The Belfast physician who saved Irish language diaries at a Japanese PoW camp

Belfast native Dr. Frank Murray used his information of the Irish language to ship correspondence whereas serving time in Japanese prisoner of struggle camps throughout WWII.

Dr. Frank Murray, identified to many as merely “The Belfast Physician,” was commissioned as an officer within the Royal Military Medical Corps (RAMC) in December 1939.

A nationalist, Murray had joined the British Military after the outbreak of the Second World Struggle as a result of he felt a Nazi invasion of Eire was inevitable and wished to do his bit. 

A web site maintained by his household says that Dr. Murray grew to become a prisoner of struggle first at Changi camp on Singapore Island after which later in numerous POW camps in Hokkaido, Japan following the autumn of Singapore in February 1942.

Previous to enlisting, Murray had frolicked studying Irish within the Gaeltacht area of Co Donegal. It was there that he met his future spouse Eileen O’Kane, who we’d later write every day letters to whereas being held on the PoW camps, usually detailing the horrors he and different PoWs skilled.

Dr. Murray’s son Carl now tells BBC Information that anybody present in possession of a diary in a Japanese prisoner camp was liable to extreme punishments. Dr. Murray mitigated such dangers by writing his letters as Gaeilge, realizing that the possibilities that Japanese troopers would have the ability to translate his writings can be very slim. 

Carl Murray stated: “Generally he would write in English however disguising it utilizing outdated Gaelic script.

“I keep in mind once I did Irish in school there have been textbooks that had the outdated script in it which meant there was that additional degree that you simply needed to translate from the script after which translate the Irish.

“And he would write about how the struggle was going however by doing so in Irish he knew that even when the Japanese discovered it, there was little or no probability of them with the ability to translate that he was recounting occasions that had been occurring through the struggle.”

Frank Murray did not simply spend his time within the camps writing letters, nevertheless. He served as a medical officer in quite a lot of completely different camps and even grew to become the senior officer commander in a single jail. 

Murray performed an important function within the camps, speaking together with his Japanese captors about his males’s health to carry out arduous labor. He spared many injured or sick Allied troopers from grueling days of labor and the BBC reviews that this saved numerous lives. 

The physician returned from the struggle a hero and was awarded an MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire) in recognition of his courageous service.

As for his secret diary written in Irish and avoided the prying eyes of Japanese guards, Dr. Murray managed to ship it in full to his sweetheart Eileen O’Kane and the couple married shortly after the struggle. The couple had 5 kids collectively. Dr. Murray handed away in Co Down in 1993, and Eileen died in 2009 in England.

A web site devoted to Dr. Frank Murray – “The Belfast Physician” – offers a number of translated excerpts from the Irish man’s diaries.

*Initially revealed in August 2020. Up to date in 2024.