Last week we reported that Ana Reddish is to finally receive compensation for the time she spent as a prisoner-of-war at the hands of the Japanese. This week she recounts some of her memories of life in the camp

Richard Brgger reports

It may have been 50 years ago, but for Ana Reddish the memories of being a prisoner of war are still vividly etched in her memory.

Ana, 89, of Merlin Court, Keighley, can recall the day she and husband Cecil were taken from their home in Hong Kong by Japanese soldiers and marched to Stanley Camp.

They were to spend the next three and a half years in the PoW camp on the southern peninsula of Hong Kong - an experience that would eventually lead to Cecil's premature death from TB in 1964, aged 54.

Now, as she approaches her 90th year, Ana is finally receiving £10,000 compensation from the British government which has come from money handed over by the Japanese government following the war.

Gibraltar-born Ana first met Cecil on the British colony, and the couple were married in 1938.

Soon after, Cecil was posted to the Hong Kong police force but Ana remained in Gibraltar.

With the threat of war escalating in both Europe and the Pacific Ana's family was reluctant to see their daughter follow her husband.

However, she finally joined him in Hong Kong just before war broke out in Europe during September 1939.

In December 1941 the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbour and then turned their attention to Hong Kong.

After a number of air raids the island's defences were finally breached by Japanese forces on Christmas Day.

Like many other British couples and ex-pats, Ana and Cecil were marched to Stanley Camp, formerly St Stephen's boys' school.

The long walk was made even more horrific by the trail of dead people strewn along the way who had fallen victim to the Japanese forces.

Says Ana: "We had to walk for miles and miles towards the harbour and we thought they were going to drown us, but they put us on a ferry to take us to Stanley.

"We were fed a bowl of rice in the morning, a bowl of rice at night and tea that was like dirty water.

"There was no privacy and we had a toilet for so many people that we had to line up when we wanted to go.

"My friend got me a bar of soap which I kept for her, and we had to make it last for three years.

"They took my jewellery and I lost my engagement ring and everything I had on me.

"If we didn't bow to the Japanese soldiers they would smack our face. When someone escaped they made us stand outside all day as punishment."

During her incarceration Ana gave birth to a boy and a girl, but unfortunately her health led to her losing her first child.

"I lost the boy an hour after he was born because there was no hospital to deal with his problems," she says. "When I was expecting Veronica a doctor told me not to have her at night because there would be no lighting or heating."

Fortunately her daughter arrived safely into the world on the afternoon of September 7, 1944, but it was still a struggle for Ana to bring up her child.

"We couldn't get any baby food so I had to feed her rice water and rice so she hardly grew and was still like a child of six months when we were released," she recalls.

When Hong Kong was liberated by Allied forces on September 6, 1945, Ana remembers: "The American's threw fruit to us. I used to love apples so I ate one and was sick because I hadn't eaten fresh fruit for more than three years.

"A lot of us had Beri Beri because of the diet we had survived on, and a lot of older people and children died because they didn't receive proper nourishment."

The family was evacuated to New Zealand, where their second daughter Ngaire was born, before returning to Hong Kong where their third daughter Janine was born. They then left the island once and for all to start a new life in England.

Veronica, from Oakworth, returned to Hong Kong in 1984 to visit the camp where she spent the first year of her life.

She says: "Going back to Stanley Camp was a very emotional and spiritual experience, and it was a strange feeling to see the remains of barbed wire around the site."

In spite of the treatment she and Cecil received at the hands of the Japanese army, Ana does not hold any grudges towards the country and its people.

She adds: "I don't hate anybody because it was war and in war you cannot help what's going on. Whenever I talk to Japanese people they seem very nice.

"I'm pleased that people like myself are finally receiving some compensation for the things we had to go through and all the possessions that were taken from our home.

"It has been a long time to wait, and my only regret is that Cecil can't be here with me now to see this."