Hopkins-David

To honour those who served their country

“In this their finest hour”

644602

Leading Aircraftman

David Hopkins

1918/01/11 - Born Swansea, Wales

Son of Thomas and Mary Hopkins

Air Force

Japanese PoW

1942/03/08 - Captured Java

PoW No. III 1243

The III signifies Surabaya Camp

Japanese Index Card - Side One

Japanese Index Card - Side Two

Before leaving Sarabaya Camp the PoW were examined, well they walked past the doctor in single file, that was the examination, everyone was passed fit.

1943/04/17 - The morning of the transport Squadron Leader Pitts was without warning badly beaten in front of the assembled PoWs. it went on for about 15 minutes the assailant was Sergeant Mori who was trying to impress the 2,060 British and Dutch awaiting transport.

The holds of the two ships Cho Saki Maru (1,030 PoWs) and Amagi Maru (1,030 PoWs) were very cramped with just enough room for the PoWs to lie down, head to toe with those next to them. The latrines were two buckets with holes in them suspended over the side of the ships. The ships remained in Sarabaya harbour for days and dysentery broke out due to cramped and unhygienic conditions on board. Eventually the ships got under way in convoy.

1943/05/05 - The ships arrived at Haruku in the Spice Islands. No deaths on voyage but many with illness.

The huts were of bamboo and made by the Haruku natives but many did not have any atap roof and the PoWs were faced with heavy rain on arrival. Some latrine pits had been dug for the native workmen’s use, but with the heavy rain they were overflowing. The camp was situated on a slop and the huts were lower than the latrines so their contents flowed into the camp and the huts.

Walking in this mess caused infection to spread quickly and dysentery spread, as there were no bunks in the huts the PoWs had to sleep on the floor and it developed into an dysentery epidemic.

The Japanese decided the illness was caused by flies and gave orders that each PoW had to catch 100 flies per day.

Dysentery was not the only illness the men suffered, the symptoms of another illness was a burning sensation in the feet. This was caused by a lack of vitamin B. The men called it ‘Happy Feet’ and most of the camp suffered from it. At night there were many walking up and down the huts as this was the only way to relieve the burning pain in their feet.

May and June was a nightmare for the doctors with little medicine to cope with the epidemic, it reached it’s peak in July with 350 deaths mainly from Bacterial Dysentery.

The work was strenuous as it involved hard labour flattening the top of a vilcano and building a runway. Food was important to keep the PoWs fit, but food on Haruku was a big problem as the rations supplied by the Japanese were insufficient. It was found that the Japanese were selling the rice supplied for the PoWs to the local natives so the PoWs only received 400-600 grams rice a day, green vegetables 10-30 grams daily and meat 30 grams weekly. The polished white rice had very few vitamins and without meat would lead to vitamin deficiency disease. The meat supplied was water buffalo and sometimes a dog, so the PoW sought to supplement their diet, after a few months the leaves off bushes and plants had disappeared but the grass kept growing and was added to the rice by the PoWs, but was of very little nutritive help.

The working PoWs received 15 cents a day and was spent in the Camp shop to but vegetables, the shop was run by Japanese guard Moyo who was also in charge of the work parties, so the money was given by one hand and taken back with the other.

The PoWs health was slowly deteriorating.

David’s cause of death was Bacterial Dysentery.

Died

1943/07/04

Haruku Island

Memorial