Speaker Peter Meredith - my relatives and the war

Peter told us about the 4 Merediths eligible for recruitment into the armed services at the start of World War II: -

Peter's uncle Dick was the first to volunteer but was told at the recruiting office that he had flat feet and was rejected for service. He became an air raid warden (ARP). Then Peter's dad (George Meredith) volunteered but having been put through the medical was told he had weak heart and he also became an ARP.

His uncle Alfred joined the RAF as a flight engineer and served mainly in the desert and Egypt. After that he was part of the advancement up through Sicily and Italy.

Peter's aunty Monica was a nun missionary in Borneo when it was overrun by the Japanese. She eventually came home from the Far East in 1960s when she was retired by the church but never said much about the war. When asked "what do you feel about the Japanese" she said that the atomic bomb was wonderful. When asked why she said that she said that as a nation they were very cruel not only to their prisoners but also to their own citizens. Even after war she crossed the road if she saw a Japanese person on the same side of the road. 

During the war she was interned in a camp along with many others. She didn't say much else about the war but recently on clearing out some things her family came across a bundle of old letters. These described how when Singapore was captured all non combatants were shipped to Borneo. In the camp where she was held the prisoners of war (pow) were very badly treated but the nuns and other women were treated reasonably. After war was declared there were 2,000 pow in her camp at the start but by the end of the war only 150 survived. The food given to them was mainly rice and vegetables. The nuns and people used to living in tropics were alright on this diet as they were used to it but some of the other captives struggled. His aunt was moved on a forced march from one camp to another and on this march a lot of westerners died through heat stroke as they were not acclimatised to the tropics. 

Towards the end of her time in the camps there were rumours that war nearly over. The Japanese started to organise them to take them up country to have them shot. But the Australians started bombing the airfield of the camp. Realising that the war was lost they stopped their plans and fed the prisoners instead. The Australians dropped messages saying "we are aware of you but will take some time getting to you". 

During the war Monica never received any letters as the Japanese wouldn't deal with the Red Cross. Thus at end of war she received a big bundle of correspondence that the family had sent throughout the time she was interned. She said in her notes that after the war it was lovely to be free again, and that she had been better off than in New Guinea and Java where the women were not treated as kindly. Afterwards a lot of nuns became nurses to look after very ill pow who were malnourished and in very poor health. She said that the last few months were the worst period for everybody until the bombing of the airfield started in late March.