VJ Day on August 15 will be the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War, with the final surrender of the Japanese. Wallingford Museum will be marking this occasion with special new displays from 22 July until the end of August.
Artist Will Wilder from Crowmarsh was among thousands of prisoners captured at Singapore in 1942 and forced to work on building the Thai-Burma railway until VJ day 1945. Unlike so many of his friends, he somehow managed to survive and also brought home precious drawings he had made showing the conditions in which they had lived. He also kept a diary.
The exhibition tells his amazing story, illustrated by numerous original drawings that he had concealed from the guards by rolling them up in the hollow bamboo poles used in the structure of the prison camp huts! It is a remarkable story, not to be missed.
Exhibits also include the story of another local man, whose war was very different, but also ended in the Far East, assisting the return of the re-patriated soldiers.
