Malcolm Ingleby Scott to his father Thomas Davison Scott
Sent by: Malcolm Ingleby Scott
Sent to: Thomas Davison Scott
Sent from: Fukushima, Japan
Date of letter: 13 April 1944
My father, Malcolm Ingleby Scott, was a Radio Officer on SS Kirkpool which was torpedoed near Tristan da Cunha on 10/4/1942 by German disguised raider ‘Thor’.
Along with the other survivors he was passed from German ship until they arrived near Tokyo where they were passed into Japanese hands in July 1942. They were then transferred by train north to Fukushima where they were imprisoned in a civilian interment camp run by members of a police force. This camp, containing men, women and children, was unknown to the outside world until a visit from the Red Cross in March 1944….after which they were allowed to write letters.
The 25 word Red Cross letter was written to my father Malcolm Ingleby Scott by his father, Thomas Davison Scott, whilst he was in Fukushima civilian POW camp. Nothing had been heard about my father’s whereabouts since April 1942 when his ship was lost until he was discovered by the Red Cross in Fukushima in March 1944. My grandfather had a “missing presumed dead” letter from the government.
My father was released in early September 1945 and arrived back to Southampton in December 1945, nearly four years after he left the UK. He never recovered from his ordeal and died in 1959. I inherited all his letters, photos etc when my mother died in 2000.
