Walking Out
John Hoosha and I had been in the hospital together for a long time, and we
developed a friendship that carried on after we were liberated.
One day we set out to visit the Prince Robert, still docked in Kowloon. On the
way we passed a Japanese guard house, and boldly entered, to see about thirty or
forty Japanese soldiers sitting around a long table.
In an adjoining room they had stacked all their rifles and Swords. We helped
ourselves to a couple of samurai swords each, and started out the door.
One of the Japs approached us with a clip board and made motions that we
should sign for the swords. The army is the army! So we humoured them by
signing. I signed "Clark Gable" the first fictitious name that came to mind.
We proceeded on to the Prince Robert, where we were received royally, and
offered anything we wanted in the way of food and drink. I remember biting into a
slice of buttered white bread, the most delicious thing I had tasted in four years!
I gave one of my swords to a young sailor on the ship. I have often wondered if
he still has it. I still have mine, on loan, perhaps permanently, to the Bay Chaleur
Military Museum.
Transportation
We met a native Chinese who had obviously been a man of substance in pre-war
Hong Kong. He owned a car which he had dismantled in 1941 when the invasion
took place, and he had placed the motor in one section of Kowloon, the
transmission in another, and so on.
He done this to prevent his car from being used by the invaders. When hostilities
were safely over, he re-assembled the parts and had his car back again.
He must have thought he somehow owed us a debt of gratitude for our failed
attempt at defending his home, so he lent us his car to roam the city.
And roam the city we did! Bottles of Napoleon brandy had mysteriously found
their way back into circulation. We raided a Japanese warehouse and availed
ourselves of some woolen blankets which were eagerly accepted for bottles of the
finest French Cognac.
The same family one day invited us to share a meal with them. It was a sumptuous
affair! There were bottles of scotch, gin, brandy, and wine. We were seated
around a big round table, on which the gracious lady of the house , and a servant,
served course after course of Chinese delicacies, and urged us to help ourselves.
The meal lasted most of the afternoon. Never before or since have I been served
more graciously, or has my appetite for food been so satisfied!
The car the Chinese gentleman had lent us was carbureted to burn alcohol. We
found a Japanese fuel dump that had 45 gallon drums of the stuff. While
attempting to get some of the alcohol for the car, I was accosted by a patrol from
one of the British ships in the harbour.
I was dressed in some clothes I had scrounged from somewhere, a pair of army
shorts, an army cap, and a pair of knee-length rubber Boots.  When I answered
them in English, they wanted to know what army I belonged to. I had trouble
convincing them that I was a recently liberated POW.
Farewell to Hong Kong
Before long, probably about the first of September, we were assembled and
loaded aboard the Empress of Australia
I had over-indulged in all the good food that had been provided and became quite
ill. It was diagnosed as "jaundice". I was very nauseated and my skin became
yellow.
By the time we sailed I had recovered, and arrived in Manila in relatively good
health, after a tryingly, slow voyage from Hong Kong.
In Manila we were billeted in tents in an American Army Camp. There I met some
old friends who had arrived there from POW camps join Japan, as well as a large
number of liberate American POWs. I remember especially Elden MacWhirter,
with whom I had joined up in 1940.
Manila