Neil Ormiston MacPherson

[Tins]

Neil MacPherson, OAM, passed away on 30/03/2019.

Neil was my father in law. Sure, big deal. But Neil was a POW on the infamous Burma Thai railway for two and a half years, and then was in the coal mines near Nagasaki for six months until the war ended. The second bomb was dropped there on August 9, 1945. How quickly we forget.

I am proud and humbled to have known him. I don't think he was the last survivor of that horror, but he may have been. He was 96. May he rest in peace.




Neil MACPHERSON Obituary - Osborne Park, Western Australia | Legacy.com (https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/name/neil-macpherson-obituary?pid=192042107&page=2)

[Ean Austral]

R.I.P Mr MacPherson , you have certainly earned that right.

Its hard to even imagine what himself and all the others on all side went thru in those terrible times. I hope and wish we never see those things again.

Cheers Ean

[V8Ian]

Condolences John. RIP Neil.

[Homestar]

Sorry to hear John, must have been amazing to have known him. May he Rest In Peace after going through so much.

[Tins]

R.I.P Mr MacPherson , you have certainly earned that right.

Its hard to even imagine what himself and all the others on all side went thru in those terrible times. I hope and wish we never see those things again.

Cheers Ean

Thanks, Ean. Yes, he most certainly did. One of the reasons he earned his OAM was for his unfailing work towards reconciliation between the POWs and their captors. He wound up with a Japanese daughter in law, the lovely Chyomi and a couple of half Japanese grandsons, Callum and Fin ( he was also proud of his Scot heritage ). If everybody worked as tirelessly as Neil did then we would have no need for "diversity quotas". but of course the kids of today would need to go through what Neil did to understand this.

As for imagining..... I have been to the places where they suffered. I'm ashamed that I went in an airconditioned bus to many of the camps, with ice cold water, iced towels, and the promise of a sumptuous meal at the end of the day and I seriously struggled. And they got there by walking, climbing over cliffs, and eating a handful of cold rice each day if they were lucky. Bugger all water. Mostly destroyed by fever.

We have a lot to learn, and we mostly need to learn it by remembering history, not ignoring it.

[Tins]

Condolences John. RIP Neil.

Thanks Ian.

[Tins]

I posted this because I feel blokes like Neil are important. The fact that he was family is irrelevant. Neil read the address at the War Cemetery at Kanchanburi, Thailand, on Anzac day many times. He used to extol the virtue of 'mateship'. If you didn't have your mates you wouldn't survive. He told me that that meant that EVERYBODY had to be your mate, love them or hate them, because how could you live with yourself afterwards else.

I cannot pretend to know what he knew.

He was the greatest man I have ever met.

[pop058]

My condolences to you and family John. Another true hero leaves us.

[V8Ian]

I'll give him a special thought at the Dawn Ceremony, next week.

[Tins]

My condolences to you and family John. Another true hero leaves us.

Not many left. Nobody considers Korea or Vietnam vets heroes, except people like you and me, My son went to Iraq, my nephew was destroyed by his time in Bagdad ( a story I would tell off channel ), and nobody gives a ****. Strange. They didn't choose which war they went to. They just did their job.

You wait. WWII will be rewritten, so that those people we thought were heroes will be criminals. Don't laugh. Rewriting history is happening every day. Someone like Neil in my family means that I will NEVER believe those who choose to rewrite history to suit a narrative. Sadly, his legacy will fade, and the revisionists will win. I hope I'm not here to see it.

[cuppabillytea]

Sorry for your loss John. He must have been a tough old bugger.

[Bigbjorn]

One of the reasons he earned his OAM was for his unfailing work towards reconciliation between the POWs and their captors. And they got there by walking, climbing over cliffs, and eating a handful of cold rice each day if they were lucky. Bugger all water. Mostly destroyed by fever.



My great aunt, Maria Christina had 13 children, 8 boys, all of whom enlisted in the 2nd. AIF. One was declared unfit and rejected. One was found to be a skilled tool and die maker not a labourer as he declared and sent home. Of the 6 who served 3 were 8th. Division and were on the Burma Railway. One was beaten to death there by Japanese guards. The two survivors had a lifelong bitter hatred of anything Japanese. No forgiveness or reconciliation was ever considered. I overheard one say that it was a pity the Yanks only had two of those bombs. They reckoned Japan and Japanese all should have been burnt off the face of the earth.

[V8Ian]

My great aunt, Maria Christina had 13 children, 8 boys, all of whom enlisted in the 2nd. AIF. One was declared unfit and rejected. One was found to be a skilled tool and die maker not a labourer as he declared and sent home. Of the 6 who served 3 were 8th. Division and were on the Burma Railway. One was beaten to death there by Japanese guards. The two survivors had a lifelong bitter hatred of anything Japanese. No forgiveness or reconciliation was ever considered. I overheard one say that it was a pity the Yanks only had two of those bombs. They reckoned Japan and Japanese all should have been burnt off the face of the earth.
Those sentiments were understandably strong, as late as my school days.
A friend's father who was a rusted on Lib supporter, who served in the ME, NG (WW II) and Korea, hated and refused to vote for Menzies, because he sold scrap metal to the Japanese.

[bob10]

A dark part of Australia's history, those magnificent men deserve to be remembered. They defined the meaning of mateship. LEST WE FORGET.

[Tins]

A dark part of Australia's history, those magnificent men deserve to be remembered. They defined the meaning of mateship. LEST WE FORGET.

Neil always told me he survived his three odd years of captivity due to mateship. Oh, and the efforts of blokes like Weary Dunlop.

He was looking forward to Anzac Day. This would probably have been his last trip to the Hellfire Pass Dawn Service, and the Morning Service at the Kanchanburi War Cemetery, where he usually gave the address.

[3toes]

A family friend who did time on the Burma railway bought a Honda car in the early eighties. When asked how he of all people could drive a Japanese car the reply was that to be a Christian means being able to forgive.

[Tins]

My great aunt, Maria Christina had 13 children, 8 boys, all of whom enlisted in the 2nd. AIF. One was declared unfit and rejected. One was found to be a skilled tool and die maker not a labourer as he declared and sent home. Of the 6 who served 3 were 8th. Division and were on the Burma Railway. One was beaten to death there by Japanese guards. The two survivors had a lifelong bitter hatred of anything Japanese. No forgiveness or reconciliation was ever considered. I overheard one say that it was a pity the Yanks only had two of those bombs. They reckoned Japan and Japanese all should have been burnt off the face of the earth.

In the 70s I knew an "old" bloke who survived Changi. Those were his sentiments as well. He was consumed by his bitterness, and was thus a man to avoid if possible. Neil, on the other hand, was a joy. His work, particularly in his education of children, deserves celebrating. And Neil had plenty of reason to hate his captors. He saw his mate beheaded. He told me that the Koreans were the worst. The Koreans were forced to do guard duty for the Japanese, which lost them 'face', so they took this out on the prisoners.

WWII ended 75 years ago. The time for hatred is over. With the passing of one of the last survivors of that horrific time, surely it is time to let it go. If a man who lived through that horror can forgive, maybe we could follow his example.




Neil wrote a book. It is out of print, and exist mainly in various State libraries, and the War Museum in Canberra. Does anyone know of a way to digitise it and post it on the net? I can deal with the copyright stuff, as I am family.