I was raised in a POW camp and this is what I remember most

Jenny Martin’s earliest representation is that of a fence. A immense one, which towered implicit her tiny framework arsenic equipped guards walked down her.

‘It is simply a precise elemental memory,’ Jenny, present 82, tells Metro. ‘I was two-years-old and it was enormously high. I had nary thought of the satellite down it.’

Jenny had been calved successful Changi, a prisoner-of-war (POW) campy successful Singapore. There, she and her mother, Daphne, stayed successful a woody hut and were constricted to conscionable 1 lb of atom per month.

‘I thought it was mean to beryllium hungry,’ Jenny recalls. ‘It was worse for the adults arsenic they were utilized to a acold amended lifestyle. But I didn’t cognize immoderate different.’

The autumn of Singapore during the Second World War had marked 1 of the astir harrowing events successful British subject history. In the abstraction of conscionable a fewer weeks, thousands were herded up and incarcerated successful captive of warfare camps crossed the Far East.

They included Daphne Davidson, a Singapore-born caput for the country’s Civil service, and James Davidson, an electrical technologist primitively from Inverness. When the vigor crackled with warnings of war, Daphne was tasked with burning delicate files the Singapore Government did not privation the Japanese to see. 

When Singapore was invaded connected February 15, 1942, James was sent to enactment connected a distant Japanese land portion large Daphne was taken to Changi POW camp. Men, women and children sang Vera Lynn’s ‘There volition ever beryllium an England’ arsenic they were marched done the gates. 

Five months later, connected July 31, Jenny was born, erstwhile Daphne had been concisely allowed to permission the warfare campy to springiness commencement successful a hospital. Two weeks later, parent and babe were sent backmost to Changi wherever Jenny spent her aboriginal years being cared for by Daphne and her chap POWs.

‘When I was 2 we moved from Changi to Sime Road, wherever I stayed successful Block E with astir 1,000 women crammed in,’ explains Jenny. ‘Guards would locomotion astir to marque definite everything was bid and I possibly picked up immoderate feelings of fearfulness the women felt. These men seemed immense to maine and were precise frightening with their guns.

‘By past I was opening to toddle around. Everyone wanted to prime maine up and springiness maine a cuddle, sing maine a nursery rhyme oregon thatch maine my ABCs. I deliberation the women were rather gladsome to person a babe arsenic a distraction.’

Jenny saw her begetter conscionable erstwhile during her clip held prisoner. James was allowed to sojourn his woman and girl astatine Changi astatine Easter clip successful 1943, erstwhile Jenny was astir 8 months old. He brought with him a tiny woody rattle which is present on display successful London.

Not knowing if they would conscionable again, Daphne gave her hubby her precious lone photograph of herself and Jenny. He folded it and enactment it successful his bosom pouch until the extremity of the war. 

Jenny’s astir vivid representation from the Sime Road campy is the time state came calling. On July 31, 1945 – 2 weeks aft her 3rd day – the world began to shingle and a debased rumble passed done the rows of huts. 

Everyone got retired their bunks and dashed extracurricular to spot what was happening,’ she remembers. ‘Suddenly, these immense planes flew debased implicit us. The adults knew they were RAF due to the fact that of the markings. 

‘That’s erstwhile we recovered retired we would beryllium free. The planes dropped hundreds of leaflets which said ‘The warfare has ended, Japan has surrendered, we are coming for you precise soon!’ The women were saying “thank god” to each other. That was the archetypal clip I learned the sanction of God. I’ve been precise devoted to him ever since.

‘I’ll ever retrieve that day.’

Soon, trucks had arrived with British soldiers astatine the wheel, and the POWs were temporarily taken to Singapore’s celebrated Raffles Hotel, which had been reclaimed successful 1945 during Operation Tiderace by the British Navy. There, they met with representatives from the Red Cross who reunited Daphne and Jenny with James.

He was bladed aft months being forced to enactment connected the infamous Burma Railway – nicknamed ‘the Death Railway’ owed to the fig of fatalities during operation – but alive. The weary household boarded the ‘Monowai’ vessel and acceptable sail for Liverpool.

‘On the mode backmost we pulled into Port Said,’ Jenny says. ‘The Red Cross had organised a immense gathering – an craft hangar – filled with trestle tables with apparel for each property and size. After 3 and fractional years successful jailhouse we had precise fewer things near to wear, and they were each tropical apparel similar summertime dresses – mostly worn out. We got lukewarm wintertime apparel to wear.’

When the household arrived successful Liverpool, Jenny’s parents brought her to Edinburgh to unrecorded with her aunt Rena for the wintertime months, earlier making the land of Jersey their caller home. 

After attending precocious school, Jenny applied to survey mathematics astatine the University of Edinburgh and went connected to go a teacher. 

It wasn’t until she met her 2nd husband, a historiographer called Niall, that Jenny decided to unfastened up astir her acquisition successful Singapore.

‘I ever hesitated to archer radical astir my internee days,’ she admits. ‘I recovered it embarrassing. They mightiness accidental thing similar “oh, that indispensable person been awful!” But it wasn’t atrocious for maine arsenic I was calved into it. That beingness was each I ever knew. 

‘If radical asked maine wherever I came from, I’d accidental Edinburgh. If they pressed, I would accidental I was calved successful Singapore and came implicit arsenic a child. But Niall understood, helium helped maine speech astir it.’

During a sojourn to the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire successful the aboriginal 90s, Jenny stumbled upon a leaflet for The Children (& Families) of the Far East Prisoners of War (COFEPOW). The foundation was founded by Carol Cooper, whose begetter L/Cp William Smith died connected Burma’s ‘Death Railway’ – successful 1943. Jenny attended meetings, organised events successful Scotland and met with others who had been brought up successful POW camps.

‘That was a precise healing experience,’ Jenny reflects. ‘I deliberation I’m a resilient idiosyncratic now, I’m surely not shy astir what happened. I don’t caput sharing my story.’

For a agelong time, Jenny had mixed feelings astir her flight from the POW camp, knowing Japan’s surrender lone came aft atomic bombs wiped retired 135,000 radical successful Hiroshima and Nagasaki. But determination was 1 peculiar lawsuit that helped her find peace.

She explains: ‘In the 90s, I was invited to meal by my hubby Niall’s parents. His begetter was entertaining a Japanese doc who was successful Edinburgh to instrumentality a country course. 

‘We had a bully repast successful the garden, past the doc turned to maine and said “I’d similar to apologise for the experiences you had arsenic a child.” I felt rather embarrassed. I thought for a moment, past said “I would similar to apologise for Hiroshima and Nagasaki.” Then we benignant of bowed to each other. That is simply a truly peculiar memory, it made a existent quality to me.’

The rattle James Davidson made for Jenny is connected show arsenic portion of the ‘Caught successful Conflict: 75 years of the Geneva Conventions’ free exhibition curated by Mehzebin Adam-Suter. The British Red Cross Museum is located astatine 44 Moorfields, London, EC2Y 9AL. You tin publication a backstage circuit by emailing [email protected]. 

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