William Rose

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After Sergeant William Rose was captured in March 1942, he was a prisoner of war for four long years.  First he was taken to one of the most brutal camps in Japan near Mitsushima to build a dam.  William was then sent to Kanose camp to stoke furnaces.  This hard work was more difficult because the prisoners were badly treated.
 
‘In 1945 it was the furthest thing from my thoughts that I would ever have any contact with Japan again.’ Years later William’s second son Graham married Takako from Japan who convinced William to go back. In 1999 he and his son Malcolm visited the site of Mitsushima camp which is now a school. This visit changed William’s life.

i. William describes Christmas Day 1942 in his diary. Prisoners did not have decent shoes or winter clothes. They never had enough to eat and were often sick. Red Cross food parcels were precious.

25% of UK prisoners of war held in Japanese camps died in captivity during the war. 5% of UK POWs held in German or Italian camps died in captivity during the war.

ii. Christmas ‘celebrations’ at Mitsushima Camp, 1942. William (centre back) and fellow prisoners of war put on a smile for the photographer.

Mitsushima was one of the most brutal POW camps. More guards (nine) were convicted and executed for war crimes than any other camp in Japan.

William’s first son Malcolm was born in May 1942. William did not know this until May 1944 when this letter, posted in October 1943, finally reached him in the camp.

He wrote; ‘I felt like a real Dad at last. I longed for a photo of him. I wanted to know all about him. I felt on such a high that I started telling the lads how much they had to live for. I think the whole camp knew I had a son. I couldn’t keep that news to myself.’

i. Two children from the school at Mitsushima stand next to the memorial to those who died in the camp. Work on the memorial began after William’s visit in 1999 and it was finished in September 2000.

William describes the moment when he arrived at the school:
‘Then we went to the school. This is where the camp had been. If there was any emotion left it would have been here. But this was where all the hurt and tension faded away. This is where I finally came to terms with my time as a prisoner of war. I thought I had forgotten them but I realised then, I had merely hidden them. These children … they knew nothing of the war. They, like everyone else I met, were offering friendship. They wanted to know everything. Where had I slept? What was in the Red Cross parcel? And I found I could answer without any feeling of hurt or hatred.’
His wartime diary is now used by the school at Mitsushima in Social Studies lessons.  ‘I have so many letters they have written me – these children – it’s just staggering how much they want to know …’

ii. ‘Welcome back Mr William Rose’
This photograph shows William and his eldest son Malcolm being welcomed to the school in Mitsushima in 1999. He was welcomed by people who had lived near the camp during the war, the family of one of the Japanese camp guards and the school children.

William returned to Japan in 2004 with Graham and his wife Takako. They visited Mitsushima and Kanose and were warmly welcomed in both villages. Children from the school in Mitsushima have visited the UK as part of an ‘East Meets West’ exchange scheme, hosted by Bridge village in Kent.