Volume 20 www.legionnl.com 5 By the middle of 1945, 106 of the original 650 prisoners in the camp had died. It was later learned, during War Crimes Trials in Tokyo in 1946, that Camp 5B Niigata had the worst death record of any prisoner of war camp in Japan. Because Fred Drover had been trained as a stretcher bearer with the Royal Rifles he was selected as a medical orderly and helped care for the sick prisoners alongside a British doctor. There was little they could do for the wounded or sick prisoners however, except to comfort them, as their medical supplies were limited and suitable mainly for first aid. Fred was well respected for his work in the hospital and was later mentioned in dispatches for bravery or courageous actions as a War Medical Orderly. The main source of news from the outside world was a radio which one of the prisoners has smuggled in and which they all managed to keep hidden from the Japanese guards; had the radio been found, that prisoner would have undoubtedly lost his life. Though it was forbidden by the Japanese, some of the prisoners also kept diaries. Fred was one of those, and some of his later entries are as follows: May 1945: “Germany surrenders-Hitler dies. Allies take over island off southern Japan (any day now)”. July 1945: “Still sweating it out, Japan still being very heavily bombed. Can’t understand how this country can keep going”. August 1945: “Very sure it is coming close to end”. August 15, 1945: “First rumor of peace. Everybody quits work. All factories and industries in town quit at 2 o’clock. We now know something is wrong.” August 16, 1945: “War over, pretty definite.” After nearly 45 months of captivity, the prisoners were freed that same day. They were taken by train to Tokyo for medical examinations. From Tokyo they were taken by an American ship to Guam, and then to San Francisco, where they boarded a train for Vancouver, and then Quebec. They were formally discharged on the 1st of April, 1946. Evidence of the high esteem in which Fred was held by his fellow prisoners is demonstrated in the diary of Tom Forsythe, a member of the Winnipeg Grenadiers, who wrote: “I want to take this opportunity of paying tribute to Freddy Drover of Newfoundland. He was the finest medical orderly we ever had. The only orderly who never lost his patience or his temper. He never lost hope and always did his best to inspire it in others.” After his discharge from the Royal Rifles of Canada Fred Drover settled in Clarenville, Newfoundland, and led a quiet life, seldom, if ever, speaking of his time spent in the Japanese POW camp. He was the last surviving Newfoundland Prisoner of War from the Battle of Hong Kong. Fred Drover died in February 1990. continued....
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTM0NTk1OA==