HAPPY REUNION

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 237, 6 October 1945, Page 7

HAPPY REUNION

SINGAPORE FAMILY

LIFE IN JAVA UNDER JAPS

How two children were reunited with their parents after over three years' separation, during which they were all in Japanese hands, was related by Miss L. W. Bridgman, of Auckland, who returned from Singapore by plane yesterday. Formerly general secretary of the Y.W.C.A. in Wellington and later in Singapore, Miss Bridgman had been interned in a large women's camp near Batavia.

Early in the Jap war the two children were lost by their parents and Miss Bridgman took charge of them in Java. However, when she was flown out by the R.N.Z.A.F. she had to leave them behind. On reaching Singapore, by a curious twist of fate f i n ? et , the mother of the children, who had arrived only the previous day from Sumatra. At the Raffles iiotel she also met their father, who was frantically attempting to find some news of his family. They were both overjoyed on hearing the children were safe in Java, but there seemed no ready means of bringing them to Singapore.

L.ady Louis Mountbatten, who has been doing magnificent. work in Singapore, became personally interested m the case," said Miss Brideman, "and made a flight to Java, bringing the children back to Singapore, where I was able to reunite them with their deliriously happy parents." >

M iss Bridgman was on a ship intercepted by the Japanese when evacuating people from Singapore, anc i was among a party placed in a lifeboat while the vessel was shelled and sunk. They reached Sumatra, anc j i ater j av a. She was free for five months in Batavia before all European women were rounded up and placed in a big camp, which ultimately held 10,000, near -Batavia. Overcrowded tamp Conditions were moderately good for the first year or so, but rapidly deteriorated when the Japanese military took over. Heavy work imposed on the women, many weak through nialnutrition, included stoking, digging, garbage disposal, drain clearing and carting stores. The camp was grossly overcrowded and insanitary. With no fats and few proteins, and the only vegetable consisting of a water hyacinth, digestive ailments were general. Church services, recreation and education of children were forbidden, but such activities were often carried on surj reptitiously. There were instances of beatings by Jap guards, but they were not widespread. Once the

women were given two days' "hunger punishment" because they did not bow low enough to suit the commandant. "You can imagine the thrill we had after the news of the Jap surrender when the first white men we ] saw were a group of New Zealand airmen," added Miss Bridgman, who was the only New Zealand woman in the camp. "I think the Nsw Zealanders were the first liberation forces to reach Java. Later the Australians came with supplies. It was simply grand to be flown out by our own boys." Among the party which arrived from Singapore yesterday were Mrs. J. Powell, sister of Mr. G. K. Hagen, of Otahuhu, whose husband, serving with the Australians, was a prisoner of war in Changi camp, Singapore; Mrs. W. Rodgers, of Ireland, whose sister, Mrs. Abbey, resides at Milford; and Miss P. N. Briggs, whose brother is Mr. T. F. Briggs, of Takapuna. All were nurses and spent 31 years' internment in Sumatra. When there was no direct physical cruelty from the Japs, they said.' there was often intense mental cruelty. In camp at one stage they deliberately burned three out of five mailbags and retained vegetables until they were.bad before issuing them to internees.