Thomas David Frank Evans (1917–1996) was a British soldier during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, during which he was also a

prisoner of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of wa ...

of the Japanese Army. He published his memoirs in Welsh and English in the 1980s.

Biography

Frank Evans was born in 1917 in Llanwnnen,

Lampeter Lampeter (; cy, Llanbedr Pont Steffan (formal); ''Llambed'' (colloquial)) is a town, community and electoral ward in Ceredigion, Wales, at the confluence of the Afon Dulas with the River Teifi. It is the third largest urban area in Ceredigion, ...

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

. He was dispatched to the Crown Colony of

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

as a member of the British Army ( Royal Army Pay Corps) in 1941. As a result of the

Battle of Hong Kong The Battle of Hong Kong (8–25 December 1941), also known as the Defence of Hong Kong and the Fall of Hong Kong, was one of the first battles of the Pacific War in World War II. On the same morning as the attack on Pearl Harbor, forces of the ...

in December 1941, he was captured by the Japanese Army and interned at the Sham Shui Po and Argyle Street POW camps in Hong Kong and later transferred to the Oeyama POW Camp, Iwataki Town, Yoza-gun, Kyoto Prefecture where he was forced to work in the open-pit nickel mine in Kaya and the smelting factory in Iwataki together with nearly 700 POW's from countries such as the UK, Canada, Australia and the USA. The POW's were released from the camp in September 1945 after the defeat of Japan in the Pacific War and Frank Evans returned to Wales in November. Nearly ten per cent of the POW's in the Oeyama camp had died of malnutrition, hard labour and torture when the war was over. He privately published his memoirs in Welsh in 1981 and later in English in 1985 with the title ''Roll Call at Oeyama, P.O.W. Remembers''. Evans visited the former Oeyama POW camp site for the first time since the end of World War II in 1984 and had a memorial for his comrades erected at the former nickel mine site with cooperation from the Town of Kaya (now a part of Town of Yosano) and Nippon Yakin Company Ltd. This visit and the 1985 visit by Mayor Takuichi Hosoi of Kaya to Aberystwyth enabled the two municipalities to establish exchange programs for their respective high school students and citizens. Evans died in

Aberystwyth Aberystwyth () is a university and seaside town as well as a community in Ceredigion, Wales. Located in the historic county of Cardiganshire, means "the mouth of the Ystwyth". Aberystwyth University has been a major educational location in ...

in 1996.

Roll Call at Oeyama, P.O.W. Remembers

The English version of Evans' memoirs, ''Roll Call at Oeyama, P.O.W. Remembers'' , is known as one of the important accounts of POW's experience in Hong Kong and Japan. It is also quite unique as it combines his memories from

and the process of post-war reconciliation between his former enemies and himself as a result of his 1984 visit to Japan. It is quoted in ''Long Night's Journey into Day'' by Dr.

Charles G. Roland Charles Gordon Roland (January 25, 1933 – June 9, 2009) was a Canadian medical historian. Roland's publications and public lectures consisted of history and bibliography, medical communications, and medicine, particularly Canadian medical histor ...

( Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2001) and in ''We shall Suffer There'' by

Tony Banham Tony Banham is founder of the Hong Kong War Diary project, which studies and documents the 1941 defence of Hong Kong, the defenders, their families, and the fates of all until liberation. His published books: * “Not The Slightest Chance” (Ho ...

(

Hong Kong University Press Hong Kong University Press is the university press of the University of Hong Kong The University of Hong Kong (HKU) (Chinese: 香港大學) is a public research university in Hong Kong. Founded in 1887 as the Hong Kong College of Medicine ...

, March 2009). It is also quoted in an English language textbook in Japan for senior high school students by the Kairyudo Press and in ''Amerika Kokka Hangyaku-zai'' (A Case of Treason in the (Post-War) USA) in Japanese by Tetsuro Shimojima (Kodansha Press, Tokyo, 1993). The book deals with

Tomoya Kawakita Tomoya is a masculine Japanese given name. Possible writings Tomoya can be written using different combinations of kanji characters. Some examples: *友也, "friend, to be" *友矢, "friend, arrow" *友哉, "friend, how (interrogative particle) ...

who was convicted of treason after World War II for his acts against US POW's as an interpreter at the Oeyama nickel mine. {{DEFAULTSORT:Evans, Thomas David Frank 1917 births 1996 deaths World War II prisoners of war held by Japan British World War II prisoners of war People from Ceredigion British Army personnel of World War II Royal Army Pay Corps soldiers Welsh military personnel