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Elias Veerman believes the atomic bomb saved his life.
On the day the bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, the now retired Oregon shoe
store owner was a prisoner of war working at a coal mine just outside the
city.
He was a Dutch sailor who spent about three years as a prisoner, forced
to work in a shipyard on a Nagasaki harbor island. He was transferred to
a mining camp outside the city in February 1945.
The prisoners heard stories they would be herded into trenches and buried
if the Allies invaded Japan.
And during air raids, the prisoners were herded into a cave.
Finally, it dawned on Veerman the cave would have been blown up with the
men inside if an invasion occurred.
"This (atomic) bomb saved a lot of lives. It saved my life. I would
not have survived an invasion. .... They would have just wiped us out,"
said Veerman, 71, from his home outside Creswell, Ore.
Veerman, who was an 18-year-old living in Dutch Indonesia when war broke
out in 1941, spent almost the entire war as a prisoner.
Drafted into the Dutch navy, he had little time to train before Japan forced
the Allies to abandon the island of Java. Veerman was on a transport ship
evacuating people to Australia when it was captured by a Japanese battleship.
He was held several months at a camp in Java, where he was beaten and saw
other men tortured.
And he was forced to watch two prisoners - recaptured after escaping - dig
their graves before being beheaded.
"I didn't see the execution. I closed my eyes. Some of my friends still
have nightmares.
"They were so cruel. They broke ... the rules of decency."
In October 1942, Veerman and other Dutch, British and U.S. prisoners were
shipped to Fukuoka Camp No. 2 in Nagasaki harbor, where there was no escape.
They worked in a shipyard, where Veerman - armed with a broom - swept ships.
Veerman said the Japanese built their ships fast - too fast. Their skilled
shipbuilders were lost to the army and navy, leaving inexperienced youths
and the prisoners.
Some prisoners were riveters, who sometimes left loose rivets. Veerman said
one ship sailed out after construction, only to sink because of poor construction.
Prisoners were beaten often. Forgetting to bow to a guard brought blows.
Veerman was hit once on the rear with a baseball bat for losing his cap.
And a Japanese marine hit him on the face - cracking his jaw - for warming
his hands over a riveter's fire.
"I don't understand how these people loved to do these things."
Veerman endured other beatings. He also had to have foot surgery and a broken
molar removed - both times by a prisoner doctor without anesthesia.
Finally, the prison camp got a new commander, and the beatings stopped.
One day, a never-smiling Japanese shipyard worker sent Veerman and another
prisoner on an errand to his home in Nagasaki.
The worker's wife greeted them, and fed them rice, fish, soybeans and seaweed
soup. The two discovered the errand was a ruse by the unsmiling man to get
them a good meal.
By mid-1944, it appeared the Japanese were beginning to worry about the
war going against them. Red Cross parcels began to show up at the camp.
In February 1945, Veerman and other prisoners were sent to a coal mine camp
at Itah - on the other side of a mountain next to Nagasaki. Today, any musty
smell from a basement brings memories of the mine back to Veerman.
Then came that August morning. Veerman was walking across the camp compound
when, "the daylight was drowned out by a white light. Then came a boom.
There was a light that shivered. It shivered for a few minutes. Then the
white clouds came over.
"I saw the flash. But I did not know what it was."
No one at the camp told him what had happened.
The last atrocity took place Aug. 13, when the camp commander spotted an
American who ate his lunch too early and kicked the man to death.
The next day, a U.S. plane dropped pamphlets nearby. One side of the pamphlets
showed a clock reading 11:55. The other side showed a clock pointing at
noon with a city in flames.
The guards became more friendly.
On Aug. 15, another plane dropped pamphlets. They read: "You are free.
Japan has surrendered unconditionally."
Veerman and the other prisoners stayed at Itah for a few weeks. Red Cross
workers told them about the atomic bomb.
The former prisoners took bicycles to explore the countryside. Once, they
used a Tommy gun to hijack a Rolls Royce to go to a local hospital, where
the Itah camp commander was being treated for a nervous breakdown.
Veerman watched as some of the others beat the commander.
Eventually, they were taken to Nagasaki by train. "The only thing there
was the train station."
But what a scene it was. A U.S. Army band played When The Saints Go Marching
In as the train arrived, and nurses danced with the prisoners. For the first
time in his life, Veerman had a Coca Cola and a doughnut.
He was shipped to Australia, and later he moved to Holland and got married.
In 1957, he moved to the United States, eventually settling in Creswell
and later owning two shoe stores. He is the father of five and grandfather
of seven.
His attitudes toward the Japanese today appear split - sometimes focusing
on the savagery he witnessed and sometimes recalling acts of kindness.
"I don't hold a grudge today."