to Bridgenorth to undergo another six months of training. Ford recalled the training:

We trained for six months every day on the parade ground, and after that we started our trade test to prepare us for the jobs we would be doing in the Air Force. This period gave us a chance to adjust to the military. We then went down to a place called Kirkham in Lancashire where we did rifle and foot drills after which we had to take a passing out test. A good friend of mine throughout this was Ralph Collier, who was well known in St. John’s as a hockey player with the Feildians. In addition to our military training, we did six months training in aero-mechanics. You specialized in airplane mechanics, airplane frame construction or airplane electronics. Once you had finished your trade, you were singled out and told what job you would be assigned. Some became air-craft mechanics, others specialized in engine repairs and others became electricians or worked on building airplane frames. I was a flight engineer or flight mechanic. My job was to keep the plane engine in running condition at all times.

One of the courses given in 1941 to many of the soldiers in England dealt with how to detect a gas attack. It was a carryover from the First World War. The instructors explained that different gases could be identified by their own distinctive odours. To make it easier for them to remember, a copy of the following poem was passed out.

If you get a choking feeling

and a smell of musty hay,

You can bet your bottom dollar

That there’s phosgene on the way.

But the smell of bleaching powder

will inevitably mean

That the enemy you are meeting

Is the gas that’s named chlorine.

When your eyes begin a-twitching

and for tears you cannot see,

it’s not mother peeling onions,

but that damn gas C.A.P.

If the smell resembles pear drops

Then you’d better not delay,

It’s not the youngster sucking toffee,

but that tear gas, K.S.K.

Should you sniff a pungent odour

As you’re going home for tea,

you can bet your shirt on it

that