The Ient Family: Family History

Going Back to Japan?

Questions

Interviewer: Did you ever want to go back to Japan?

Going back to Japan? I can’t see much virtue in it. First of all, it’s a horrendous journey getting all that way, and the second thing, there’s nothing to see, because we were on this little island, as I’ve said, on the Inland Sea, and the camp that we were in has now been demolished, and I’ve got that on good authority because one of my contemporaries did go across. There’s nothing left of the camp at all, it’s just an open space now, so there’s nothing there to see. The shipyard is still there, but of course all the foremen and so on that were there, they’ll all be dead by now. They were in their 30s and 40s when we were there – I was there when I was 20 – so unless they’re 100 years of age now, they’ve all gone, so there’d be absolutely no point in going back there at all. As far as nostalgia’s concerned, I had seen enough of the shipyard there in three and half years. I worked jolly hard there, I was coal heaving and cleaning out engine rooms and dry docks and boiler rooms and all the rest of it, so I’ve really got no wish to go back to Japan. After they dropped the bomb, we went down to the village, which was called Habu. There the Japanese women and men were treating us with the utmost respect after they dropped the bomb. They invited us in for tea and tried to give us things and all the rest of it.

Pleased to Get Away

But we were so pleased just to get away, we’d had three and a half years of this in this camp and all we could think about was getting on board a ship and getting out of it and getting away from them, leave them behind. No, I’ve got no big interest in going back to Japan at all, at all, and I have certainly no time for the Japanese people.

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