00:00For two years, John Franklin's family wrote him letters, not knowing if he was dead or
00:07alive.
00:08The family in Bowerall, New South Wales refused to give up hope their boy, a Japanese prisoner
00:12of war, would come home.
00:15They wrote letter after letter.
00:16These are the first letters that John's family wrote to Uncle John.
00:22The letters reveal the agony of war, that it's two-way, that there's the suffering
00:29of the prisoners and then there's the anguish of those left behind.
00:34They share moments of ordinary life.
00:36When you read the one from the mother and she says, every time, every time I'm knitting
00:41a pair of socks, I think of you and I know you haven't any.
00:48Those letters have now been donated to the War Memorial.
00:51There are almost 10,000 letters in the Australian War Memorial's private collection and yet
00:56these latest gifted letters fill a gap otherwise missing from the record.
01:00He was at, you know, the Kawasaki factory in Kobe.
01:04I'm not aware of any other letters in the collection that relate to that camp so it's really quite
01:08unique.
01:09So we very much like to fill those gaps in the collection that give a bit more of a comprehensive
01:13view of Australia's military experience.
01:15Finally, in 1945, the family received a letter from John.
01:19I feel as though I've been born and am starting life all over again.
01:24I feel pretty guilty for the worry I must have caused you, but everything is okay now.
01:28I wish you could see me here puffing on a big cigar after a snack of doughnuts and coffee.
01:32Don't try and send money or anything, but I'd give a fortune for a letter.
01:37Often what soldiers had to do if they kept a diary was they had to keep that diary hidden,
01:41for example.
01:42So written records between a family in Australia and a young man as a prisoner of war in Japanese
01:49is terribly rare.
01:51Questions from a loving family now shared with the nation.
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