For My Mom,"who gave so much and asked so little"

                                                          FOR MY MOM    .                                                                                                                      

March 1946, just recovered from three and half years in captivity.

                            

You experienced so much horror
By those 'Japs' so foreign.

You were a grown-up
And I was a child.

You suffered so much loss and pain
But protected your child not in vain.

You were a young woman thrown in this war,
The child didn't know the horrors you saw.

You were in these prison camps
And your child didn't understand.

You suffered so much sickness
And your child suffered too.

You had the worst nightmares and dreams
And your child woke up scared from your screams.

You never forgot
The child didn't know what.

You took your secrets to the grave
And to the child no memories gave

You were a Hero
And the child didn't know.

You were my Mother
And I was your daughter

You were a World War Two 'Jap' Prisoner of War
And now both the child and daughter understand more.

You paid the price too high the cost
For both mother and child too much was lost.

I am a child no more
But unknowing carried the scars you wore.

And have found the more I learn, the more I heal
Now not pain but understanding I do feel.

So rest in peace, with Love from me
Because now finally we both are free!


My Mom passed away Valentine's day 2003.

Thanks Mom for everything you have done for me.

Not until later in life, I became aware of the atrocities my Mom endured while a Prisoner of War from the Japanese in World War II.She saved me from starvation. She would feed me before herself.I remember this horrible 'wall paper paste' I had to eat.We ate rats, snakes, lizards, until there was not any of these creatures to be seen anymore.The rest of my Mothers life she was never able to throw any food away.She would always say to my half-brother and sister when they did not clean their plates:"Empty your plate, if you only knew how many children in the world starve to death, and would give anything for what is on your plate". Whenever I see a mother bird feeding her young ones, I can't help but think by myself that is my Mom.Feeding and protecting her babies. Flying back and fort, back and fort, for her hungry little ones.

Later in life, food became an obsession for her, always trying to over feed us. Always telling us that we did not eat enough.I know that all that happened to my mother in these Japanese camps had serious consequences on the rest of her life. After the war her struggle was not over, the war for her continued as horrible memories.The unimaginable brutality at the hands of the Japanese in these prison camps, trying to take care of me has haunted her for the rest of her life.

Starvation in these Prison camps visited us every day.The Japanese were cruel. As many as fifteen a day would die in our camp. Many women and children suffered from various diseases.Every where around us was filth.Women were punished every day and would suddenly disappear.It was a miracle my mother survived. Freedom should not have come one month later, she would not have made it.
I do not know what would have become of me. My mother once told me that I was so skinny and that she had feared for my life.
The cruelty, torture,rape and slave labor that these women and children endured in these Japanese prison camps should never be forgotten.These women did every thing to keep their children alive and they should be honored and remembered.

Always be remembered!.

Love you Mom.