Eric Johnston served four years on the Burma-Thai railway as a prisoner of war. The Wyndham Vale resident celebrates his 97th birthday on July 28, and tells his story to Charlene Macaulay, with a little help from daughters Gail and Ann.
You served in the Australian army – did you sign up voluntarily or were you enlisted?
Eric: I signed up. I transferred from the army reserves into the regulars. I was about 18 and I’d left school – I wasn’t too good in school – and I went away to the war and luckily, came back home again. I wasn’t really damaged, there were a lot left worse than I was.
You were fighting in the 8th Division Signals, F Force when you were captured by the Japanese, and spent four years as a prisoner of war in Changi. What was that like?
It was very hard. The Japanese were losing the war, and so they decided to build a railway line in Thailand, and that’s where they employed most of the prisoners of war. We lost a lot of men over that, because it was all hand-done, there were no machines.
War is a terrible thing.
Ann: The hardest part was for the people back at home as well, because they didn’t know if he was alive or not; he was missing in action. I took him back to Thailand about 10 years ago; we went back on a mission to show him how the railway had gone back to nature. It was no longer this harsh, cruel place he had memories of … it was a big thing for him to go back.
How did you meet your wife, Vera?
Eric: I met her at a soldier’s dance, and she was as shy as a pussycat. I sold my pushbike to get the money to buy the marriage licence.
Ann: He got married while he was on leave, before he went away to the war. Mum passed away last year.
What was life like when you came home?
I played football, and did bike riding, and I was a bowler, a cricketer, a golfer – all the sports kept me pretty fit. After I was discharged from the army, I was a forestry officer.
We went dancing a lot and had picnics; we lived a happy life. We always had our kids with us, we hardly ever went anywhere without the whole family. In my day, family was the big thing.
You were in the motorcade around the MCG for this year’s Anzac Day AFL match. What was that like?
Gail: Dad’s a member of Ex-PoW Association of Australia, and they contacted him to see if he’d like to do the parade at the Anzac Day football match. He said yes, but then he had a stroke and was in hospital for three weeks, but anyway, we sorted it all out and went to the MCG like celebrities. His was the first car out.
