Robert Boocock
Former Japanese prisoner of war
ROBERT BOOCOCK, who has died at 101, was a prisoner of war in the Far East who survived the Japanese “hell” ships and the Nagasaki atomic bomb before going on to grow a successful business in York.
He was 20 when war broke out, and in October 1941 he joined RAF 242 Squadron. A few weeks later, on the day before the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbour, his squadron set sail from the River Clyde, heading for Singapore
They arrived in Jakarta and less than a month later, in March 1942, he was captured by the Japanese Imperial Army on a tea plantation in the hills and taken prisoner, He was 23.
He spent 18 months on Java in captivity but in September 1943 he was despatched to Singapore for onward transmission to the Japanese mainland. From there, he was transported to Japan on one of the so- called hell ships – floating dungeons in which inmates were denied air, space, light, bathroom facilities or adequate food and water.
Prisoners were fed three times a day on a diet of rice crawling with weevils and bugs. Thirst and heat claimed many lives, as did summary executions and beatings, yet the majority of deaths came as a result of “friendly” fire from Allied ships, submarines, and aircraft.
In October 1943 the ship finally docked in Kyushu, Japan, from where Mr Boocock and his fellow inmates were taken to Fukuoka camp eight, a coalmining facility on the South Island of Japan.
The conditions were harsh, but he considered himself fortunate to work on the surface and not down the mine. They were fed a small ladle of rice in the morning and another at lunchtime with a bowl of soup consisting of water with a few cabbage leaves floating in it. Many men were struck down with malaria, and Mr Boocock suffered from dengue fever.
As the Americans approached the Japanese mainland, the camp guards told them to dig a large open grave for their own use, should the Americans set foot on Japanese soil. When the atomic bombs fell on Hiroshima and then Nagasaki, they sheltered in a tunnel dug into a mountain.
Of the 257 men from Squadron 242 posted out, only 51 returned. Mr Boocock put his own survival down to being fit, not smoking or drinking and having been a boy scout.
But he had to wait another six weeks before setting out home. After marching through what was left of Nagasaki, he left Japan on an aircraft carrier to Okinawa then flew to Manila and onward by US troop ship to Pearl Harbour and then to San Francisco. Next he travelled north to Vancouver and across Canada, then down to New York where he boarded the Queen Mary on November 12, 1945. He arrived in Southampton eight days later and was kitted out and given his ration book and a railway ticket for the final leg of his journey, back to his parents in York. He returned to Japan in 2003, at 84, for a “reconciliation visit” organised by Far East Prisoner of War Association.
Born in Newcastle in January 1919 during the global Spanish Flu pandemic, Robert Boocock, generally known as Bob, had moved with his family to York as a child. After his studies at York Day School of Commerce, he found work with a firm of solicitors.
After the war, he started his own business with his father, also called Robert, and their friend, Jack Matthews. Centrajet Ltd produced gas cutting and welding equipment for home and overseas markets and eventually occupied a 30,000 sq ft factory which employed 100 people at its peak. Mr Boocock remained chairman, even after a takeover, until his retirement at 77.
A lifelong snow and water skier, he indulged his love for the latter at Welton, near Hull, and was at one time president of the British Water Ski Federation. He didn’t give up the sport until he was 87. He was also a regular visitor to the Alps and skied every year into his 70s. He married Rosemary in August 1961, buying a plot of land at Escrick, south of York, on which he designed a house for them. They had four children, Robert, Nick, Anna and Katie, and four grandchildren. Rosemary died in 2003.