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Conflict can bring a lot of
sadness to the world, however it doesn’t
always affect all of us in a personal way.
As we know, there are many who suffered and
gave their lives in the name of freedom but
how much do we actually appreciate that sacrifice?
How much do we really understand why the sacrifice
was made? What of those who survived, where
are they today? Our forgotten heroes, “A
cliché” I hear you say, I know
but they really are forgotten heroes.
Many have their own individual stories to tell, of their journeys to unknown
destinations, their time spent at these destinations and on being captured,
their journey home after being liberated by the Allies. Even as death continued
to pursue them, some managed to maintain humour beyond belief. Many of these
forgotten heroes still live among us today in society, now our elders, they
pass us by on a daily basis completely unnoticed and in some cases uncared
for. This is the story of just one of them, Tom Gylee, a Far East Prisoner
of War.
On 22nd September 1941 Japanese troops invaded North Indo China, this was the
start of the war in South East Asia.
A Japanese general Tomoyuki Yamashita was given the task of capturing the whole
of South East Asia before 16th March 1942.
He had at his disposal three divisions which consisted of Yamashita’s
25th Army, the then considered best Japanese troops and he was also provided
with the most up to date air power.
On 7th December 1941 the island of Bataan was invaded by the Japanese, then
on 8th December 1941 Singapore was bombed, as a result, Britain declared war
on Japan.
On 25th February 1942 news of the imminent invasion of Java came to light,
thirty thousand Allied troops were positioned on the island already but they
were not prepared for what was to follow. The Japanese landed on the island
on 1st March 1942 and the island finally fell on 5th. All Allied troops capitulated
on 8th March 1942 and became Prisoners of War. They didn’t know it at
the time but many of them would die through disease and neglect as a result
of their Japanese captors failures to comply with the terms of the Geneva Convention.
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