Magic at War

Continuing a short series of blogs about magicians who were prisoners-of-war in the Far East during World War Two, this blog looks at Anton Trouvat. A Dutch semi-professional magician, he got caught up in the war when Imperial Japan invaded the Dutch East Indies. A promisin g young magician Anton Hugo Trouvat was born in November 1913, a year before the end of World War One. He was born to Dutch parents in Padang, a city in western Sumatra in the Dutch East Indies  (an area now known as Indonesia). In the late 1930s, Trouvat worked  for Lindeteves-Stokvis, a large Dutch trading company.  Part-time, Trouvat was a magician. A member of the Society of Indonesian Magicians, he was regarded by his peers as a promising performer and a leading light in a new younger generation of magicians. When war broke out in Europe, The Netherlands’ government bolstered the defence of the Dutch East Indies colony. It was concerned about Japanese interest in the colony's rich natural resource...

The benefits of magic performances for prisoners-of-war For Prisoners-of-War (POWs) of all theatres of war, entertainment in prison camps provided much needed enjoyment and escapism. During the performances, the entertainers and their audiences might escape for an hour or two into a happier world. A performer on an improvised stage and open-air auditorium in the Changi POW complex (Source: Public domain) Working creatively and cooperatively with other performers and stage staff, gave those involved a focused goal and a sense of team spirit. It kept their minds active and positive. For British POW-magician Fergus Anckorn, the interactions with other actors during rehearsals were a major factor in his survival: “ I remember when we rehearsed and all that sort of thing, you quite forgot that you were in these terrible circumstances. We were learning a script and getting on with it, and doing our little show. Lots of laughs backstage, and that sort of thing... and it undoubtedly h...

This final  blog  in the series (of four  blogs)  tells the incredible wartime experiences of Fergus Anckorn, an amateur magician who used magic to survive captivity and slavery as a POW in the Far East during World War Two. The Japanese Trick   A major concern of the POWs moved to the camps at Nong Pladuk was their proximity to an engineering complex and storage depot, known as Hashimoto’s, which was a potential target for Allied bombers. Fergus Anckorn ended up living perilously close to the complex.   “My hut and its air raid trench were about ten yards from the edge of Hashimoto’s yard and I felt sure I’d get killed by our own bombers.”   By comparison with other camps, the work was basic, but the conditions were horrible, and the guards were bullies.   Nong Pladuk POW Camp, Thailand (Source: IWM) To brighten things up in the camp the POWs started a concert party, called the Harboured Lights, which Anckorn joined.    In mid-February ...