Re: POW: Part of the Job

Date: February 13, 2004

"Ararat's Clarrie Johns goes back over old memories from his days as a prisoner of war to the Japanese during World War Two.

POW: 'part of the job'


To Ararat's Clarrie Johns, attending the opening ceremony of the Australian Ex-Prisoners of War Memorial in Ballarat presented a chance to see some old mates.

Clarrie hoped to see a couple of mates, hoped to see if they were `still going'. He did see some familiar faces.

When asked how important the opening of such a memorial was, Clarrie only said that being a prisoner of war was `part of the job'.

In the 20th century, through four theatres of war, 35,000 Australians have been held prisoner of war - 8000 of these men and women never made it home.

Almost 10 years ago the wheels were set in motion to establish the Australian Ex-Prisoners of War Memorial and last Friday's was the culmination of years of hard work.

The Australian Ex-Prisoners of War Memorial is dedicated to all Australians who became prisoners while fighting the enemy.

The names include those who were serving in the Australian Defence Forces, Australians serving in the Merchant Navy and Australians who enlisted in Allied Defence Forces and were made prisoners of war while fighting the common enemy.
Clarrie served in the 2nd 10th Field Company Engineers in the 8th Division of the AIF.

He was detached from his unit to administration headquarters in Singapore in 1942 when Singapore fell to the Japanese on February 15.

Australian soldiers were ordered by superiors to lay down their arms - many didn't believe their orders.

"I smashed mine on the cement," Clarrie said.

Clarrie was taken into captivity on February 17 and placed in the Selerang Barracks in Singapore in the Changi area (not Changi Jail). Changi Jail wasn't opened until 1944.

He said 14,998 were taken prisoner in Singapore.

In May 1943 Clarrie was sent to Thailand and worked on the Burma Railway until October of that year.

"Hell's cutting - it was also called Hellfire pass, we called it Dead Man's cutting," Clarrie said.

"Only 100 out of 600 survived, the cholera and starvation got us."

On returning to Singapore from the Burma Railway, Clarrie said they weren't sent back to the main camp as they were in such a bad way the Japanese didn't want the other men (Australians) to see how bad they were.

"We were left at another camp in the Singapore area to grow a few vegetables for ourselves. We weren't sent out on work parties," he said.

When asked if they were able to regain some of their strength at this camp, Clarrie said they were able to lift themselves a bit, as much as they could on `five ounces of rice per day, perhaps'.

Later Clarrie was interned at the notorious Changi Jail where he was sent out on work parties to build the aerodrome - now Singapore's main airport.
"I was in prison for 3 years all up and didn't see Australia for 4 years," Clarrie said.

"The ones in Changi just couldn't understand what happened on the Burma Railway."

Towards the end of the war rumours went around the camp that `they were going to get rid of the lot of us' so Clarrie said they all secretly trained in unarmed defence.

"It probably wouldn't have done any good anyway - we were all so weak," he said.

Australians were released from Changi Jail on August 17 1945. Before this the Japanese kept the camp running as if nothing had happened.

"But we saw the `Black Widows' (American Lightning fighter planes) going over us and knew something was going on," he said.

Clarrie arrived in Australia on October 10, 1945 and said it was a big adjustment to make.

Clarrie returned to Willaura and later took up a Soldier Settlers' Block at Wickliffe, marrying wife Dorothy and settling back into a `normal' life.
"You thought you were alright but really you weren't," Clarrie said.

Clarrie Johns is one of a number of ex-prisoners of war in the district, who have now been honoured by an official memorial, a 130 metre long black granite wall etched with 35,000 names, which is now open to the public in Ballarat, at the south end of the Botanic Gardens.

One of Ararat's characters, Clarrie's jovial nature belies the experiences he went through in Thailand and Singapore and shows the resilience of the men and women who were imprisoned."