Thomas Anthony Power (1908 - 1944)

Born 10 Nov 1908 in Waterloo, New South Wales, Australia

Ancestors

Died 25 Jan 1944 at age 35 in Jōetsu-shi, Niigata-ken, Japan

Biography

Thomas's story courtesy AWM:

Pte Power died on 25 January 1944. Warrant Officer George Gray recorded in his diary:

Tommy Power died. He was one of the Battalion characters. In civil life he conducted an un-licensed fruit barrow in the streets of Sydney, which got him into a lot of trouble with the Authorities. ? The day before his death he was unconscious and mumbling. Someone said 'What's he saying' and Peter Ross knelt down beside him and listened, he said 'He's saying 'Choice sweet and juicy and repeating it?' (Source: Don Wall, Singapore & beyond: the story of the 2/20 Battalion, told by the survivors (Sydney: 1985)).

It is likely he was cremated at the Naoetsu POW Camp; his remains are now buried at the Yokohama War Cemetery. The Japanese Army used many POWs as labourers in working parties. On 20 November 1942, allied POWs held at Adam Park in Singapore were moved to the Sime Road camp and issued with heavy uniforms. This POW working party was known as C Force. On 29 November 1942, 1,400 allied POWs, including 550 Australians from the 2/20th Battalion, still under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Robertson, embarked on the Kamakura Maru, a modern 17,000 ton passenger and cargo vessel, and set sail for Japan. On 7 December 1942, the Kamakura Maru docked at Nagasaki and the POWs were unloaded. Of the 550 Australian POWs, 300 were selected in alphabetical order down to the letter 's', and formed a working party that left by train for Naoetsu. The remainder of the Australians were sent to work in a shipyard at Kobe. The men worked in the local stainless steel factory and also at the nearby Shinetsu Chemical Factory. They endured terrible conditions.

Sources

• NSW BDM birth tegistreation of POWER, THOMAS A, reg. no. 41971/1908, to parents JOHN J and FLORENCE A, registered at WATERLOO
• National Archives of Australia: POWER THOMAS ANTHONY : Service Number - NX58585 : Date of birth - 10 Nov 1908 : Place of birth - SYDNEY NSW : Place of enlistment - PADDINGTON NSW : Next of Kin - HEYHOL RUBY

Acknowledgments

Thank you to Viv Palmer for creating WikiTree profile Power-740 through the import of Palmer11121 - 29042010 - 14082010.ged on May 8, 2013. Click to the Changes page for the details of edits by Viv and others.