Maibara - Stories

Maibara - stories

1) Hunger a Good Sauce in Japan???? Not Quite .... But...

NX47308 - ANDERSON, Mervyn William (Merv), Pte. - D Company, 18 Platoon
NX32814 - BLACK, Stanley Bertram (Stan), Pte. - HQ Company, Q. Store Platoon
NX604 - BRIDGES, Robert George (Bob), Pte. - D Company, 17 Platoon
NX29116 - BROWN, Raymond John Tresillian (Ray), Pte. - B Company, 12 Platoon
NX51660 - CAREY, John Peter (Jack), Pte. - D Company, 18 Platoon
NX10661 - CAREY, Luke Robert, Pte. - HQ Company, Mortar Platoon

When Jack Carey was told of Bob's death, he reminded your scribe that Bob and he had been shifted away from the original 300 Australians on "J" Force at Kobe, Japan. Their little party being sent from Kobe to a place called Maibara. The method of selecting the men to go on the party, being an arbitrary one of detailing those, whose surnames commenced with the first letters of the alphabet, A.B.C. etc until the quota was filled. The reduction in numbers on their departure was filled by the arrival of an equal number from one of the other P.O.W Camps in the neighbourhood, the Japs thinking to break-up any sort of organization towards a break-out or the like.

The work carried on at Maibara was reclaiming of land which was intended to be devoted to agriculture, the Allies activities having reduced the Japanese import of foodstuffs from nearby countries.

At the lunchbreak, the P.O.W. occupied themselves fishing for clams in the mud. Those, who were good divers, stripping, to dive down into the waters of the lake, feeling round in the mud, and landing their catch on the bank, where they were taken by men, who were not so very good at swimming, and cooked for all to eat. The party did not have salt and the shellfish when chewed were tough, as though they were chewing rubber, but yet they provided something other than plain rice for the meals.

Bob Bridges, not being one off the expert swimmers and divers, pulled his weight in helping with the cooking.

Others of the Battalion there being Jack's brother, Luke, and Ray Brown, Merv. Anderson and Stan Black.

(Source: Jack Carey - Makan No. 257, Oct/Nov, 1980)

2) A prime target

NX47308 - ANDERSON, Mervyn William (Merv), Pte. - D Company, 18 Platoon
NX32814 - BLACK, Stanley Bertram (Stan), Pte. - HQ Company, Q. Store Platoon
NX604 - BRIDGES, Robert George (Bob), Pte. - D Company, 17 Platoon
NX29116 - BROWN, Raymond John Tresillian (Ray), Pte. - B Company, 12 Platoon
NX51660 - CAREY, John Peter (Jack), Pte. - D Company, 18 Platoon
NX10661 - CAREY, Luke Robert, Pte. - HQ Company, Mortar Platoon

I am very sorry to hear of the death of Bob Bridges. It is only through the Makan that I could have known I was at Maibara after Kobe with him and the other A.B. and Cs from "Kobe House". It was by no means a haven towards the last months of the war, being opposite a Locomotive Depot, a "Prime Target".

Liberation saw me rounded up and taken to Yokohama, thence to Manilla by the Yanks, who were treating us like VIPs. We came back to Sydney on the H.M.S. Formidable, (English Aircraft Carrier) to a welcome by my wife Phyllis never to be forgotten.

(Source: Stan Black - Makan No. 258, Dec, 1980)

3) 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)

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Last updated 29/08/2022