Four years in Japanese captivity during WWII

By Pratik Bhattarai, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Eastern Graphic

In December 1941, George T Palmer, a Canadian soldier from eastern PEI, was among the 1,974 Canadian soldiers and 8,000 Brits who went up against the heavily armed 60,000 strong Imperial Japanese Army in Hong Kong.

On Christmas Day, they surrendered.

Palmer and the rest of his comrades were put in prison camp.

After a year and a half of captivity in Hong Kong, most of the survivors were taken to Omine Camp in Japan and were subject to horrendous conditions.

“His camp had to work in coal mines every day. (It) didn’t matter whether you were sick or not. If you’re sick, a couple of other people would carry you there,” said Lou Palmer, George’s son.

During his time in the army and during captivity the government kept paying him a dollar a day, which was about $1,400 after four years, Lou said.

George was freed on September 22, 1945, and he landed in Vancouver before coming home to Cable Head in November, 80 years ago.

“He wouldn’t talk much about it because he said that nobody would believe him anyway, because all the soldiers in Japan were treated horribly,” Lou said.

They were not given enough food. The soldiers would torture them and force them to do hard labour. He weighed about 180 lb before he went to war. By the time he came home, he was only 100 lb.

Out of the 1,974 soldiers who fought in that battle 290 fell in combat. Another 129 died in captivity in Hong Kong and 135 died in Japan between 1943 to 1945. No other Canadian force in the war experienced a higher death rate, Lou said.

“He was able to survive. He was fortunate,” Lou added.

George was born in 1909 in Newcastle, New Brunswick. His father passed away when he was four years old. Shortly after, his mother, Mary Ellen took him to her former home in MacAskill River, PEI to live with her parents until she found a job.

Mary and George lived in Souris and Charlottetown over the years. George worked as a grocery store clerk after finishing Grade 9 at Queen Square School. In 1926, he moved back to MacAskill River and spent the next 14 years fishing and farming, until he enlisted in the army in 1940.

Lou said after the war started the soldiers weren’t allowed to send any letters.

“So, it took us probably six months before we found out that he was alive and in a prison camp. He sent about three cards and all he could say was about three sentences saying, “everything is okay,” he added.

After returning from Japan, he bought a farm close to his previous house in Cable Head. He fished and farmed for many years before working as a postmaster at St Peter’s Bay post office. He and his wife Jeanette had eight children. Lou who is now 91 was their first child and the only one to be born before the war.

George passed away in 1991.

“He worked hard. He was damaged in the lungs and different things that never really got cured.” Lou said.

Lou said George was a good father. He took care of things, and he did whatever was necessary to raise his family.

Lou went to Nova Scotia in 1951 to work at a bank, and he moved back to PEI to live closer to family.

Lou’s son Michael chronicled his grandfather’s journey in a 2009 book Dark Side of the Sun: George Palmer and POW in Hong Kong and the Omine Camp. It covers extensively the Canadian soldiers who were POWs. His daughter Lynne Bradley also wrote a book on the Palmer family called George and Jeanette Palmer and their descendants (1909 – 2025).