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World War II POW Diaries of British
World War II POW Diaries of British Lieut. J.W. Hugo Held by Japanese A lot of two diaries written in captivity by British officer Lt. James W. Hugo while prisoner of the Japanese in World War II. ?These two journals written in Japanese notebooks contain not only Lt. Hugo's daily observances as a POW but detailed regimental operational records and an eyewitness history of the disastrous British defense of Malaya and Singapore.James William Hugo was a career British military officer whose regiment the 155th Field Regiment (Lanarkshire Yeomanry ) Royal Artillery was sent to Malaya in 1941 as part of the 11th Indian Division. The 155th was on the front lines from the first day of the invasion at Jitra. Unable to cover all directions Hugo describes how the British Indian and Australian forces were pushed back and flanked by the Japanese using captured boats to make beach landings in the rear of their positions forcing a retreat to Singapore. The 155th spiked their guns and surrendered on February 15th 1942 with the rest of the British army after running out of food and ammunition.Hugo spent eight months in Changi Prison Camp (the same POW camp as writer James Clavell and the inspiration for his book King Rat) before being sent to Taiwan on the hell ship England Maru on October 20 1942. Arriving on November 6 1942 they were immediately sent to the copper mines of the infamous Kinkaseki POW camp. At 52 years old Hugo was too old for the dangerous work in the mines and instead was put to work above ground. In August 1943 he was sent with other "surplus officers" to the POW camp at Shirakawa which had medical facilities. On February 27 1945 he was transported to Moji Japan via the hell ship Taiko Maru arriving March 5. ?When the ship docked he was transferred to the POW hospital there then sent to Miyata POW Camp 20B later renamed Miyata 4B. He remained here until liberated in September 1945.Hugo gave these diaries to an American serviceman on board the hospital ship USS Haven which treated POWs liberated in the Nagasaki area and transported them to Manila to be sent home. The cover of the first notebook is inscribed "Given to me in Nagasaki Japan by a POW we liberated. Sept '45" by that serviceman and is titled in Hugo's hand "Operations etc./ POW No. 1453/ JW Hugo."This first notebook contains the daily operations log of the 155th Field Regiment from December 8 1941 to the fall of Singapore. There is also a well-written 22-page narrative of the defense strategy for British Malaya from the 1920s which includes detailed accounts of the battles of the Japanese invasion and fall of Singapore. Hugo kept a roster of the 273 men of his regiment taken prisoner and killed in the Malaya Campaign as well as list of 188 men of the 155th Field Regiment who remained behind in Changi Prison when Hugo and 1000 others were sent aboard the hell ship England Maru to POW camps in Taiwan.He also wrote down the instructions that the Japanese forced the POWs to adhere to when writing letters home: 5 words for his own health 50 words inquiring about family's health 200 words covering "approved" subjects 100 words about American bombing Japanese cities. "Every point of the subject must be referred to as carefully and minutely as possible. The sentence shall be written in a letter form and in block letters as usual." Above this he wrote : "The more faithful in writing the more your treatment is improved."This notebook includes the list of men assigned to the 155th whose deaths in captivity Hugo was aware of and the cause of death (Beri Beri dysentery etc.) Shirakawa POW camp had a canteen that the officers were allowed to buy extra food and items from and is apparently where Hugo obtained the two notebooks he wrote these diaries in. He kept a running total of the POW pay he was given in yen and his expenditures in this first book.The second notebook is a daily diary starting May 12 1944 at Shirakawa POW camp. Hugo relates working in the farm building an earthen dam and learning to give massages to the seriously ill. A big focus of the diary is whether they got fed that day and what the food was. He notes his joy in getting the first boiled egg in 18 months in the summer of 1944 and on November 23 1944 writes "received an orange between 3 of us. What a treat!"?October 10 1944 marked the first air raid warning at Shirakawa. POWs were forced to lie on their beds until the all clear was sounded and punished if they even sat up. On Christmas Eve 1944 Hugo was allowed to compose a 40-word letter home which was sent by shortwave radio in Tokyo. By February 1945 the prisoners were getting little labor done due to daily air raids. Rumors were rampant that they were to be moved. The last entry from Shirakawa is February 18 1945. Hugo and 700 others were marched to Keelung in late February put aboard the hell ship Taiko Maru and sent to the Japanese home island of Kyushu arriving March 5 1945.Hugo's next diary entry is May 20 1945. he had become extremely sick probably from the voyage aboard Taiko Maru and had been in the POW hospital at Miyata. The following is an excerpt from his diary from May 1945:29th Tues. Cigarettes returned to us. We had a currant log. I was punched in the jaw and hit with the butt of a rifle in the middle of the back. I as far as I can make out did not salute the sentry correctly. Bye the way I was massaging a man's leg at the time the sentry passed.30th Fine day. No bread today.31st Thurs Fine day. Today I have been a captain for two years and become entitled to another rise in my pay.1st June Fine day. received 1 pkt Cigarettes (American). According to report a little dog that was running round camp in the morning was in the stew in the evening. If it was the taste was quite good.By July 1945 Capt Hugo was down to 46.2kg (101 pounds). Red Cross packages were kept by the Japanese and pieces were doled out for good behavior or special occasions or when food ran out. On August 16 rumors of the end of the war reached the camp:August 16 1945: There is a lot of excitement in camp today. Officers and men are not allowed to go out of the camp to work. According to rumour the war is over. Negotiations are going on between the powers and we should know in the course of a day or two the result. I pray to God that these rumours are true and that I shall soon be out of this horrible camp on my way home to Grace and the boys.17th It would appear that the peace rumours are true as we have not had a air raid for 48 hours. We have been issued with extra food by the Nipponese and as we are not working this is a sure sign that something extraordinary has happened. The Camp Cmdt has also released Red X stores and we have been issued with a tin of milk butter jam and meat. What a treat! I went to bed feeling quite satisfied with my food for the day.Over the next few days Allied planes begin dropping food and medicine to the area POW camps. On September 2 the camp commandant declares the POWs free and turns administration of the camp over to the POW officers. He remains at the camp and is nearly killed when a food barrel breaks loose from its parachute and crashes through the roof of his office nearly missing him as he ate his rice. Hugo notes:"We were sorry that it did not brain him. It would have been poetic justice if he had been brained with a tin of M & V as he has had such a lot of Red X stores that he should not have had."In addition to his diary this notebook also contains two "To Whom It May Concern" letters relating what has happened to him since being captured in case he didn't live to see the end of the war a monthly chart of his weight from October 1943 to September 1945 a copy of a letter he wrote to his family while POW and a tally of the air raids he witnessed in Taiwan.
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Letters Between the Sturges
Letters Between the Sturges Brothers Most Antebellum Including J.R. Sturges 3rd GA Infantry KIA These 58 letters encompass a "snapshot" of antebellum life in the South.Samuel Sturges (1774-1831) was born in Fairfield Co. CT. He arrived in Georgia shortly after the Revolutionary war although the exact date is uncertain. They were in Georgia by 1801 and in Waynesborough (now Waynesboro) by 1804. In May of 1804 he married Rachel Lowery (1786-1837). Samuel became one of the leaders of the community one of five members of the Board of Town Incorporators and was elected in 1813 as one of the first five commissioners. He held other town positions through his lifetime there.Samuel and Rachel had three children: Jane Robinson (1809-1817) William Urquhart (1816-1884) and John Reynolds (1827-1862). In the 1830 Census Samuel lists 10 slaves. William seems to have spent most of his career as a hotel keeper although he occasionally became something of a merchant picking up items for townspeople when he or his agents went to New York for supplies. Samuel died in 1831 when his youngest son was only three. Rachel followed but six years later.About this time the U.S. government was moving native peoples off their lands and the Cherokee had prime farm land in Georgia. The tribe appealed to the Supreme Court and won but President Andrew Jackson had the U.S. Army move them off their land anyway in what would be known as the "Trail of Tears". The Cherokee Land Lottery of 1832 indicates that the orphans of Samuel Sturges received lottery number 115 for the 8th District 1st section and Rachel (Rachael) received 143 for the 6th District 3rd Section. William would have been an adult at the time of Rachel's death so presumably he continued raising his younger brother John and the brothers remained close for life. William appears in the mid-century censuses as a hotel keeper but may have been a merchant earlier (implied in some of his letters).By 1844 John had made his way "up east." In the first letter in the collection William writes to John [4 Sept. 1844] in Princeton NJ passing along brotherly advice particularly about health issues: I am glad you took the step you did by entering on your studies soon after your arrival and congratulate yourself & John Shewmaker upon your success in entering the Sophomore class. I trust neither of you will flag yet I would advise that you keep an eye on your health. In that climate the constitution is easily undermined by leading too sedentary a life. Provide yourself with some means of bodily exercise perform some daily labour or take pedestrian exercise. Exercise with the "dumb bells" will tend to expand the chest and develop the muscles of the arms. These may seem of no importance now and may make seemingly no very great improvement in your feelings while you continue the use. They may be used as preventions. He also suggests that the young men enlist an agent to cash checks sent up to them and to hold any monies which were not immediately needed.On occasion William discusses politics in his letters. November of 1844 is one of those occasions being a presidential election year. (reconstructed letters in brackets.) The news political of this State is that sh[e] has cast her vote for Mr. Polk for president. The lat[e] [re]turns indicate that Mr. Polk will be our next President Much [to] the surprise of all politicians. I must feel as an American citizen should feel no little mortification at the result of this [con]test. I do heartily rejoice however that it is over. We have been from one end of this union to the other in a perfect stew and as the Whig "Pot" has boiled over and spilt all the fat in the fire (excuse this sentence) & we cannot make amends I trust we will have a little quiet & a little more trade and I truly hope a good deal more good feeling from our neighbors to another. The people will now return to their uniform Christian feelings. He goes on to note that the local medical college has resumed with an overflow class of 125 students and describes the amusements in town - the theater circus a ventriloquist / magician.William seems to have gone "all out" into Whig politics. The party formed largely in opposition to Jacksonian policies. It advocated investment in roads and railroads to tie the country together economically. Henry Clay one of the better known leaders of the party advocated returning proceeds from the sale of public lands to the states to make these improvements. This would certainly have been an attractive position for these members of the "merchant class " increasing the availability and decreasing the price of goods. At one point William writes referring to the folks in Burke and Waynesboro: Those people are to be envied somewhat for their quiet (seeming) happiness. But truly is a life of that kind to be objected to because of the excess of doing naught that tends to the usefulness or benefits of the human family. They have no meetings or gatherings but for frivolous amusement. He goes on to say that Augusta is determined to turn itself into a manufacturing town but so far "all talk no action." [30 Jan. 1845] In October 1845 William notes that Georgia elected a Whig governor [George Crawford] and would likely elect a Whig senator.Other Whig party leaders included William Henry Harrison and Daniel Webster. After Harrison's death John Tyler became president and his stand on states' rights was even stronger than most particularly attractive to the South as abolition issues were heating up. In 1847 Webster made a trip to this small southern town which William describes in his letter of 29 May: The very distinguished Mr. Webster of Massachusetts has been among us for some time near a week. He being detained on a/c [account] of health. He received from men of all parties the most marked attention and I hope will return well impressed with Southern hospitality and the better understanding our institutions particularly that of slavery. He says he will go home and tell his people what pleasure he derived from this time. He spent one day and night in Waynesboro when all the village visited him except Mr. Douglass.William seems to be a bit mistrusting of politicians generally. In a postscript to his letter of 20 Feby. 1845: A Duel which took place on the morning of the 20th (yesterday) terminated in the death of one of the combatants. They were double Brothers-in-Law and citizens of So. Ca. They fought at a distance of ten paces with muskets. From report there is another hostile party making preliminaries now in the city. They are to fire at 10 feet distant with pistols. This party are men who have been in high confidence in State Offices. It does not speak well of their morals without which no man can be safely trusted or truly great.By late in 1845 John and his friend decided that they did not really like Princeton although specific reasons are not indicated. They seem to have decided on Yale. In December 1845 William advises his brother: After conversation with John T. Shoemaker who had just reached here I have reconsidered your proposition to leave Princeton and now give my consent that you do so if you wish; the only advice I can give you is that you make the best possible use of your time while in any college.. I hope you will get into as few quarrels with the abolitionists in and about New Haven as possible for you must know that this is the hotbed of abolitionism and constant subject for conversation even among the old maids of which that place abounds in confused numbers. And abolition isn't the only issue to be considered [6 Jan. 1846]: I cannot know myself how or why either of the institutions may be the better for your education and would have preferred your graduating at Princeton only because it is know[n] as a "Southern institution "[emph. added] and I had presumed that you were as pleasantly located there as at any place except home.There was also a family connection to the area and it appears that John was curious about the family history and that may have attracted him to New Haven. William writes [18 Jany. 1846]: I am unable to give you as yet any clue to any members of our family. As to our Fathers family I can only say that within the state of Connecticut there must still some reside and very probably many near New Haven. Our Father was I think a native of Fairfield and presume that there was none of his immediate progenitors (?) living at or about the time of his death. I know only of one Brother to him and he died in this place now many years since.. [Nathaniel Sturges Sr. died in Waynesboro 7 Nov. 1826] We have no relations in the north but upon the Father's side and our Mothers being now nearly extinct.. However a number of times William emphasizes that John's education is more dependent on his efforts than on the school he chooses [4 Jany. 1846]: I have no objections to the change [of schools] and leave it entirely to your own discretion to stop at either of the institutions. .There is I think little depending on the institution you may pursue your collegiate course in or at least much less than upon your own industry and pursuit after knowledge. [18 Jany. 1846] I cannot deem it necessary or even prudent to lay out any path for your future course through life.. I desire you if it suits you to study Law. He is for any education that can be obtained - for anyone. It appeared that John's friend John Shewmaker could no longer afford to live in the East and continue in college. [8 Nov. 1845] If I were John I would exact the sum sufficient from my guardian to take me [through the] course - It might infringe a little upon my estate but the "value recd." would doubly compensate for the expenditure so made.William makes another interesting recommendation to his brother. [18 Jany. 1846] I will propose one thing which in after I think you will not repent(?) of following and this is that you look about when you return home for a good wife with a comfortable little fortune not however for her fortune alone. Earlier he warned of marrying in haste. He notes that there are six weddings in the next few weeks and hopes those who "act in haste" may not have cause "to repent at leisure" [8 Nov. 1845]. He also relates the story of a friend Nancy W. who became engaged to a gentleman she knew only a short time [20 Octr. 1845]. Her guardian persuaded her to wait a bit to marry. Two days later the man was engaged to her sister according to William proving the adage "one of the name was as good as the same." William does however suggest the man would have made a good husband. He had been twice widowed and had 3 children including an infant of only three months probably explaining his "rush to the altar."Along with the "states' rights" issues of the Whig party abolition was rearing its head as William's comment about New Haven indicates: A rumour is at present being circulated from Burke that Saml. Russell has run off with some several Negroes the property of different person near Waynesboro. Sam has very mysteriously disappeared from Burke and since the Christmas Holiday the negroes have not been heard of and further proof of his guilt by the testimony of a gentleman returning from the ??? part of this state that he saw him on board of some Steam Boat bound westward. The supposition is that he has [illeg.] his course for Texas via New Orleans and steps have been taken to follow him. We can only hope that justice may reach the offenders of the Law so speedily as to be to others a good warning . A letter from his niece Abby indicates the general attitude of this family toward "the help." She went to Savannah for a visit and [11 Feb. 1846]: On my way home I stopped at Waynesboro for three or four hours. While there I went round to see Cousin Betsy Douglas whom I found quite well. .I saw all the servants they were all quite well and want to see you very much indeed. Whenever they see me the first question is when did you hear from Mas. John and how is he. You know they are all to be sold next month. Uncle William is going to try and buy them all in as he hates to have them separated. Old Aunt Beckey hated it very much she can scarcely speak of it without tears coming into her eyes. A letter from William a month or so later indicates that he did just that. [9 March 1846] I remained in the village [Waynesboro] until after the sale which resulted in my purchasing all the negroes except little Becky who Mr. Dowse bot [bought] for Abby & Mary Ann and her daughters who was bot by Sid Dowse as was previously agreed upon. The servants are all now well satisfied and hope not to be harassed by the fear of being sold again soon. For the present they will all remain in Waynesboro but I presume soon to find a good situation for Lizzy here. Eliza will remain with Dr. Mst. and Celia will remain as a kind of nurse to Old Aunt Becky. In nearly every letter the servants send their regards and William reports their health status as well as that of the family.Health was a major concern especially in Georgia summers. The end of May brought the end of the school term and the end of the social season especially as that segment of the population would generally leave for the worst of the summer. In May 1845 William wrote: I . commend your contemplated tour on foot. I cannot advise however to make the tour if you must expose yourself to the sun through the month of July. Having been shut up in coledge [sic] regulation for many months previous I should think you are but ill prepared to much exposure to the sun and the consequent fatigue of such an undertaking. . I would advise.a trip as a manner of recreating the mind and seeing something of the many places of renown of which our glorious land abounds. He notes there was a party for a newly married couple This party winds up the gayiety of the village at least for this season. Many of those who move from Burke left the same week for their summer residences and the village is now left with its usual number of "Summer inhabitants " and entirely rid of its young folks. .I am sorry to say that old Aunt Becky's health is fast declining though she yet continues to go about. The rest of our servants are all well. Apparently William followed other residents of Burke County and went to Madison Springs: I am at quite a delightfull place being one of the fashionable resorts for the gay and fashionable of this State & SoCa. I have been drinking freely of the medicinal water here and find from it a great benefit induced thus far. I feel my strength much recovered & can see a decided improvement in fullness of person. After a period he writes John again apologizing that he has not written sooner but he did not want to be thought unsociable. [8 Sept. 1845] I have recovered in a very considerable degree the strength that a debility of two summers had rid me of. I consider the water here efficacious & the air fine and bracing but the constant exercise the spirits are compelled to take in part with the company goes a greater ways in the restoration of many visitors than anything else. .I think I have come in for my share of the good benefits of very agreeable society and do offer up my thanks for the advantage enjoyed. Indicates (at end of the letter) that it has been a dry year: So far as I can learn the health of that part of Georgia considered sickly in summer is better than I've known and the people have nothing to complain of but the shortness of the crop. They will make a sufficiency of provisions and a ? crop of cotton. This will for those who are out of debt but those - and they are many - who presumed to pay old debts from the proceeds of this crop must be disappointed. In the counties of the state from this to the Tennessee line the crop of provisions promises to be so short that many have made arrangement to leave the country and seek some place where corn is plenty. There has been quite a flood of emigrants from Carolina to Tennessee in search of cheap provisions. I am glad to know that they will find it quite low there. Considerable distress must be experienced among the poor of some sections as they have neither provisions or the means to buy them. Yet we feel assured that there will be no starving as the sympathies of the more independent class will move them to the relief of the needy. Even into October he notes the relative health of the area during the summer but with the dry weather comes "insufferable heat."As winter came around however he recommended to John that he find a doctor up in New Haven: I would advise that you get a good Medical person to vaccinate you as the Small Pox seems to be traveling the "country all over" - and you are by necessity associated with persons from every part of the land. Of course smallpox vaccinations were used even by George Washington during the Revolutionary War and William understood exposure risk to the disease in those urban population centers. Less clear seems to be their understanding of other "tropical diseases." In 1848 [3 July] he writes to Johns that there is much sickness in Augusta. Germans were working on a canal living in filthy conditions and the doctor was reporting cases of yellow fever. We now know that neither "Germans" nor "filthy conditions" (per se) would have been responsible for this outbreak - but more likely the canal itself since this would have been an excellent breeding ground for the mosquitoes that carry this disease (although that knowledge did not come until construction of the Panama Canal though suspected somewhat earlier).Besides politics slavery and other moral issues late in John's college career William addresses the other "third rail." You must excuse me my dear Brother that I have never mentioned the subject of Religion when writing to you. . That I know a just part is for us to perform which upon this earth and that we will have to account for all the deeds done in the body to a just God is sufficient to warn me always to a proper course through life. He goes on to say that he has not joined a church because he finds many of the "code of laws governing them" impossible for mere mortals to follow and many of them are "petty and unnecessary." However a couple years earlier when niece Abby joined the Presbyterian church William commented [28 April 1845] I consider the garb of Religion gives peculiar beauty to the female (young particularly) character.Another view of the Southern social scene comes from Abby's letters. Abby married 20 May 1846 and several letters from William deal with John's preparations to return home for both the wedding and summer break. In the autumn Abby writes that she and her new husband left Bath shortly after John did (presumably to return to school) and they went to the seaboard then on to Mr. Jones' family home. Although worried about how she would be received by his family she was received warmly as a member of the family. She tells her cousin [30 Sept. 1846]: ...for nothing is more pleasant than to be beloved particularly in the circle in which we are to move and I sincerely trust that hereafter my actions will not be such as to forfeit the confidence and esteem of these kind friends.You can readily perceive my dear Uncle that my situation at first upon arriving at the home of my husband was peculiarly delicate and embarrassing. A few weeks had wrought a strange and sudden revolution in my existence. A young girl surrounded by her family circle engrossed with maidenly occupation and concerned only with the passing events of the home was transformed into the wife the home of her childhood forsaken and a new train of duties attendant upon this change opened to her view. This responsibility for a time was felt very acutely but the cordial reception of which I have spoken of before in a short time banished these feelings and I felt not only reconciled to but delighted with my future prospects. Every member of the family welcomed me to their midst and I already feel identified with them in every particular. Later she adds: I have been busily employed preparing for housekeeping which I hope to commence about the last of November. I look forward to the time with a great deal of pleasure and yet with fear to [sic] for I have so little experience in the mysteries of housekeeping. I dare say I will do many things that is wrong yet all had to learn by experience .I suppose that I will have to do the same. She then suggests that she will have William or someone pick up items for her that are cheaper in the North than at home another reality of Southern life even antebellum.John graduated from Yale in 1847 but seems to have remained in the north for a bit. There is one letter from William addressed to John in New Haven with a postal stamp for July 1848. William for his part married Georgia Ann Ward (1826 - 1905) on 10 Aug. By 1850 John had returned to Georgia where the 1850 census shows him as a 22-year-old schoolteacher living with William plus just over a dozen single men two couples and a widow with two daughters in the hotel/boarding house. John seems to have also been studying law in Augusta at the same time. In 1852 John became County Surveyor for Burke County and there are about 20 letters from the 1850s relating to this role. One of the early ones is to another surveyor asking what they charge for surveying etc. apparently trying to determine his rates in this new occupation. Another letter relates to measurements of the variation in magnetic deviation from true north. A few of the requests become rather insistent: I am getting in a hurry about that surveying and I wish you to come over tonight - so that you can make an early start as I wish you to do some surveying in different places.Most of the letters contain requests for surveys or documents from earlier surveys but one contains political opinions along with a request for paperwork on a property. Sam P. Davis [9 July 1852] suggests that political excitement is waning and only a 3rd candidate is likely to get people interested again. He notes that if the election is only between the present candidates he would vote for Pierce since "Pierce can show a clean hand on the n---er question [his underline]. This is more than can be said of Scott." The question of slavery was foremost in the minds of local "movers and shakers." Scott had come out as anti-slavery (a problem for southern voters) in spite of the Whig pro-slavery platform (a problem for northern voters). Daniel Webster rejected by his Whig party as their candidate ran as a Union Party (basically Southern Whigs) candidate and despite the fact that he died before the election still received several thousand Georgia votes!In 1860 John was still living in William's hotel/boarding house along with 15 men many of whom were also law students or lawyers and an older woman and her adult son. He never seems to have found his "good wife with a comfortable little fortune" suggested by brother William but he did seem to be building his own home. After the November election South Carolina seceded and several other states called their own conventions. Georgia's election of delegates to the convention that would determine her course occurred on the second day of the new year. These delegates then convened in Milledgeville on the 16th to begin debating the issue. By the 19th George Crawford convention president and former Whig governor declared Georgia officially seceded from the United States. Within two more weeks the infant Confederate States of America formed and two months later the offspring nation was at war with her northern parent. The last six letters are war da Condition: Variable as expected. Only one with insect/rodent damage extensive enough for loss of text.
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