AN ex-Japanese prisoner of war from Chorley has saluted the Government for handing out £10,000 compensation payments to survivors and their widows.

Jim Hodson, aged 81, was just 22 when he was captured in Singapore in 1942 while serving with the Reconnaissance Corps.

He lives with his wife Edna, 82, in a council flat on Lyons Lane, Chorley. They were married just 12 months before he became a POW in Taiwan -- formerly Formosa -- and she did not see him for years afterwards.

Jim was comparatively lucky. He survived with no serious health problems.

But though he may not have experienced the brutal treatment dished out to other POWs by their Japanese captors, he said the camp he was in was tough and the work, hard.

"It's a funny thing. When you are young you just take things as they are and make the best of it. We were only lads really. It was a matter of trying to survive," said Jim.

"It was very hard work and there was not very much to eat. When you are young, you are always hungry. As regards cleanliness, that was okay.

"We didn't get treated very well. They had hard line discipline in this camp. You could be beaten up for small misdemeanours.

Without wishing to elaborate, he admitted: "Some things will be better forgotten."

Jim, father of former mayor of Chorley, councillor Barry Hodson, said: "After the conflict we could hardly believe it had finished. I spent some time in America on my way home. They looked after us very well. I was under the Red Cross and the International Red Cross.

"By the time I did get home, the war had been over four-and-a-half months.

Jim, a former storekeeper and Leyland Motors employee in civvy life, said he did receive "about £78 compensation" under an agreement with the Japanese in 1951, but added: "It should have been the Japanese Government that paid the compensation. There was nothing forthcoming. I applaud what this government has done. I think it is a nice gesture."

He concluded: "I don't carry bitterness. The Japanese are a different race of people now. They were forced to act in ways that wasn't humane.

"Now I just accept it is all that time gone and you have to build bridges.

Chorley Labour MP Lindsay Hoyle, who lobbied government ministers on the issue, said: "I am thankful that at last the prisoners of war veterans have been given what they deserve."