Guard sends birthday cards to ex-POW
The Daily Mail reports on how former POW John Baxter became friends with Japanese prison guard Hyato Hirano:
Mr Hirano risked being beaten by his fellow guards by offering starving prisoners food and water, and when Mr Baxter returned to Japan in 1995 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of VJ day he tracked down his former captor.
The pair have kept in touch ever since, and yesterday Mr Baxter opened a card sent by Mr Hirano to celebrate the retired plumber’s 90th birthday tomorrow.
It reads: ‘Many happy returns. I am currently spending my days in and out of hospital, but I am well otherwise. I wish you the best of health.’
Mr Baxter, a grandfather from Trowbridge, Wiltshire, said: ‘I have absolutely no resentment about the Japanese of today.
‘In fact, I think they are a good indication of everything human nature should be. They are respectful, polite and always willing to stop and talk to you.’
He went on: ‘I was not as badly treated as some in my camp. There are those who finished the war with hideous deformities and mental issues they will never resolve.
‘There are men who I know still hate all the Japanese and won’t so much as discuss them, let alone travel to meet them.
‘For me, I have moved on. There’s absolutely no point in dwelling on the past. You have to move on and understand we were living in very different times.’
Baxter’s memoirs are available at ForgottenTitles.com.
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