Interview with Raymond Alec Hawkins

British private served with 5th Bn Suffolk Regt in GB and Singapore, 1940-1941; prisoner of war in Changi Camp and No 5 Camp, Bukit Timah, Singapore, Malaya, 2/1942-4/1943 and Tokyo No 13-B, Omi, Japan, 4/1943-9/1945

REEL 1 Background in Needham Market, GB, 1921-1936: family; education. Aspects of period as private with 4th Bn Suffolk Regt in GB, 1936-1940: joining Territorial Army, 1936; reaction to declaration of Second World War, 3/9/1939; guard duties with battalion in East Anglia, 1939-1940. Aspects of period as private with 5th Bn Suffolk Regt, 54th Infantry Bde, 18th Infantry Div in GB, 1940-1941: reasons for transfer to battalion; duties on Norfolk Broads, 1940; rumours of German invasion, 1940; belief that GB would continue to fight after fall of France, 6/1940; move to Liverpool for overseas posting, 1941. Voyage from GB to Singapore, Malaya via India, 10/1941-1/1942: voyage aboard HMT Reina Del Pacifico from Liverpool to Halifax, Canada; troops reception by civilians in Cape Town, South Africa; brief stay in Ahmednagar, India; resuming voyage aboard USS Wakefield from India to Singapore, Malaya; Japanese bombing of USS Wakefield on arrival in Singapore, Malaya, 1/1942. Recollections of period as prisoner of war in Changi Camp and No 5 Camp, Bukit Timah, Singapore, Malaya, 2/1942-4/1943: orders to surrender to Japanese forces, 15/2/1942; concentration of prisoners of war in Raffles College before march to Changi, 2/1942; scavenging for food, 2/1942; joining work party from Changi Camp to No 5 Camp, Bukit Timah for work in Singapore. REEL 2 Continues: punishment by British officer by Japanese for refusing to join work party. Recollections of period as prisoner of war in Tokyo Camp No 13-B, Omi, Japan, 5/1943-8/1945: voyage aboard SS Kyokko Maru from Singapore, Malaya to Moji, Japan, 26/4/1943-21/5/1943; arrival in camp; nature of work; attitude of Japanese civilians towards prisoners of war; story of how Japanese guard 'Dempsey' loved his nickname; prisoner of war rations; winter conditions; lack of ill treatment experienced as prisoner of war in Japan; survival on basic prisoner of war rations; cleanliness of Japanese; weekly communal prisoner of war bathing; presence of illicit radio in camp and distribution of war news during church services; contracting pleurisy; receiving news of end of Second World War, 15/8/1945; leafleting by United States Army Air Force, 8/1945. REEL 3 Continues: contents of food parcels dropped by United States Army Air Force; distribution of Red Cross parcels; attitude towards Japanese and effects of captivity; Japanese torturing of prisoners of war and Chinese civilians in Singapore, Malaya.