After serving in Okinawa during WWII, Grampy Phil was relocated to Korea after the Japanese surrendered. While there, he and his fellow soldiers met a Canadian priest who had recently been liberated from a Japanese internment camp by US forces. The emaciated gentleman endured years of torture and starvation at the hands of the Japanese. My grandfather, a devout Catholic of French-Canadian heritage, felt an instant kinship with Reverend Adjutor Derosiers. Perhaps it was the deep sympathy he felt for the man, or a shared passion in their faith, or even the familiarity of conversing in the lyrical patois of Quebecois – a dialect that surely elicited sweet memories of his mother and grandparents back home – that drew Phil to Reverend Derosiers. The two became friends, and several years after returning home, they reunited. “Reunion” is the theme for Week 32 of the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge.
On September 27, 1945, Phil wrote the following letter to his mother, Bernadette, which explains how he met the priest:
Dear Mom,
Yesterday I took a trip to the capital of Korea. The name of that city is Keijo or sometimes called Seoul. It has a population of over 1 million people. Some buildings are beautiful & modern, but the shopping district is just full of small shops no bigger than 20 sq. ft. The sidewalks are very wide, but people sell their goods on both sides of the sidewalk. The people walk very slow, so I really got tired being squeezed in those streets with so many people in so little a place to walk in. Back home we are used to walking fast on the sidewalks. I got twice as tired walking slow here. The stores have nothing good to sell, the Japs had taken everything. There is no good silk left. The only thing left of silk is the cheap stuff. I wanted to buy something, but there is nothing worthwhile. The prices are sky high. We can sell our chewing gum at “10 yen” a pack, which is 66 cents in American money. Our candy is sold for “4 yen” (28 cents in American money). We sell our cigarettes at 25 yen ($1.50 American money).
What I really want to talk about is the experience that we ran into. We were walking along when we came up to the cathedral and saw a lot of people around there. So we went inside, but the ceremony had just finished. The inside was extremely beautiful. Silk banners extended from the ceiling down to the main alter. Decorations were everywhere.
This celebration was to welcome the Americans, the Liberators of Korea. The celebration was sponsored by the Catholics of Korea. Outside the church, the school kids were all lined up with American flags, the nuns & priests all around in front of a big stand decorated with pine branches. A big sign read, “Welcome Americans.” All the US chaplains were there, so were Lt. Gen. Arnold and many big shots plus the Archbishop of Korea & also a French bishop. After the beautiful ceremony I noticed a few white priests & civilians, so I went to talk to them. Most were from France, Ireland. One civilian was from US & one priest from Canada. He arrived in Korea one year before the war. Since the war, he only received one letter from his mother in Canada (I don’t remember the place, it is very near Montreal). This letter only contained 1 page. This Canadian is a Franciscan priest. He has been tortured & practically put to death by the Japs. He is still walking, but he is sick & very thin. He said that he hardly had eaten any meat in the last 3 years. So we gave him soap, cigarettes, gum, a can of cheese, & a can of ham. I really was in my glory speaking French. I had a little trouble at first after not speaking for so long, but I soon got back on my feet. Next time I go there, I’m going to bring him a lot of stuff.
I wish that you’d send him a big box of stuff like pencils, canned goods, canned meats, toothbrushes, tooth powder, foot powders, and a lot of other things which are plentiful back home, but not over here. Send anything that you can think of, but first find out from the post office if you can send stuff to a civilian friend in Korea. I don’t think that you can send anything to civilians. That was a very pleasant day for me. Hope to see him soon. His parish is 100 miles from here, but he's sick, so he’s staying at the cathedral for the time being. I’ll send you his address.
~Phil
Reverend Derosiers left for what was supposed to be a 12-year mission trip to Japan in September of 1940 along with three other Franciscan priests from Quebec. He was captured by the Japanese within the first two years of his mission. Reverend Adjutor Derosiers’ name appeared on a list of Canadian citizens in internment camps in The Winnipeg Tribune as well as several other newspapers on September 12, 1942. He endured three brutal years of imprisonment, torture, and starvation at the hands of his Japanese captors. At the time of his rescue in 1945, he weighed a mere 90 lbs.
Whenever my grandfather visited Seoul, he brought food and supplies to Reverend Derosiers. The two conversed in French, and as I mentioned, a genuine friendship grew between the men. Because of his upbringing, Phil held priests in high regard, and undoubtedly viewed the former POW as both a war hero and a martyr for suffering for his faith. It gutted him to hear about the abuse he endured during his captivity. After suffering years of imprisonment and cruel treatment, the compassion my grandfather showed him was quite literally the answer to the good reverend’s prayer. Derosiers was grateful, and when they met for the last time before Phil shipped home in 1946, he vowed never to forget him. He promised someday he would thank my grandfather for his friendship and thank Phil’s parents for the food and supplies they sent him from America.
Almost two years to the day Phil met him, Adjutor Derosiers returned to North America aboard the S.S. General John Pope. It arrived in Seattle, Washington on September 25, 1947. He returned to Quebec, and he and my grandfather corresponded, though to my knowledge, none of the letters still exist. Reverend Derosiers sent him a photo of himself dated April 8, 1948. Phil was relieved to see his friend was back up to a healthy weight of 175 lbs., and was no longer the near-skeletal man he first encountered in 1945.
Reverend Derosiers followed through on his promise to thank my grandfather and his family. He visited the Laviolettes at their Westbrook, Maine home in 1949, where he was warmly embraced by Phil and his parents. After all of Phil’s letters and stories about the priest, he felt more like an old family friend than a new acquaintance. William and Bernadette enjoyed meeting their son’s friend in person while he and Phil caught up. They briefly looked back on their war experiences, but mostly talked about the present and future. My grandfather shared what became of some of the fellow soldiers who had sort of adopted the reverend with him. He probably showed him pictures of his beautiful fiancé in Montreal and gave him a tour of the modest home he was building for her (seen behind Derosier in the photos). The reverend told him about his work in Canada. It was a pleasant reunion that my grandfather remembered fondly.
Though he rarely spoke about the war, my grandfather did share the story of Reverend Adjutor Derosiers. Reverend Derosiers was grateful my grandfather came into his life when he did, but my grandfather was just as fortunate to have met him. He got a piece of himself back the day they were introduced outside the cathedral in Seoul. Like most soldiers, Phil was forced to do things to survive during the brutal Pacific theater campaign that went against his values. Helping Reverend Derosiers held no moral ambiguity. It was simply the right thing to do – an uncomplicated decision that filled him with peace, and helped bridge the gap between the young soldier Phil had become with the Catholic schoolboy he was when he left home.
What a wonderful story of friendship and reunion. Thanks for sharing!
What a beautiful story. Thank you for sharing.