Today’s VP (Victory in the Pacific) Day commemorations, recognising the Japanese surrender from World War II 67 years ago, strikes a particularly strong chord for Invergowie resident Caroline Gaden.
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For Ms Gaden, stories of the Pacific region during World War II have been a constant part of life for over seven years after a decision to transcribe the letters and diary of her late father-in-law turned into a full-blown book.
While doing post-graduate studies at the University of New England, Ms Gaden interviewed Tamworth veteran Gordon Gaffney, and said the interview inspired her to start transcribing the letters and prisoner of war diary written by Bill Gaden.
“Having listened to him I made the decision to start writing,” she said.
“The letters were very light, he was obviously trying not to worry the family but when you look at what was going on at the time, things were a lot more dire.”
Mr Gaden had served in the 2/20 Battalion in Singapore and Malaya and was taken as a prisoner of war by the Japanese.
As a D-Force prisoner Mr Gaden worked on the construction of the Burma Thailand Railway, chronicling his experiences in a diary.
Ms Gaden said her decision to transcribe the lettters stemmed from a desire to stop family history from being forgotten.
“When men came back after the war, everything was put away and not spoken about for a long time,” she said.
What initially started as a family history project soon grew into something much bigger, according to Ms Gaden.
“When I looked at what I had written, there was a lot of the history of the battalion in it,” she said.
“I realised that people who had an interest in the battalion might be interested in the book.”
Ms Gaden said she met with a number of 2/20 Battalion veterans while researching and writing the book.
“It was surprising how many people had a 2/20 connection,” she said.
Ms Gaden said writing the book was often harrowing and gave her a new level of understanding of the soldiers’ sufferings.
“It took me about six years to do it and I had to take six months off because I was getting very involved with it,” she said.
“Talking to the survivors, some of the stuff was just horrible and very emotional.”
The completed book, Pounding Away To Singapore, chronicles the experiences of soldiers in 2/20 Battalion during training, fighting and their time as prisoners of war.
Today Ms Gaden is attending the VP Day commemoration being held at the Sydney centograph.
The day has even greater significance for the Gaden family as Ms Gaden’s own father was a pilot during WWII while her two sons have both completed service in the navy.
Local historian Dr Kevin Smith said that although prisoners of war were happy about the Japanese surrender, their poor health meant there was no significant elation or celebration.
“VJ Days or VP Days have never been celebrated with exuberance, they’ve been celebrated with quiet thankfulness,” he said.
The wartime letters and diary of Bill Gaden were the inspiration for a book on the experiences of 2/20 Battalion soldiers.
Tarso camp
May 1943
Japanese demanded every available man to work. Sick were only excused when they absolutely could not walk. The camp interpreter would have the sick paraded and sent to work men who had been marked as ‘Bed Down’ by the Medical Officer. He also bashed many POWs
June 1943
Cooking was difficult because of the painful shortage of containers both for cooking and serving. The Japanese issued kualis, a shallow large dish of iron suitable for steaming rice and also good for stews. Issued at the rate of 2 per 100 men ... often broke and were not replaced...
All meat, if even issued, was minced and bones boiled and the stock thus obtained was boiled with the few green vegetable available and water.
The stew thus made was weak and barely nourishing.
Rice usually worked out at one pint per man on the plate and half pint stew. These conditions were the best we experienced on the line.
Eggs and milk were regarded as drugs, not eats.
August 1943
Daily operations were being performed by M/O Capt McConachy and Lt Col Dunlop. Their work included appendectomy, bowel flushing....amputation of various limbs. Personally I underwent an appendix operation [without anaesthetic]. Curetting of ulcers was normally done without anaesthetic.
On occasion patients were insufficiently strong to withstand the operations and these cases were sometimes attended by cardiac massage.
The jungle operating theatre ...was a hastily erected bamboo table in the open. The operation being attended by two men whose duty was to wave away the swarms of flies.
