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Show RAY H. WHEELER arch 21 200 Cambodia railroad, the bridge over the river Quai as Japanese prisoners of war. M t fth m were Australian and English see. And Japan had taken over the English there at ingapore and-what do you call it? Anyway, they were put on this work detail to build that railroad from Cambodia to India. The bridge over the river Quai was what he was part of. Now, here's the sad part about this story. He was in that work detail. And they worked them to death. And if they didn't work, they died or killed them. They had a 40 percent casualty list on that work detail. There was one section of Americans, but the rest were all Australian or English. And here were these two American merchant officers. Well, for three years and seven months he worked on that bridge and survived building it through that Cambodian jungle. Well, the war was over. And they found him. He weighed 86 pounds. And he had truck tires for shoes and a breech cloth. He'd had beriberi and malaria. Well, you can document this. When they flew him out of there when the war was over-they took them as prisoners of war, you know, all of them. Well, they found out he was a merchant seaman officer, and they said he wasn't a prisoner of war. So, the United States wouldn't give him medical care. They took them and gave these others, you know what I mean, the retro pay. Well, we had an insurance policy, and instead of having $10,000 we had $5,000. He was married. And when they sank that they notified his wife he was killed in action because they had no way about it. Well, she started getting payments. And they should have had these payments, you know, these insurance payments all the time. Well, when they found out he was alive, they made her give back the money. Well, he came back to the United States. And this other guy died from his wounds. Well, 30 |
