EX-P.O.W.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 58, Issue 4105, 25 February 1949, Page 5

EX-P.O.W.

VISITING PAEROA TO STUDY DENTISTRY MAN FROM HONGKONG To be in Hongkong on February 12, with a university course \o attend at Christchurch, New Zealand, on February 28, calls for sone fast travelling, but Mr J. M. Gosano managed it, and was able to spend a few days with his friends, Mr and Mrs J. H. Evans, of Paeroa, as well. He left Hongkong by plane on February 12 and spent some time in Sydney before dying across the Tasman to arrive in New Zealand on February 19. Mr Gosano visited Paeroa and other parts of New Zealand some two years ago when the first batch of exprisoners of war from Japan arrived here to recuperate. During his 11 months stay he made many friends and formed a deep attachment for the country itself. Now he proposes to take a five-year course in dental surgery at Christchurch and Dunedin preparatory to setting up a practice in the Dominion. Mr Gosano, who has had a chequered career as a soldier at the age of 15, Jnpanrioc prisoner of war at 18, and who has travelled all round the world, thinks New Zealand is “ the world’s best.” When asked by a Gazette representative if he intended to return to Hongkong when he had completed hv studies here, he replied that he had burned his bridges and hoped that he would be able to. remain in this country. When he had his degree he wished that in some way he could repay New Zealanders for their hospitality. There was no comparison between pre-war and post-war Hongkong, said Mr Cosano. The difference was like ** Heaven and Hell.” Cost of living had soared 300 or 400 per cent.; rich Chinese, driven from the interior by the Communists, were coming into the city; everything had changed. In 1941, Mr Gosano joined the forces at the age of 151 years by giving a false age. There was no air force, no navy, absolutely nothing to use against the Japanese, and after 16 days the town fell into the enemy’s hands. Three years later Mr Gosano was sent to Japan as a prisoner of war to work in a coal mine at Taira, 150 miles north of Tokyo. Long working hours for days on end without a rest was the lot of these 250-odd prisoners. They worked from six o’clock in, the morning until six o’clock at night and hardly ever saw daylight. Questioned about the food, Mr Gosano said they had just enough on which to exist. "We were always waiting for the next meal to come; there was no wholesome, substantial food, only rice and barley with a bit of their preserved vegetables,” he said. There was a doctor in the camp but he was handicapped by the fact that ho had no equipment and no medicine of any sort. One or two serious mine accidents occurred but Mr Gosano escaped these. His main injury occurred when the war was over and the American planes dropped food supplies from the air for the prisoners. O*e*of these bundles landed on his foot! However, the accident earned him a trip to New Zealand, where he spent 11 months recuperating and making friends, and which later drew him back to complete his studies in the hope that he may settle here permanently.