Kobe House - Stories

Kobe House - stories

1) Christmas 1943 at Kobe House

NX26154 - DANDIE, Alexander (Alex), L/Sgt. - HQ Coy. Ord. Room

"I am reminded of the Christmas Eve 1943, when we returned to "Kobe House”, Kobe, Japan after the day's toil, we found that the walking sick in camp, the camp staff and the officers had been able to festoon the lights on the stairs with Christmas Greetings; for us Australians on the 1st floor "Merry Christmas Digger"; for the Royal Scots "Merry Christmas Jock", just made up from brown paper and cardboard and coloured with chalk. A small job but what a buzz of laughter at the sight of the signs."

(Source: Alex Dandie - Makan No. 231, Dec, 1976)

2) Kawasaki Camp

NX26154 - DANDIE, Alexander (Alex), L/Sgt. - HQ Coy. Ord. Room

"At the Assembly point on Anzac Day your scribe was asked, if he had seen an item in the Sydney Sun Newspaper for the evening of 24th April, selected extracts from the diary of a member of 8 Div. Sigs., Leo Ryan, which diary had been found on a rubbish tip in Willoughby, in 1946, and contained, not only, details of Changi experiences, but also Kobe and Fukuoka, Japan.

The whole of what appeared in the "Sun" has been given to me and, "I'm able to say," that Sig. Ryan was in the other Kobe camp to that, which was known as "Kobe House" at which "J" Force arrived on 8/6/43.

This other camp was known to us as the "Kawasaki Camp” as its Ps.O.W. were employed in the Kawasaki Ship Yards, and had been "C" Force, comprised mainly of fitters and turners and the like. We did move to their camp on 6/6/45 when our "Kobe House" was burnt down in an American Incendiary bombing, which destroyed about half the city. But on the 19th June I left with a party of about 130 to go to the other side of the island, to Nomachi, for wharf lumping tasks as at Kobe.

One interesting thing about the men in this other, the "Kawasaki Camp" was that they were able to sabotage some of the ships, which they helped build. Whenever we did any stevedoring on ships in Kobe Harbour, we saw an aircraft carrier beached outside the artificial wall of the harbour. When launched it immediately began to take in water, because the Ps.O.W. working on the rivetting of the plates, so it was said, were able to leave a rivet, every so often, so badly fixed, that it did not hold, when the launching took place.

When home, Karl Sinclair read a book, written by 2 Japanese, in conjunction with a Martin Caidin. It was called "Zero” and subtitled, "The Story of the Japanese Navy Air Force 1937 - 1945". He found and copied part, relating to that, damaged carrier. It was named "Ikoma"; had a displacement of 20,450 tons and length of 223.00 metres; was capable of carrying 63 aircraft, the ship-building yard was named as "Kawasaki Heavy Industry”, and remarks were, "Launched but not completed; damaged near the end of the war." (that damage was by American bomber attack, where she was beached).

(Source: Alex Dandie - Makan No. 254, May/Jul, 1980)

3) Toya Steel

NX26154 - DANDIE, Alexander (Alex), L/Sgt. - HQ Coy. Ord. Room
NX47322 - GRIFFIS, Henry Alfred (Poly), Pte. - D Company, 18 Platoon
NX47759 - JOHNSTON, George Evan (Joe), Pte. - D Company, 18 Platoon

"I worked with KEITH HOOPER (2/10th Fld. Regt), whose death you reported last "MAKAN”, at Toya Steel in Japan. Our job was rolling out steel cylinders to a spot, where two chanting Japs, using a yoke and rope rig, loaded them on to a cart. (For a time I was one of 2 or 3 who used Jack Hammers to open up any holes, cracks, etc and smooth down those openings, so that no air could be trapped there, before the cylinders went to the next stage in whatever they were manufacturing and, as they were solid cylinders, those chanting Japs, HARRY mentions, had some job. Ed - Alex Dandie).

Incidentally, it was at this foundry, that 'Joe' JOHNSTON had his big toe nearly severed, when a piece of scrap iron, fell from a barrow. If my memory is correct, he was taken by rickshaw to a Jap Doctor, who sewed the toe back in place and did it well.

Another memorable day at Toya was marked by a violent earth tremor, when towering chimney stacks swayed like trees in a gale and the ground rocked so furiously, that puddle holes of water swilled all over the yard.

Together again at Nomachi, on the wharves, KEITH, although weakened by asthma, showed great courage in battling the conditions, under which we worked."

(Source: Harry Griffis - Makan No. 239, Jan/Feb, 1978)

4) Changi typewriter

NX26154 - DANDIE, Alexander (Alex), L/Sgt. - HQ Coy. Ord. Room
NX67447 - PURDON, Arthur Henry Maitland, WO1 - BHQ, RSM

He is one, whom I have not seen since 1943, but he picked me out, when I leaned on his table and asked how he was, to ask me if I had been able to bring home a typewriter, he had given me in Changi. I had to tell him no such luck. It was easy, when the search was at the wharves in Singapore, a convenient pile of concrete pipes were receptacles for everything the whole of the party did not want the Japs to see, and in true Nippon style they looked only at what we laid down in front of us, with never a look into the pipes. The typewriter went on board the freighter with me, on to the train in Japan, and was not looked at, although I left it with all the rest of my gear for the search on the Kobe baseball grounds. Inside the camp it had to go to the office to be locked away with all other valuables of others on the party and, on 5 Jun 1945, when the Yanks dropped their incendiaries on Kobe with a stick of bombs into our warehouse camp, the typewriter was forgotten, in any case none of those valuables were obtainable, all were destroyed in the fire.

(Source: Makan No. 243, Oct/Nov, 1978)

5) Woollen blanket

NX51660 - CAREY, John Peter (Jack), Pte. - D Company, 18 Platoon
NX10661 - CAREY, Luke Robert, Pte. - HQ Company, Mortar Platoon
NX47685 - WELLS, Robert Frederick (Hook), Pte. - D Company, 18 Platoon

"I slept beside Luke for almost 2½ years in Kobe, Japan, and his outgoing personality helped, not only me, but all, who came in contact with him. Luke was a good natured, caring, sharing chap, and if he had a smoke, I had a smoke; if he had a tin of salmon, I expected and got half.

One regret I have, as far as Luke is concerned. I salvaged enough woollen scarves in Changi to sew together to make a blanket, thinking that it might come in handy sometime. In Kobe it sure did in winter. The big plus there was that bugs would not crawl over wool. I slept with that blanket under me. I regret that Luke got my share of bugs.

We also survived the trauma of Yankee bombing of Kobe on 17 March 1945, with the steel doors to our warehouse barracks locked and bars and shutters on windows, not knowing what was to be our fate. It was not until the worst of the bombing was over that we were allowed out, to cross to the nearby park. Both Jack and Luke had been moved to another camp before a second Yankee bombing burnt the camp down on 6 June 1945.

We also survived the ill treatment of the sadistic guards. As one of our fellow Yankee mates of Kobe House has commented - "People, who were not there, will never really know, what it was like to be a P.O.W. and go through the confinement, hunger, ill treatment by such as the Japanese, the withholding of medical supplies, Red Cross parcels,mail to and from home. P.O.W. life was a great character builder, but I would not take a million for the experience, nor ten million to go through it again."

After the St Patrick's Day bombing, Jack and Luke were transferred from Kobe on 19 May 1945 to a camp at Maibara on Lake Biwa, in the centre of the island of Honshu. They were able to remain together because the selection was on an alphabetical basis of all surnames A to Co. Here they were engaged in building a dyke to reclaim land under a small lake to plant rice as a boost to Japan's falling food supplies, owing to the success of the Yank Submarine attacks on supply boats from other Asian countries. The position of Lake Biwa in the centre of the island afforded the American bombers a landmark gathering point for their armadas as they battered Japan, but there was a certain anxiety for the Ps.O.W. because of the proximity of their camp to the staging point, and also because railway marshalling yards were nearby.

The dropping of the Atom Bombs and the Japanese capitulation saved the lives of all PsO.W. of the Japanese then in all camps other than those in Borneo, and other casualties, if the Japanese mainland had had to be attacked.

(Source: Eulogy for Luke Carey, by Bob Wells, 2/30 Battalion Archives)

6) O'Hamagui job

NX70441 - GREER, Bruce John Kirkwood, Lt. - HQ Company, O/C Pioneer Platoon

Bruce reported that he had been on his son, Ross' property for three weeks (but never again in winter, if it can be avoided, as he doesn't appreciate working with snow falling and a lazy wind blowing) helping to erect shelters for Ross' Quarter horse mares. (Those of us who, in Kobe, Japan, worked on the O'Hamagui job and had to take picks to break out the coal from its ice in the coal trucks, after they had been travelling during the night snow storms and had to work in the sleet and snow in the Railway Goods Yards without anything to protect us, know just how you would have felt, Bruce. ED).
(Source: Makan No. 235, Jun/Jul, 1977)

7) Either side of Alex

NX10661 - CAREY, Luke Robert, Pte. - HQ Company, Mortar Platoon
NX47845 - OLLEY, Alexander George (Dadda or Alex), Pte. - D Company, 18 Platoon
NX47685 - WELLS, Robert Frederick (Hook), Pte. - D Company, 18 Platoon

"Bob Wells & Luke Carey will prepare statements, as they each slept either side of Alex at Kobe House".

(Source: Makan No. 264, Jan/March, 1982)

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Last updated 29/08/2022