William Joseph McGinnis was the type of kid who was constantly looking for adventure, something that was generally in short supply in the small town of Nokomis, Saskatchewan, in 1941.
“He was one of those kids who always liked to go places, always on the go,” recalls his older sister, Evelyn McAninch, now 101. He even ran away from time to time, leaving the family worried about his whereabouts. Always to come back hours later.
“He was an interesting kid, that’s for sure.”
It took Bill McGinnis several attempts to sign up for WWII, always lying about his age. He finally made the cut a month before his 18th birthday, enlisting in the 2nd Saskatoon Light Infantry Battalion.
It was a rite of passage into adulthood for his younger brother, McAninch recalled from the dining room table of his Oakville condo.
Bill received basic training at Camp Dundurn, a Canadian Forces facility 25 miles south of Saskatoon. But she missed the bus there while visiting with her sister and had to take a taxi to catch up with her future battle mates, a moment when Evelyn wishes she could change.
“We were very close. I could have convinced him not to,” McAninch said.
The brothers were inseparable in their youth. Evelyn cared for Bill after his mother died when he was two and she was five. His father died years later, in 1939.
“He could have waited a little longer and missed going to Hong Kong,” she said, recalling that day in 1941. “I never saw him again after that day.”
McAninch, who also served, doing administration in Saskatoon for the Canadian Women’s Army Corps, still feels guilty about it.
She tells Bill’s story whenever she gets the chance, even more so in the month of November.
In mid-October 1941, the five-foot-seven, 132-pound McGinnis was assigned to the Winnipeg Grenadiers, wanting to go places.
On October 27, 1,975 Canadian troops, consisting of the Grenadiers and Royal Rifles of Canada from Quebec City, set sail from Vancouver on Her Majesty Awatea’s transport ship for Hong Kong.
For tactical reasons, his destination was top secret and unknown to the ship’s soldiers.
After refueling stops at Pearl Harbor and Manila, the troops arrived in Hong Kong and received their official orders: defend the island against the Japanese imperial forces.
The operation, Canada’s first major contribution to World War II, is recognized as one of the darkest moments in our military history.
The British under Prime Minister Winston Churchill, concerned on other fronts, misjudged the Japanese forces, downplaying the threat of attack.
The mostly inexperienced Canadian troops, now joined by British, East Indian and Australian defense volunteers, had a few weeks to familiarize themselves with Hong Kong’s mountainous terrain.
On December 7, 1941, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, an American territory. It would be the catalyst for the United States to finally join the war.
That same day, Japanese planes bombed Hong Kong’s only airport, destroying five planes, the entire Hong Kong military fleet.
The Allied defenders – 11,000 strong – faced severe bombardment and artillery attacks, and were overwhelmed by the roughly 60,000 Japanese soldiers.
It took Japan just 10 days to fully occupy Hong Kong Island, and on Christmas Day the British colony finally surrendered to the Japanese.
Two hundred and ninety Canadian soldiers were killed and another 493 wounded in the Battle of Hong Kong.
By December 27, Private William Joseph McGinnis was registered as a prisoner of war and held, along with 1,684 other Allied soldiers, at North Point PoW Camp in Hong Kong, and was eventually sent to Oeyama PoW Camp in Japan.
About 100 Canadians, including Bill, were forced into slave labor at the Nippon Yakin Nickel Mine and Refinery, starved to death and were beaten.
“The part that affects me is that they suffered a lot in those camps every day,” McAninch said. “They didn’t eat much; they were fed worms in their food …
“How could they let this happen to my brother?”
On April 25, 1944, after two years, three months and 30 days, the severely malnourished McGinnis succumbed to paralytic beriberi, a disease caused by vitamin B1 deficiency.
At the age of 20, he was interred in the Oeyama Camp Cemetery and subsequently reburied, with 136 other soldiers, in the Yokohama War Cemetery, where the soldiers rest to this day.
McGinnis was posthumously awarded the 1939-1945 Star (awarded for six months of active duty service), the Pacific Star (for service in the “Pacific theater of war”); the Defense Medal (for six months of service in Hong Kong); the Canadian Voluntary Service Medal (for volunteering with the Canadian Armed Forces) and the 1939-1945 War Medal (for serving 28 days between September 10, 1939 and September 2, 1945).
Japan would occupy Hong Kong Island until August 1945, when British control was restored.
Future generations would have little idea of the impact these men and women had on the world we live in now.
Young Bill, who has a lake in northern Saskatchewan named after him, actually only saw a few weeks of battle before being captured by the Japanese.
It’s probably not the kind of adventure you once dreamed of.
Reference-www.thestar.com