12

Telegram
21 November 1941
Transcona, Manitoba, Canada

13

Many soldiers like Ralph Maxwell were killed in the first days of the attack, though world was slow to get home. Others died from disease and malnutrition while imprisoned in POW camps. For some POWs, imprisonment lasted for years. Their pain - mental, physical, and emotional - lasted a lifetime.

14

Prisoner of war
14 October 1942
Transcona, Manitoba, Canada

15

For those who survived and returned, many never spoke of their experiences.

16

Map showing Prisoner of War Camps in the Far East
January 1945
141 Regent Avenue West, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

17

Lance Sergeant James M. "Jim" Thom was taken as a Prisoner of War (POW) on Christmas Day 1941. He was in the same camp as Bob Nixon and these two men maintained a strong bond and friendship. As a POW, Jim Thom was forced to labour in a mine.

18

An example of an envelope used by Jim Thom to write to his father
3 December 1943
Transcona, Manitoba, Canada

19

Back at home in Transcona, Jim's sister Ina kept a scrapbook of telegrams, newspaper clippings as well as the correspondence of the Thom family that included censored letters written between P.O.W. Jim Thom and his father, Transcona Police Chief Alex Thom, and sisters Ina and Olive from 1942 to 1945.

20

A card from the Maxwell family
1941
Transcona, Manitoba, Canada

21

Lance Sergeant James M. "Jim" Thom, who was interned 4 ½ years by the Japanese as a Prisoner of War, was liberated on September 16, 1945. Jim Thom returned to his hometown of Transcona, Manitoba.

22

Certificate of gratitude from King George, as awarded to Jim Thom
1945
Transcona, Manitoba, Canada

23

Jim Thom's National Registration Certificate
17 January 1946
Transcona, Manitoba, Canada

24

After having endured years of hardship including sickness, starvation, and torture, the Hong Kong P.O.W.s were welcomed home by King and Country.

25

Pte. R.J. Nixon was taken as a prisoner of war in Hong Kong
1941
Jamaica