“We have a gentleman by the name of Bernard Jesse, and he was a Second World War veteran and ended up going over to Hong Kong for the defense of Hong Kong and survived,” said Craig Bird, curator of the Southeast Military Museum. “He was captured in Hong Kong, as most of the Canadians were, and ended up being a POW for the duration of the war.” Bird said many veterans did not speak about their experiences. “A lot of these guys, like I say, didn’t talk about their wartime service, so a lot of them didn’t have their stories told.” Craig Bird joined the Sun 102.3 radio show to highlight the life and service of Estevan’s Bernard Jesse. Before the war “After finishing high school, Mr. Jesse went to Sudbury, where Reynold was working in a mine, and that’s Reynold is his brother,” Bird said. “Once there, Mr. Jesse decided mining wasn’t for him and he decided to enlist in the Royal Canadian Air Force.” Even though the war had begun, Jesse was unable to join the RCAF. “He ended up signing up with the Winnipeg Grenadiers, a woefully equipped regiment that was still using old uniforms and rifles from the First World War,” Bird said. Training and pay were minimal. “His training was very minimal,” Bird said. “In the military, they were earning 75 cents a day, which was a lot more than they could earn farming and doing that sort of thing.” Jesse enlisted in September 1939. Prisoner of war in Hong Kong “In October, the Grenadiers and the Royal Rifles of Canada from Quebec set sail for Hong Kong,” Bird said. “The problem was, three weeks later, the Japanese struck just hours after the attack on Pearl Harbor,” he said. “Everything was a total surprise.” “The Canadians were unprepared, outnumbered, and outgunned,” Bird said. “They fought very bravely and with little more than rifles, grenades, and sidearms.” After surrendering, Jesse spent four years in captivity. “A lot of them were shipped over to Japan to labor camps and do basically slave labor work,” Bird said. “And they weren’t treated very well.” Bird cited medical records from Jesse’s memoir, Seared in My Memory: When Hong Kong’s POW Tells His Story. “Bernie’s reported weight after he had been in the care of the United States medical personnel near Tokyo for a few weeks was just under 100 pounds,” Bird said. “He had lost over 60 pounds as a guest of the Japanese.” “The medical report goes on to note that Lance Corporal Jesse suffers from a nervous disorder,” Bird said. “He is easily upset and has pertussis of the feet.” Despite the long-term effects of his captivity, Jesse returned to Estevan after the war. “He became a member of the community, worked through his stuff, was on the school boards, ran a couple of businesses here in town,” Bird said. Jesse died in 2008 at the age of 90. “Thanks for allowing me to tell their story and keep their memories alive,” Bird said.