Foreword

      To the children and students of Mukaishima,

The result of the invaluable but severe lesson the we, Japanese, learned through World War II, which changed everything, was the Constitution of Japan and the Fundamentals of the Education Act.

In order to realize the lofty ideals of these documents, we all need to move forward in the study of peace.

War uproots human life which is more precious than the earth, and scrambles the right to live abundantly.

 We must, first of all, face up to these facts. Actually, one of these World War II facts is close to us right here in Mukaishima.

At this time, teachers from the Social Study Group of the Mukaishima Elementary School Training Institute have taken advantage of the establishment of the Japan-U.K. Friendship Monument as an opportunity to complete this book which describes the tragic reality that occurred on Mukaishima during the war.

I hope you will make good use of this book so that you may live in the 21st century free from war.

Thank you.

―――――Katsuhiko Hayashibara, Superintendent of Education, the Mukaishima Board of Education

               C o n t e n t s

1. Peace and Friendship Ceremony-----------

2. The Prison Camp in Mukaishima----------------------

Mr. Carter who was taken prisoner----------------------

The prison camp where Mr. Caｒter lived-----------------

Life in the prison camp---------------------------------------

Meals at the prison camp------------------------------------

Work at the prison camp-------------------------------------

3. Striving for peace---------------------------------------------

The plaque for commemorating the history-------------

A park was built based on the theme “Time”-----

The Peace and Friendship Monument ----------------

Reference Materials---------------------------------------------

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1. The Peace and Friendship Ceremony

  On March 19, 2002, a small park called “Time Mini Palco” was completed near Mukaishima Junior High School. A celebration for the completion of the park was attended by many people including the town mayor, Koichiro Sugihara, the construction staff members, elementary school children from Mukaishima Central Elementary School and townsfolk. Among them, there was an 81 year old English gentleman, Mr. Alfred Carter.  He came to Mukaishima all the way from distant England to attend this celebration. What then is the relationship between Mr. Carter and this small park?

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  During World War II, Japan waged war against the United States and many other countries. It was about 60 years ago. The Japanese military forces brought many prisoners of war to Japan from the battlefields of Southeast Asia. There were 91 prison camps for POWs throughout Japan, and about 36,000 men were imprisoned. In Mukaishima there was a prison camp where British, American and Canadian men were imprisoned. In 1942, 100 British men were brought to Mukaishima and one of them was Mr. Carter. Among of his comrades, who were forced to work here in Mukaishima, 23 men died from lack of food, malnutrition and resultant sickness. One of them committed suicide in despair.

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 In 1988, 53 years after the war, about 20 British people including some ex-POWs visited the site of the former Mukaishima prison camp. This led to the movement among some townsfolk to construct a monument for peace and friendship between Japan and Britain. They were verifying the scars left on the island by the war. Then, “Japan-United Kingdom Friendship Monument Society” was founded, and in 2002, a memorial plate for those 23 men who died in Mukaishima was installed on the wall of the former prison camp. Also, a monument was constructed on the island at the same time.

  Both Japanese and British national anthems were performed by the Onomichi Fire Brigade Band, and the unveiling ceremony for the monument was held. The monument “Wing of Time” engraved with the words “Peace & Friendship” was unveiled by Mr. Carter and other committee members. As he was making his speech at the ceremony, Mr. Carter seemed to gaze into the distance. What then was he looking at and how did he feel?

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2. The Prison Camp in Mukaishima

Mr. Carter who was taken prisoner：

DainichiMaru
  On December 13, the Japanese military forces began to attack the Malay Peninsula and Java in Indonesia, and took many British men  as prisoners. Mr. Carter was one of them. Then, the Japanese military transported the prisoners from Southeast countries to Japan by cargo ship.

In October, 1942, a cargo ship with British POWs including Mr. Carter on board left for Japan.

The British POWs were packed into the hold (the part of a ship below deck where goods are stored) of the ship, so they could not move freely. Indonesia is a tropical country directly below the equator. The tropical sun greatly heated the steel sides of the ship, and the high temperature and poor ventilation in the windowless hold forced the men into stifling, sultry and unbearable conditions. In the gloomy and dingy hold, they were served only three cups of hot water and a few pieces of bread each day. In the hold, where they could scarcely live, the British POWs suffered from malnutrition and diseases such as malaria and dysentery.

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November 11 witnessed the first death among them. Thereafter, the death toll increased progressively, and when the ship arrived at Takao, Taiwan, the corpses were cremated. Still after that, death continued.

In November 1942, when the weather was becoming severely cold in the morning and evening, the ship finally arrived at the port of Moji in Japan. On November 26, they were ordered off the ship only wearing the shirt, which they had worn since tropical Indonesia. Then, they were ordered to walk along the passageway which was enclosed with fences, and were transported from Moji Station to each prison camp. From among this group 100 men were imprisoned in the prison camp in Mukaishima, where we are now living.

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The prison camp where Mr. Carter lived：

The prison camp where Mr. Carter lived was in Mukaishima.  Now there is a redbrick factory with jagged roofs built on the site at Kaneyoshi, Mukaishima. It is the building of the present Mukaishima Spinning Company.  This building, constructed in 1918, was used as “Yahata Tentative Prison Camp Mukaishima Substation” from 1942 and towards the end of the war it was renamed “Hiroshima Prison Camp No. 4 Substation.”  The prison camp was enclosed by a two-meter-high fence.

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The walls of the barracks were made of brick, but the rooms inside were of rough wood and they were unpainted inside and outside. The roof of the barracks was of wood covered with fireproof sheeting. In order to avoid air raids and to have the camp identified easily, the roof had huge letters “POW” written clearly on it to be seen from the sky above.

According to the sources, on November 27, 1942, 100 British airmen were brought from Indonesia, and on September 7, 1944, 116 American soldiers were brought from the Philippines to Mukaishima.  A total of 216 British and American POWs were imprisoned in the camp during the war.

They were forced to work in a country where they did not understand the language. They were spending everyday in uncertainty here in “Hiroshima Prison Camp No. 4 Substation” at Kaneyoshi, Mukaishima, feeling “What will become of us?  And how long will this ordeal last?”

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Life in the prison camp：

  The prison camp where Mr. Carter lived only had a few dim, naked light bulbs. Whenever the air-raid alarms were sounded, all lamps were put out, and it became pitch-black throughout the camp. There was no heating system. When winter came, all the men shivered with cold everyday.

   They washed their faces and hands with water, which was pumped up from the wells. There was a big wooden bathtub in which ten men could bathe at one time. They were only allowed to bathe twice a week.

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Meals at the prison camp：

There was a kitchen house near the barracks. British or American cooks prepared the meals in large pots for all the men and they shared them. The men appeased their hunger with a soup which consisted of a small quantity of rice, beans, or barley and whatever vegetables were in season. Each man received from 350 to 700 grams of food per day, depending upon the character of the work being done. The degree of work was classed as heavy work, light work, and non-work (sick). Non-workers would draw only 350 grams. The quantity of the meals was not enough for an adult to live a day. The quality of them was extremely bad and can not to be compared with present ones.

Upon the arrival of the POWs at this Hiroshima Prison Camp No. 4 Substation (Mukaishima Prison Camp) on November 27, 1942, they were issued with one cap, one shirt, one pair of trousers and one pair of canvas shoes with rubber soles. In December, 1944, they were issued with a Japanese army winter uniform and overcoat. They were not given any more clothes. Therefore, the men had to continue to wear the same clothes, even when they were worn to tatters.        

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Work at the prison camp：

After roll call at the camp, the men marched in line to the factory (Hitachi Shipyard) every morning, and came back in the same way in the evening. Some children showered nasty language on them or threw stones or sticks at them.

They worked at the dockyard cleaning ships, hauling lumber and supplies, welding, doing black-smith work and general shop labor. These workers were paid a small daily wage. Under poor working conditions, being exposed to the cold or rainy weather and being forced to work in dangerous places they found everyday hard. And in addition there was inadequate protection against the air raids by the American forces. The shipyard was obviously a military target and very dangerous.

Their only pleasure was playing cards or reading books on Sundays, on which there was no work. Although the sick men could not easily go to the hospital, the officer strongly requested that those men who had eyes, ears, or teeth trouble could rest from their work. Some of them went to Tsuchido, Onomichi to see doctor, or an optician.

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Mr. Carter’s attendance book showed the last date of August 15, 1945. That meant that the war was over and he was no longer a POW. During about three years between November 27, 1942 and the end of the war on August 15, 1945, 23 British men died in Mukaishima. As mentioned before, in addition to unbearable conditions on the transportation ship during the voyage to Japan, they died from to the lack of food, malnutrition, cold weather and sickness. One of the men committed suicide in despair. The bodies were cremated in Mukaishima and buried at the Onomichi Municipal Cemetery.  

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After the end of the war, on August 15, 1945, American airplanes appeared in the sky over Mukaishima.  Food, clothes, and medical supplies were dropped toward the "POW" sign on the roof of the prisoner-of-war camp using parachutes.  On September 12, 1945,193 prisoners of war were released from the Hiroshima POW Camp 4^th Division in Mukaishima.  They took the train from Onomichi station, went through Fukuyama, Osaka, and Nagoya, and finally arrived at Yokohama.  They returned to their hometowns in the United Kingdom and the United States.  The bodies of POWs who passed away during the war were moved from a public graveyard in Onomichi to the Commonwealth War Grave in Yokohama City.

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Striving for Peace

A plaque commemorating history:

After the community of Kiwa-cho, Mie prefecture, erected a tombstone and held a memorial service for British POWs, former British soldiers organized a group to visit Japan.  The group has paid visits to Japan every year since 1992.  On November 2, 1998, former British soldier, Norman Widlake, and his companions visited Mukaishima.  For the first time, since they left 53 years ago, they visited the Mukaishima shipyard, where they worked, and the former POW camp (the current Mukaishima Spinning Co. building) where they lived.  Mr. Widlake was greeted by employees waving small British flags.  He recollected emotionally, "the wall and the roof are still the same.  It is wonderful that I can come here again but this time in freedom.  The work was very hard.  When I was carrying charcoal, I got a rice ball (Onigiri) from a monk.  I still remember it."  Then Mr. Widlake visited Hitachi Shipyard’s West Plant.  He said, "I was riveting here."

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After this 40 Mukaishima townsmen held a welcome party in a hotel in Onomichi.  A chorus group, The Singing Island Mixed Chorus, from Mukaishima greeted the guests by singing British folk songs and other songs.

This event led to a movement to build a monument to witness the peace between Japan and the UK and "A Group to Build a Monument Dedicated to Japan-UK Friendship" was formed.  Not only people of Mukaishima, but also many individuals from other towns also participated in the plan.  During the fund-raising activities for the monument, the group appealed by saying, "We want many people to cooperate to remember the site of the war in Mukaishima, to build Japan-UK friendship, and to build peace.”

In 2002, a plaque, commemorating the 23 British soldiers who died at the Mukaishima POW camp, was installed on the wall of Mukaishima Spinning Company’s building to pledge for an eternal peace in the world.

The monument with the names of those who died is made of stainless steel.  Its size is 2.9 meters high and 2.5 meters wide.  It was designed by the architect, KazuyosiHosoya, who grew up in Mukaishima and currently lives in Yokohama City.

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A park was built based on the theme “Time”:

The Town of Mukaishima commemorated the 50th anniversary of its township by building a park called "MINIPARUKO?TOKI" on the theme of a "time" near the Mukaishima Junior High.  In the park, a monument of Japan-UK friendship was also built with many people's support, and unveiled in a ceremony held on March 19, 2002.

This commemorative ceremony was attended by the Mayor of Mukaishima, and many other townsmen who cooperated to build the monument.  In addition, 22 British people, led by Ms. Keiko Holmes, came to Mukaishima to attend the ceremony.  

Page 16

Mr. Brown, the clerk from the British embassy, and officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs also participated in this ceremony.

This park has an outdoor clock as well as the monument.  In addition, an English Oak, a kind of a beech tree, was planted to commemorate peace and friendship.  (It has been transplanted to Mukaishima Athletic Park now.)  This oak tree sprouted in the UK and was cultivated there.  The tree was planted here with a desire for peace for both countries, Japan and the UK, and to deepen their friendship.

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 The Peace and Friendship Monument

"Peace and friendship" is written in Japanese calligraphy on the monument in the park.  On the top of the monument, there is a bronze statue titled "Wing of Time" made by a sculptor, Hideyuki Takahashi, from Mukaishima.  The following poetry is inscribed on the monument.

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The on the glass ceiling of the outdoor clock, you will find the following poem.

Time goes by.

But it sometimes comes back to us.

We are remembered by the time

That is our existence in this world.

This is a poem by Nobuhiko Obayashi, a film director originally from Onomichi.  Next to it, a statute of angel, made by a sculptor Hideyuki Takahashi from Mukaishima, sits gazing at the “Wing of Time” monument and over towards Mt. Senkoji on the other side of the strait.

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Epilogue

World War II was the worst event in the 20th century.  Many Japanese lives were lost in air raids and atomic bombs by the U.S. Air Forces. At the same time, many foreign people lost their lives at the hands of the Japanese Armed Forces.  The tragedy of the War is not limited to these well-known facts.  Prisoner-of-war camps are another of the tragedies.  We guess most of the readers did not know about the camp before reading this book.  Not to say that a camp existed in Mukaishima where we spend most of our time...  

The story in this book is not a "folktale."  It is a "fact" which actually took place about fifty years ago.  Only by remembering the "fact" can we build a solid peace and friendship in the future,

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Even though “Time Mini Palco“ is a very small park built on the theme of “time” of past, present, and future, our “wish” and “passion” is magnificent; they are embedded in the sculptures “children” and “Wing of Time.” Now we are living in the 21^st century.  Unfortunately, many disputes and wars still exist in some parts of the world.  Tragedies from wars remain the same.  To make the future, in which you will survive, an era in which no war exists, we encourage you to ask what you can do for your future.

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Main chronology related to the prison camp in Mukaishima