Share memories of neighboring war and memories of a lost uncle

Win on Japan Day – or VJ Day – On August 15, in 1945, the mark of the day when the World War two ended.

Lisburn Man Tommy Doharry can be 98, but he is still serving in RAF in Singapore during the war.

They were given only six hours notice to pack up to the other side of the world.

Meanwhile, Tommy’s neighbor Brian Buke’s uncle Joseph McCondles died in 1945 in a war camp in Borneo.

The two often meet together to talk about war in Tommy’s house, in which their service medals and photos are proudly displayed.

He also shared his memories with BBC News Ni.

Tommy Doharrti was posted in the RAF Eldergrove, when he was spoken by a lieutenant on the base.

“I am bad news for you,” Tommy remembered him saying this.

“You have to report to Bartonwood (a former RAF base in the north of England) tomorrow in the latest.

“So I had to raise that night, with only six hours between wife and I.”

According to Tommy it took longer to visit Singapore – “18 or 19 days”.

He worked as a driver at RAF camps in Singapore, “For a year, back and forward in separate camps”.

Later he was now transferred to Malaysia, and then to Kuala Lumpur elsewhere in the country.

But he told BBC News Ni that he was disappointed many times how much he and his fellow servicemen were made here and there.

And Tommy recalled the prisoners of the war, which after the end of the struggle in Europe, forgot about.

“Germans are defeated and the war is over and people are dancing about all and beer and this, that’s another thing and they have left us just prisoners,” he tells him that he is telling him.

He also said that some soldiers caught by Japanese were tortured.

While Tommy made it home, his neighbor Brian Buke’s uncle did not.

Brian Buke’s uncle Joseph McCondles was caught in 1942 and was held in a prisoner of a war camp in Borneo, where he died in 1945.

He said, “I was probably very young at that level, which was really a terrible to understand a lot of Uncle who.”

“It was only when I had grown up that I realized how difficult and sad that his life and his death was eventually.”

Joseph McCondles joined the RAF in 1938, and was posted in Singapore in 1941.

Japan captured Singapore in 1942, giving a major blow to the British war attempt.

Brian Buke said, “Who managed to escape from Java Island, but Japanese also attacked Java.”

“This is where he was caught. He was a prisoner of war in Borneo for almost three years.

“It was very cruel, perhaps as cruel as you can imagine. They were treated, not only they received treatment, but they faced diseases – dysentery and parasitic diseases.”

His uncle, Bryan, said, in a “terrible place”.

He said: “Being from home till now, no contact with the loved ones did not help, they were originally hungry.

“If he did not get the disease, probably hungry.”

Bryan and his family never were able to find out how Joseph died, but sadly it was very close to the end of the war, possibly only a few days.

He has always remembered him, especially on VJ Day.