Joseph Louis DeWitt(By Dennis DeWitt) |
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Joseph Louis DeWitt
(By Dennis DeWitt)
Joseph Louis DeWitt was born on 19th November 1919.
He was employed by the Federated Malay States Railways in the 1940's. During the Second World War, when Malaya was occupied by the Japanese Imperial Army, he was forced by his employers to work in Thailand, driving a locomotive on the infamous Death Railway. Conditions were very bad there and employees were not allowed to leave the service or be transferred, which virtually made him a prisoner. In due course, Joe came down with dysentery and malaria and on the verge of death he was smuggled out by some of his comrades in a water tank pulled by a train which went to Prai from Thailand. Eventually, he found his way back to Melaka, where he was nursed back to health. However, he was a fugitive from the Japanese forced-labour organisation and he was also not registered as a resident in his 'tonari kumi' (neighbourhood) as every person had to be then. With the help of Mr. Desmond Pereira (who was to be his brother-in-law) who knew a person of high-ranking position in the civil police department, Joe was cleared and registered.
The above was taken from the autobiography 'The Sun Rises, The Sun Sets' by Mr. Desmond Peraira. Joe survived the wartime with his family in Melaka.
He was married to Evelyn Ursula Thomas and had six children. Later he migrated with his family to Australia and has been divorced. He has recently remarried and now continues to live in Perth, Western Australia.
