My mum has all the letters from her dad. My brother used phrases from them to make an artwork. You’ll agree I’m sure it’s very powerful and distressing.
I’ve now written a song drawing on conversation with my Grandpa when I was a child, what my mum has told me, the letters and also conversations I had with veterans at the FEPOW 60th anniversary gathering (highly inspiring).
This song honours and commemorates those prisoners held in PoW camps in the Far East during the Second World War. I was deeply inspired by meeting survivors at the final meeting of the FEPOW Community in August 2005, commemorating the 60th anniversary of the end of the war in the Far East and the release of prisoners from the camps.
The people I met at this event, heard speak and had a chance to speak with were all deeply kind and compassionate. This memory has stayed with me. I also remember conversations I had with my Grandpa as a 7 year old about his experiences as a PoW, and then in later life seeing words from his letters and understanding the depth of suffering he and others experienced.
