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Auction: 20001 - Orders, Decorations and Medals - conducted behind closed doors
Lot: 757

A post-War B.E.M. group of four awarded to Sergeant W. J. Findlay, Royal Air Force, who was incarcerated at Mitsushima Camp, Tokyo, and served as part of the P.O.W. labour force which built the Hiraoka Dam in the Central Highlands of Japan; scores died from disease related to poor sanitation, diet and climatic conditions, the Camp Commandant - Tatsuo 'Little Glass Eye' Tsuchiya - was the first to be executed after the Yokohama trials

British Empire Medal, (Military) E.II.R. (619605 Sgt. William J. Findlay. R.A.F.); 1939-45 Star; Pacific Star; War Medal 1939-45, minor edge bruise to first with officially impressed naming upon a pre-prepared ground, good very fine (4)


B.E.M. (Military) London Gazette 1 January 1957.

William James Findlay was born on 13 July 1920 at Plymouth, the son of Matthew Watson Findlay and grandson of Mrs A. Tucker, 24 King Street, Devonport, England. A labourer by occupation, he enlisted into the Royal Air Force at the outbreak of hostilities and served as a Leading Aircraftman with No. 100 (B) Squadron, Royal Air Force, during the Second World War. Captured on the island of Java on 8 March 1942, he was held at a makeshift camp at Kalidjati and was fortunate to escape the fate of a number of Royal Artillery Gunners who were executed by the Japanese following a bitter battle for the airfield. Sent to Makasoera Camp 15km to the south of Batavia, he later left Tandjong Priok, Batavia, on 21 October 1942 aboard the Kunitama Maru and arrived in Singapore two days later. Sent to Changi for four days, the men from his party (Java 5C) sailed on 30 October 1942 to Moji, Japan, aboard the DiaNichi Maru and Singapore Maru.

Incarcerated at Tokyo 12B camp, Findlay was put to work on the Hiraoka Dam, where prisoners built the penstock tunnel to the power station, collected aggregate and mixed cement for ten to twelve hours per day.

Findlay is later recorded as one of 52 prisoners transferred from Mitsushima to Kanose Camp on 16 April 1944. This camp, also known as Tokyo 16B, was located in the Showa Denko Carbide Plant at Kanose, Niigata, where working conditions were especially dangerous:

'In actuality, most POWs worked more than ten hours a day. The leadership of this camp focussed on work efficiency and production. If POWs could not meet the work quotas set for them, they were beaten. POWs noticed, however, that Japanese workers were also beaten if they didn't produce fast enough. Working conditions at Showa Denko were especially dangerous. In a police report at the time, an electric furnace at the factory (that had a long-standing cracked carbide receptacle) exploded on 9 March1945, killing three British POWs and one Japanese employee. The victims had been working near the furnace when it exploded, and were burned to death by the superheated carbide' (A Study of POW Camps in Niigata Prefecture, refers).

In spite of these problems, the Camp Commandant at that time, Hiroshi Wagatsuma, attempted to improve morale as much as possible. A Christmas Party was held in 1944, and relations between British prisoners and some Japanese guards softened as the British began to recognise the unfortunate circumstances that they faced in similar measure. In a taped recording taken shortly before his death, one British prisoner, William Rose, recalled looking towards the mountains surrounding the camp:

'It was late spring and the mountain sakura (cherry blossoms) were in full bloom.'

He looked to the guard and said haltingly…

'Those flowers… could you possibly?'

The guard, looking at him knowingly, walked away. Later that day he returned and gave Rose a branch full of cherry blossoms. He had walked to the top of the mountain and picked them from one of the trees. Rose was deeply moved by this gesture of decency and quiet elegance, and kept the flowers in a jar of water near him as he went back to work in the hot, dangerous and dark carbide plant (The interview of William Rose by Gregory Hadley, MD Recording, Kanose, 13 October 2004, refers).

On 26 July 1945, the prisoners had a close escape when the B-29 Superfortress Straight Flush of the 509th Composite Group, dropped a Manhattan Project designed 'pumpkin bomb' on the camp, narrowly missing the accommodation blocks. The bomb took its name from the large, fat, ellipsoidal shape of the munition casing and was a close replication of the Fat Man plutonium bomb, with the exception that it used non-nuclear conventional high explosives. A little under 2 weeks later, Straight Flush was used as the weather reconnaissance aircraft which flew over the City of Hiroshima a short time before the atomic bomb attack on 6 August 1945.

However, far more critical to the survival of the prisoners in the final weeks of the war was the desperate need to acquire food and clean drinking water. Despite the kindness described previously, eight guards from Kanose were tried for acts of brutality and stealing Red Cross parcels at the Yokohama War Crimes Trials. Found guilty, their sentences ranged from one and a half to twenty-five years imprisonment. The last Camp Commander, 1st Lieutenant Hiroshi Azuma, received clemency due to his acts of intervention against his guards and compassion towards the prisoners, but was sentenced to 7 years imprisonment with hard labour.

Findlay survived his time at the hands of the Japanese and returned home to England, likely afflicted by severe malnutrition. He remained serving in the Royal Air Force and was awarded the B.E.M. in the New Year's Honours List of 1957; sold with copied Japanese P.O.W. record and research.

Source:
Sparrow: A Chronicle of Defiance: The Story of the Sparrows - Battle of Britain gunners who defended Timor as part of Sparrow Force in 1942.


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Sold for
£550

Starting price
£200

Sale 20001 Notices
Now accompanied by the recipient's L.S. & G.C. previously offered as Lot 550