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Antiques Roadshow Season 48 Episode 2
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00:00On the 8th of May 1945, celebrations broke out across the country to mark the end of
00:12the Second World War in Europe. But for many this was just the beginning of the end. Germany
00:19and Italy may have been defeated, but the war against Japan was to rage on for another three
00:25months. We're at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire to trace the story of the Second
00:32World War in what was then known as the Far East. Often referred to as the Forgotten War,
00:39it played out across the vast Pacific Ocean and in the tropical jungles of Southeast Asia. The war
00:46in the Far East and the Second World War itself would be brought to an end by the deployment of
00:51the ultimate weapon. Two atomic bombs dropped by the US on the Japanese mainland in August 1945.
00:59Since then, Victory Over Japan, or VJ Day, has been marked on August the 15th.
01:07Eighty years on, in a special commemorative episode, we'll relive key moments in the conflict through
01:14the items you've shared with us. Given the very personal and moving stories you're going to hear,
01:22our experts won't be offering any valuations on the items you'll be seeing. To the owners, these things
01:28are priceless and they offer a poignant insight into some of the darkest events of our past.
01:34The National Memorial Arboretum contains more than 25,000 trees and over 400 memorials to those who served in
01:41the armed forces and civilian organizations. One corner is dedicated to the hundreds of thousands
01:50of British and Commonwealth troops who took part in the war in Asia and the Pacific. And from here,
01:56we'll hear the stories of those who lived through that terrible conflict. A naval officer who cheated
02:03death in Europe and Southeast Asia. Had we found the Japanese, there's no doubt some of us would have
02:10been injured or killed. A Commonwealth soldier from West Africa who saw action in Burma, now Myanmar.
02:20It was very ruthless fighting. It was beyond anybody's comprehension.
02:27And a survivor of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima.
02:33And a survivor of the U.S.
02:38Welcome to a special edition of the Antiques Roadshow, commemorating the 80th anniversary of VJ Day.
02:54Our story begins in December 1941, with one of the most notorious events of the Second World War,
03:01Japan's devastating surprise attack on the American naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii.
03:07Out of the misty Pacific skies, like tiny locusts, they swarmed in from the sea.
03:14By crippling the U.S. Pacific Fleet, Japan hoped to gain control over the Pacific
03:19and expand its empire. To fuel this ambition, the Japanese needed to secure precious raw materials,
03:27like oil, tin and rubber. And so on the day after their attack on Pearl Harbor,
03:33they launched an invasion on British and American-held territories, including Hong Kong, Singapore,
03:40the Philippines and Malaysia. The United States and Great Britain immediately declared war on Japan.
03:49Siobhan Tyrrell is intrigued to see a rare item kept by a soldier based in Burma at the start of the conflict.
03:558th of December 1941, people were still reeling from the Japanese attack on the U.S. fleet in Pearl Harbor.
04:08This was in the Rangoon Gazette the day after that. Japan at war with Britain and U.S. Air attack on Singapore.
04:18Where did you find this amazing bit of Second World War history?
04:21Well, we found it when my father had died and he never spoke about the war. We knew nothing about this.
04:27And we were just going through his paperwork, his boxes of stuff, and it was just folded up in other papers.
04:35He was Thomas Perriman Ruddle. He was in the RAF in Burma from about 1941.
04:41So this was a really hot time in the Far East. It was the initial bombing of Singapore.
04:49Civilians were killed and wounded. What was your father doing?
04:53We believe he was a wireless operator. We did have an old photograph of him in a training camp
04:59with 50 people all sitting at terminals being trained. But that's all we know.
05:06So he was kind of a vital communications link during the war out in the Far East.
05:13And we've got another great photograph of him here in his uniform, obviously an RAF signaler,
05:17with his Eagle badge there and the Royal Air Force Service and release book.
05:23Yeah. What is amazing, we found this photograph album which documents his journey right from the start,
05:29where he was on the boat going out. And you know, all these pictures here of planes and the temples,
05:35charting his route through Burma, right through India, Calcutta and even the Taj Mahal.
05:41We've got some wonderful photographs of Rangoon and the temples that he would have seen during that time.
05:48But also right to the very end, when he was homeward bound. And he was the lucky one that survived.
05:54Our father was always a musician. He used to write music, play the piano, the organ, sing.
05:59And even on the boat going out, he was entertaining the troops. And out there as well, he was doing it.
06:05It wasn't all dark and grim. It was keeping morale up of the troops, wasn't it?
06:09Isn't it great that he managed to keep this? I can't imagine there are many that have survived.
06:15And it's just an amazing record. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you.
06:21Following its airstrike on Singapore, Japan now planned to invade the island in order to secure
06:27a strategic foothold in Southeast Asia. As the major naval base for its Royal Navy,
06:33Britain believed that Singapore was safe from attack due to its strong seaward defences.
06:38But Japan's advance from the island's landward side through dense jungle took the British by surprise.
06:44And after a short siege in February 1942, Singapore fell.
06:55Winston Churchill called the fall of Singapore the worst disaster,
06:58the largest capitulation in British history.
07:03The battle had claimed the lives of 5,000 British, Indian and Commonwealth soldiers.
07:08And an uncertain fate now awaited the tens of thousands who'd been taken prisoner.
07:14As Japanese forces advanced, brutal prisoner of war camps that would become synonymous with the conflict
07:20were constructed right across Southeast Asia and the Pacific.
07:24In Singapore, almost 3,000 British civilians were placed in the island's Changi jail, alongside military prisoners of war.
07:33By the end of the conflict, around 50,000 Allied soldiers would have been held there.
07:38And we've got a rare personal item from one of those prisoners of war.
07:44My father was Sergeant Albert John Morris, and he was stationed in Malaya in Singapore during the Second World War.
07:54He was just 21 at the time that he was nested.
07:56The photo I have is, we believe, in First World War uniform due to potentially the lack of uniforms for the enlisting soldiers.
08:04When Singapore surrendered, he became a Japanese prisoner of war.
08:10And this is his dog tag that was issued to him when he went to Changi jail in Singapore.
08:16It's quite a sharp, rough piece of metal.
08:22And he realised that he would have a much better chance of not scratching his body if he made his own.
08:30So he acquired some scrap aluminium and crafted his own dog tag.
08:37The characters were led to believe simply mean British or English.
08:43And underneath is his prisoner of war number.
08:47On the reverse, on the Japanese version, it's simply got A2.
08:52I'm not sure what that means and his surname.
08:55The one he crafted, he put his full title on there and his unit.
09:02I feel incredibly proud that he served in the way that he served.
09:07It must have been incredibly hard not being able to communicate correctly.
09:11So feeling very isolated must have been very difficult at the time.
09:15He didn't ever talk in any great detail about his time and the war.
09:21But I think it was a really, really tough time.
09:23Three and a half years being a prisoner of war.
09:27I can't imagine what that must have been like for a young man.
09:34Prisoners didn't just face deprivation and death inside the camps,
09:38but also while they were being transported on board repurposed merchant vessels known as hell ships.
09:45With no markings or indication that these Japanese ships were carrying prisoners,
09:50many of them were unknowingly targeted by Allied ships and submarines.
09:53It's estimated that 23 hell ships were sunk by the Allies, with the loss of 11,000 prisoners of war.
10:04Military expert Bill Harriman is with the relatives of one soldier who survived the horror of the hell ships.
10:10Well, we're here at the hell ship memorial, which commemorates those whose lives were lost.
10:19And I understand that you had a relative who was conveyed in one of those dreadful, dreadful vessels.
10:25Yes, my grandfather, Harry Hill of the Indian Army, he was on at least two, possibly three hell ships,
10:31the England Maru and also the Taiko Maru.
10:34He'd been a veteran of World War One, but he was, to all intents and purposes, a professional soldier,
10:40because he'd served in the Indian Army between the wars and then volunteered to go to Malaya.
10:46Despite being 51 years old, Singapore fell to the Japanese on the 15th of February 1942.
10:53He was taken prisoner and ended up in Changi Prison.
10:57From there, he was indeed moved around quite a bit.
11:01The extraordinary thing is that he did have a fantastic comprehensive diary,
11:05but half of it was taken and confiscated.
11:09So he started again and he actually did a duplicate of that diary.
11:14Is there any reference to the conditions?
11:16Yes, in fact, there is some reference here.
11:19We marched to the further side of the docks where we hung about in the rain
11:23until taken off in lighters to the boat, the Melbourne Maru.
11:27It was dark before they got us all into one hold.
11:30800 cold, wet, miserable human beings herded worse than any cattle into a hold.
11:38And we were not just pushed into this place, but driven in with hefty blows from bamboo poles.
11:47And the heavy baggage was put in afterwards.
11:49Unbelievable.
11:50I think the terrible irony of the dreadfulness of those conditions was the fact when you got on it,
11:58you were thinking, well, I'm reasonably safe.
12:00that you stood in danger of being killed by an American submarine, because the Americans patrolled
12:07those routes very vigorously with their submarines, looking out for Japanese merchant vessels.
12:13So you had a dreadful, dreadful existence, and you never knew from one moment to the next
12:19whether or not your ship would be torpedoed.
12:21Mm, indeed.
12:23I can't help but notice, and I've seen some weird things on the road too.
12:27What is that?
12:28That's a flyswat.
12:29It's made from bamboo and leather from his old boots.
12:32But what's inside?
12:33We don't know.
12:34It's beautifully stitched, and I just cannot bring myself to unstitch it.
12:37What do you think might be inside?
12:38Some interesting diary entries, maybe.
12:40Do you know what?
12:41Making this as he sat in his miserable captivity, giving him something to do,
12:46and if you have something to do, you're thinking about it,
12:49you're not thinking how dreadful the conditions are.
12:51They must have kept him sane.
12:52Yes, I think the diaries did too.
12:58Conditions in the camps were horrific.
13:01Prisoners were not only subjected to brutal punishments from the prison guards.
13:05They also lived on meagre rations, and thousands died from disease and malnutrition.
13:12Burials happened with little ceremony, often in communal graves.
13:16But in Changi Jail in Singapore, prisoners built a poignant structure to honor their dead comrades.
13:23Remarkably, it now stands here in the National Memorial Arboretum.
13:27This is the original Lich Gate at the entrance to the burial mound at Changi Jail.
13:35The gate is made from a hardwood known as chengal wood, and it was built in 1942 by prisoners at the jail.
13:41And it was designed by a fellow prisoner, a Captain Cecil Pickersgill, who believed that there should be a gate for dead servicemen to pass through as a mark of their Christian faith.
13:53By the end of the war, the burial ground contained more than 600 prisoners of war who died during their internment at Changi Jail.
14:04In March 1942, Japan seized Rangoon, the then capital of Burma, followed by the islands of Sumatra and Java in what is now Indonesia.
14:14Japan's occupation meant thousands more Allied troops were interned in prisoner of war camps on Sumatra and Java.
14:26At our roadshow at Thirlstein Castle in Scotland, Mark Smith got a glimpse of the dogged determination it took to simply survive.
14:34You came to the military table today, and you bought me a coconut, which says Marshal 2629.
14:43What is this coconut here?
14:45This was my father's bowl, Eric Marshall, which he used as a Japanese prisoner of war.
14:52He had that from a coconut tree in Java.
14:56If you were to survive in a prisoner of war camp, you needed something to eat from.
15:00So unless you had some sort of utensil, your chances weren't great.
15:05And also, he carved his name in it, Eric Marshall, and his number.
15:09And that's in English, Japanese and Malay.
15:12So it enabled that not to get pinched.
15:15He carved that really beautiful item, we think.
15:19And he carried that from late 1942, possibly early 1943, when he made that, through to his liberation on the 3rd of September 1945.
15:29Where was he captured?
15:31Surrendered with the rest of the British Army on Java on the 8th of March, 1942.
15:36Did he talk about this?
15:37He rarely spoke about it.
15:38But when he did, he spoke about a lot of the brutality, but he was a man who had a great sense of humour.
15:44So he told a lot of funny stories about his time, as well as some of the less funny stories.
15:49So, how long have you known this object?
15:52I never knew Grandad, but I've known that my whole life.
15:57And it's always, well, since I was born, it's been something that Dad would show and explain to me the importance of what Grandad went through and lived through.
16:07And it's the reason that I'm here, that he survived because of that.
16:10It's actually quite a strange thing to hold, because when you read about what these people went through,
16:19when you think that this is probably the only thing that he actually had, it makes you shake.
16:23Yeah.
16:24It does.
16:27And it's also the people who didn't have one.
16:29Yeah, and they're the ones who didn't come home.
16:31Yeah, absolutely.
16:34I, it's amazing.
16:40Prisoners of war didn't just suffer horrific conditions in the camps, many also worked as forced labourers.
16:47Most infamously, on the 258 mile long Thai-Burma railway.
16:52Japan's decisive naval defeat by the U.S. Pacific Fleet at the Battle of Midway in June 1942
17:03had cut off sea routes and meant they needed an efficient way to transport their troops and
17:07supplies by land into newly occupied Burma.
17:10Asian forced labourers and allied prisoners of war toiled through mountainous jungle, enduring inhumane
17:19working conditions and cruel treatment to build what would become known as the Death Railway.
17:27A haunting memorial here in the National Memorial Arboretum pays tribute to those who suffered and died during its construction.
17:34It's said that a life was laid down for every sleeper.
17:41By the time it was completed in October 1943, around 16,000 prisoners of war and over 75,000 forced labourers,
17:52many conscripted from Malaya, Thailand or Burma, had died during the railway line's construction.
18:00Many of them just buried alongside the tracks.
18:04Much of the railway line was dismantled after the war, but what makes this memorial so especially
18:17poignant is that these 30 metres of sleepers and track come from the original railway line itself.
18:27One soldier who worked on the Death Railway was Jack Jennings.
18:30When he died aged 104, it's believed Jack was the last surviving prisoner of war to have worked on the Death Railway.
18:41Chris Yeo was delighted to meet Jack's daughter and son-in-law and see a remarkable item fashioned by Jack while he was a prisoner.
18:48This chess set was made by my father Jack Jennings and it was made when he was a prisoner of war in Thailand on the Thai Burma Railway.
18:58Also known as the Death Railway.
19:00And amongst the horror of it, your father found the wherewithal to craft a chess set, which really is quite extraordinary.
19:09Yes, he taught me to play chess on this set when I was a little girl.
19:13He did carpentry and joined her as a trade. And then when he joined the forces, he actually did a course in London, a carpentry course as well.
19:23What is it using? It's very light. It's like it's balsa wood or something, I would imagine.
19:27Yes, I think, well balsa wood actually grows very quickly in clearing, so jungle camp would have been the ideal place for it to be lying around.
19:34And Dad said that it was just lying around in the can.
19:38What did he use to carve it with?
19:40He used a penknife.
19:42Were they allowed penknives and things like that?
19:43Well, he said that he acquired it, not quite sure where it came from.
19:48But at that point in time, you know, there was nowhere to escape to.
19:51So I don't suppose it really bothered the Japanese guards very much if he had a penknife.
19:56This one is natural. It doesn't have any paint on it. These do. So why is that?
20:02That's because when I grew up, they were stained. It was much later when he painted them black.
20:08So we've got the full 32 pieces you would expect of a chess set, but no chessboard. Was there one?
20:14He did actually make an octagonal chessboard at the same time, and he carried it with him.
20:19But when he was having to move from place to place, it just became too much of a burden.
20:24So he just cast it away into the forest somewhere.
20:26You almost think, is this him actually reclaiming his identity
20:31as a carpenter?
20:32Yes. The only way that he could survive really was to think of it as his home.
20:37So actually a survival strategy?
20:40It was a survival strategy.
20:42Did he ever talk about his experiences working on the railway?
20:45He never talked about it until really to anybody outside of the family, until the 1990s.
20:51Because they were told not to talk about it.
20:53They were actually told they were instructed.
20:55They were actually told, instructed on the boat on the way home.
20:57They were told not to talk about it.
21:00People in this country have suffered far more.
21:02Which flies in the face of everything we now understand about how to actually treat trauma.
21:09And you do so by talking about it, not by that point at all.
21:12Everything was internalised. And so, yes, he didn't have that outlet really.
21:17No.
21:17And I understand that he passed away quite recently.
21:21He passed away just over a year ago. He almost made it to 105.
21:25And the last time I played on this set was with my dad, about two years before he died.
21:30Ah, so it was with him most of his life.
21:32It was, yes, yes.
21:35Yeah, it was one of his treasured possessions.
21:38It really is the most powerful story.
21:41Thank you so much for coming in today. It's been a pleasure to meet you.
21:44Thank you very much. Thank you.
21:48It would take decades for survivors like Jack to reveal what they went through.
21:53Especially as they were urged not to talk about their harrowing war experiences when they returned home.
21:59One reason given was to spare the feelings of the families of those who didn't survive.
22:05From multiple published accounts and its depiction in films and books,
22:09the notorious Death Railway continues to be widely known.
22:15But it wasn't the only long-distance railway that the Japanese constructed to strengthen their military logistics.
22:22In 1944, construction began on a 140-mile railway track on the island of Sumatra.
22:33Another memorial here at the Arboretum pays tribute to almost 5,000 prisoners of war
22:37who worked on the Sumatra railway.
22:40But as Siobhan Tyrrell discovers, it took decades for the full story of this railway to emerge.
22:49We've got a prisoner of war story here relating to your dad.
22:56Tell me about his time during the war.
22:59My dad was John Geoffrey Lee, known as Geoff.
23:02He was in the RAF. He was in the RAF, the 84 Squadron.
23:06He was captured in Java, Indonesia, on the 13th of March 1942.
23:13So he was a prisoner of war at that point.
23:15Yes, he was.
23:15And how did he get involved in this railway that most people have never heard of?
23:20We've heard of the Burma Railway, but this is the Sumatra Railway.
23:24He was on a hell ship. His ship got sunk.
23:27He was then recaptured by the Japanese and was taken to the Sumatra Railway.
23:32And what was the treatment like of the prisoners of war?
23:35Shocking. Absolutely shocking.
23:37Barely any food, half a cup of rice if they were lucky.
23:40They had to scavenge everything that they needed to eat.
23:43A lot of the prisoners were dying.
23:44Malaria, wasn't it? Malaria and dysentery because of the terrible conditions.
23:49Yeah, that's right.
23:50And they weren't given any medical supplies?
23:52There was no medical supplies at all. There was nothing.
23:56The Sumatra Railway was built to cut through Sumatra so it was a quicker route
24:02to get troops across the island and also to get resources across the island.
24:07And we've got his map here, haven't we?
24:09Yes, that's right. After the war had finished,
24:11the only thing they could do was try and get back up the line to Peckinburgh up there.
24:16They took the train that they'd actually built to get help,
24:19otherwise they would never have got rescued if they hadn't have done that,
24:22because nobody knew where they were.
24:23And we've got this picture of your dad at the end of the war.
24:27Sat there with his back there.
24:28That's as they arrived in Singapore before they went to hospital.
24:32Do you know what weight he was?
24:33It was about six stone.
24:34So they were walking skeletons really, weren't they?
24:36Absolutely they were.
24:37When he came back from the war, nobody believed that he'd been on the Sumatra Railway.
24:42Everybody thought he'd been on the Burma Railway.
24:44They'd never heard of it.
24:45Extraordinary.
24:46But he knew that he wasn't on the Burma Railway because he had his paybook.
24:50He had his paybook.
24:52It says here, date and place of capture, Java,
24:57but the date and place of recovery, Pakambaru, in Sumatra at the end of the war in September 45.
25:04This is probably the most important bit of evidence to show he was on the Sumatra Railway.
25:11Yeah, he got that as proof and he started to write then to Imperial War Museum.
25:18And we've got a letter here dated 1978.
25:22They've written back and said, I regret that this library can provide you with no more detailed information.
25:29It really hit home how forgotten this was.
25:33He knew that he had got to do something to get the Sumatra Railway recognised.
25:39And that's what he did.
25:41He went out to Sumatra in 1980 and took photographs and found the trains actually in the towns and in the jungle.
25:49It must have been absolutely crushing to be disbelieved when you come back from such a horrific
25:55wartime experience.
25:56But then the really great story is that actually he helped to design this memorial here.
26:06Yes, he did.
26:07He helped raise money for it.
26:08Sadly, he never saw it.
26:10He was too ill and he died in 2002.
26:13But his name is on the memorial.
26:14His name is on that memorial.
26:15Yes, it is.
26:16Which is great.
26:17Yeah, yeah.
26:18Thank you so much for telling the story of your dad, Jeff Lee, and the story about the Sumatra Railway.
26:25Thank you very much for the opportunity.
26:27He would be so proud.
26:29He would be.
26:35By early 1942, the Japanese controlled Sumatra and much of Southeast Asia,
26:41including Burma, previously a British territory.
26:45In an effort to disrupt Japan's supply routes and communications deep behind enemy lines,
26:50a special unit called the Long Range Penetration Force was formed.
26:55Comprising British, Indian, Nepalese and Burmese troops, they were nicknamed the Chindits,
27:01after the Burmese word for lion.
27:04This was guerrilla warfare in malaria-ridden jungles, and not for the faint-hearted,
27:10as Bill Harriman has been finding out.
27:12You've bought some fantastic items here, including this absolutely iconic hat that just shouts,
27:20Commonwealth servicemen in the Far East, and I'm guessing that's his hat.
27:26That's correct, yeah. That's a picture of my father, Ernie Wainwright, before he went into the jungle.
27:32And it's exactly the same hat that he wore all through the campaign for the six months that
27:36he was out in Burma fighting behind Japanese lines.
27:38Was your father involved in the Chindits?
27:41Yeah, he was. He was attached to 54th Field Company, attached to the 7th Battalion of Leicester Regiment.
27:47He was responsible for blowing up railways, communications lines, that type of thing,
27:50so he was trained in there as a demolitions expert as well.
27:53They were really important because they went right behind the Japanese lines and caused absolute havoc,
28:02blowing up railways, ammunition dumps, attacking any opportunity target they came to,
28:07just sent in there saying, set the place on fire. And they were so important,
28:13not just because of their military effect, but because of the morale for the rest of the army.
28:18They heard what they were doing, that they were really upsetting the Japanese,
28:22and that the Japanese were just simply not getting it their own way.
28:25Before that, it was thought that the Japanese were invincible.
28:28Yes.
28:28And it changed the whole morale of the country and the fighting against them,
28:32to say that they could be beaten in a territory which they were used to fighting in.
28:35So, I think that alone justifies the whole campaign.
28:38Of course, the Chindits had a terribly, terribly high attrition rate, largely from disease.
28:45So, you know, it's a remarkable thing that your father survived it.
28:48How did your father actually get out of the jungle?
28:52The unit that he was with at the time were carrying an enormous amount of casualties,
28:55so they needed to evacuate. And to do that, they needed to defend a high pass to a lake where they
29:01were being evacuated from. It was a walk of around 500 miles in total. And then he was rescued from the
29:08lake by an American light aircraft pilot who saw him, carried him to the aircraft, and he was then
29:13flown out into a SAMHSA hospital. He had very, very typhus, couldn't use his hands and feet,
29:19lost all of his teeth, and lost three stone as well in the six months he was in the jungle.
29:23We've got the usual four suspects amongst the campaign medals, and I'm delighted to see the Burma Star
29:30representative there. Yeah. That one's a little bit tatty on its ribbon. Yeah, it is. My father took
29:36part in a VJ match where the Duke of Edinburgh led the parade back in the mid-90s, and it wasn't
29:44quite how he wanted it, the medal set, so it's typical of my father. He hand-stitched it. It's a bit
29:50tatty, but he was a bit mate doing men, so he kept it like that, because that's really typical of who he was as a person.
29:55I think that's just wonderful. Did your father ever say whether he enjoyed his time as a chin-knit?
29:59Well, the funny thing is he always talks about the real hardship and how difficult it was,
30:05but when he was in hospital, we had a final chat about it, and he told me that he really wished he
30:09could live through it again. It was one of the best things he ever did, and that was amazing to hear,
30:14that he actually felt like that about it. And staggered. Yeah. Great to see everything that
30:19you brought here. Thank you very much. Thank you very much, and thank you for bringing him back to life.
30:25The Chin-Dits achieved some success in unsettling the Japanese, but ousting them completely would
30:39require a greater show of force. So in late 1943, the 14th Army was formed under the command of
30:46Lieutenant General William Bill Slim, with the aim of retaking Burma. Largely overlooked by events
30:53closer to home in Europe. The 14th Army would come to be known as the Forgotten Army, but it was one
31:00of the most diverse in history. An estimated 40 languages were spoken as troops from India, Nepal,
31:07Burma, and numerous countries in Africa joined their British counterparts.
31:14Among them was Private Joseph Hammond. Now aged 100, he still lives in his hometown of Accra in Ghana.
31:21I was 16 years when the war broke out. I was then at school. I loved the army very much. So I decided that
31:34immediately after my education, my schooling, I would join the army. Joseph was one of tens of thousands of
31:43soldiers from countries in East and West Africa who joined the 14th army in Burma. Once there, they faced punishing conditions.
31:52Joseph and his comrades saw action in the Arakam, a key coastal region in western Burma, where the troops depended on the
32:02air drops to deliver food to deliver food.
32:14And then, if the planes that drop our food delayed, everybody was hungry.
32:18We were fighting. No food. And then we get lizards, frogs, and we toasted and ate it. It was ferocious fighting.
32:30It was beyond anybody's comprehension. Something that I have never seen before in my life. It was terrible. I felt I was going to die.
32:44We were part of the 40th army. We see all these people come together from different nations. We live happily like brothers. We eat together. We do everything together.
33:00We do everything together. I, Joseph, I still humble. I'm very proud that I took part.
33:20A few months after the 14th army was formed, the Japanese crossed the border from Burma into India, then still under British rule.
33:36They planned to hinder British reinforcements by capturing the key allied base at Imphal and cutting off the main route to it at Kohima.
33:45It was an audacious move, and one designed to give the Japanese a strategic foothold in India, from where to launch a further offensive.
33:54The ensuing battles between March and July 1944 saw some of the worst close quarter fighting of the war.
34:03At one point in Kohima, the opposing armies were separated only by the width of the town's tennis court.
34:10But with the help of reinforcements, the 14th army prevailed, an important victory that halted Japan's ambitions to expand into India.
34:21It was a turning point in the war.
34:23At Thelstein Castle in the Scottish borders, Robert Tilney came across a weapon used in that pivotal battle.
34:31This is a Shin-Guntu. Shin-Guntu literally means new sword. It's Japanese, Second World War issue. How have you got a Shin-Guntu?
34:46My great uncle brought it back from Kohima.
34:51The Japanese had to go through Kohima and Imphal. If they'd got through, they were then to Assam and the Indian plain.
34:59All the British supply dumps were there. They had to be stopped.
35:03He was in the British Second Division. The British Second Division and 33 Corps, along with the Gurkhas and various others, were assigned to relieve the garrison at Kohima.
35:14But they did that by smashing their way up through the Kohima Road and retaking the garrison.
35:20My great uncle was amazed at the devastation when they actually got into the town. There was nothing left and it did look like a World War I battlefield.
35:29There are pictures and it looks... Terrible. Exactly.
35:33This tassel and the colours denote it was taken from an officer.
35:37These are the Japanese Imperial symbol, the three chrysanthemums, repeated there.
35:42Unlike everybody else in the Second World War, these are not ceremonial swords. These are fighting swords.
35:48But I think that is a standard issue Shin-Gunta with a full length fuller.
35:53So that would be standard Imperial Army issue, yeah. All the fittings are issue.
35:58Kohima was so appalling as a battle. There's the Kohima prayer.
36:03Yes.
36:04Which is, when you go home, remember us.
36:08Yes.
36:09And say, for your tomorrow we gave our today.
36:13So that...
36:14Comes from there.
36:15From Kohima. I mean, that's just...
36:17It's history in your hands.
36:19It's a hairs on the back of your neck job.
36:20Yeah.
36:21The battles of Imphal and Kohima left more than 50,000 Japanese troops either dead or missing.
36:31And claimed the lives of 17,000 men from the 14th Army.
36:36More than 80 years on, we've got a rare opportunity to hear how events unfolded from both sides.
36:42Robert and Akiko, the children of soldiers who fought on opposing sides, are meeting for the first time today.
36:51Akiko and Robert, both your fathers served in the Kohima campaign in 1944.
36:57On opposite sides, Japan and Britain.
37:02Let's start with you, Akiko. This is your father here.
37:05That's right.
37:06His name is Taiji Udayama.
37:09He became lieutenant, 2nd battalion, 31st regiment and 31st division.
37:16He was stationed at the outskirts of the Kohima village, so stationed at the hillside shooting against the, actually opposite side of the mountains where the British headquarters was.
37:29So he was being fired at and firing upon them, but he never actually saw them?
37:33No.
37:34Robert, tell me about your father's role. You've got a picture of him there.
37:37This is my dad, John Shotton, on a horse in India in 1943.
37:42He served in the Kohima campaign all the way through to the end of the war.
37:46He was part of either the 5th or the 9th field regiment of the Royal Engineers who were attached to the Cameron Highlanders,
37:53who were in the relief of Kohima as they fought their way down to Imphal.
37:59At Kohima, the Japanese underestimated the skill and determination of the 14th Army.
38:05And with a battle all but lost, Akiko's father and his comrades were called upon to make the ultimate sacrifice.
38:13What did he experience then?
38:15Because everything is run out.
38:17But all the ammunition is run out?
38:19Ammunition is gone and food is gone.
38:22And then they were told to prepare to do a suicidal charge.
38:26So he was going to be part of a suicidal charge against the Allied forces?
38:31That's right.
38:32In which he would have certainly lost his life?
38:33That's right.
38:34Everybody was prepared and really charged up.
38:38But very early morning, they received the orders to retreat, which was unthinkable order.
38:46They were so shocked.
38:47And that's what saved his life then?
38:49That's right.
38:50So for your father coming back, there was enormous hardship?
38:52Yes.
38:53Most of the survivors are never being respected because they're regarded as losers and they
38:59didn't want to know about them.
39:02And then, you know, for your dad...
39:04At BJ Day in England, there was no street parties, there was no parades, welcome home or
39:09anything like that.
39:10He just got off the ship and there you go, get on with your life.
39:15It was a sort of forgotten war, wasn't it for many?
39:17Well, they always used to say it was the forgotten 14th, didn't they?
39:19Yeah.
39:20Now, you are chair of the Burma Campaign Society and part of that is fostering peace and reconciliation.
39:27Do you think it's important to be able to have meetings like this?
39:30Of course, yes.
39:31We need to talk about each other's father's experience.
39:35I met quite a few Kohima veterans already.
39:38One of them told me, when you go back home to see your father, tell him, be proud of yourself.
39:48Wow.
39:49That you survived.
39:51And I realised everybody had a survivor's guilt.
39:56Gosh.
39:57And what do you think your fathers would think of you two meeting here for the first time?
40:05I think he would be quietly pleased, I think, that, you know, that we've moved on generations,
40:10times have moved on.
40:11I'm married to an English man, and when we decided to get married, I asked my husband
40:18to go to my father's for permission.
40:22And what he said was, my gosh, I got caught by British because we lost the war.
40:29Now you got caught.
40:30That's what he said.
40:31By his daughter.
40:32He had no grudge and never talked so much about hatred or anything like that.
40:41I'm very moved, I have to say, by hearing both your stories.
40:45And thank you so much for sharing them with us.
40:48Thank you for having me.
40:50Nice to meet you.
40:58Following its success at Imphal and Kahima, the 14th Army advanced into central Burma,
41:03and by February 1945, it had made its way across the Irrawaddy River, Burma's main waterway
41:10and supply route.
41:12Fighting through the jungle in searing heat was a gruelling ordeal.
41:17But Siobhan Tyrrell is finding out how a personal item from home sustained one young soldier.
41:24We've got quite an eclectic mix of items here.
41:27Obviously, a group of Second World War medals.
41:30These were my dad's medals.
41:32He was George Spreeks.
41:34He was in the Royal Artillery and in the 1st Survey Regiment,
41:38which is where they looked for the flash of the gun and listened for the bang.
41:43And using complicated mathematics, they can work out how to set our guns in opposition.
41:49And if you're in the no man's land, as he was often, it can be catastrophic if you get these sums wrong.
41:56What battles was he involved in, do you know?
41:59My dad was in Kahima and Imphal and went down the Irrawaddy River.
42:04And we've got a pair of baby shoes here.
42:07My baby shoes.
42:08Your baby shoes.
42:09Tell us a story about that.
42:11Well, one is very discoloured.
42:13I can see that.
42:14That was the one that was actually sent to my dad and he carried it in his ammunition pouch.
42:19And when he came home in January 1946, he brought that home and it was reunited with the other one.
42:27The only trouble was I didn't know who he was.
42:30So I'd been shown a picture and constantly told, this is your dad.
42:35And then when dad actually arrived home and they said, this is your dad, it confused me.
42:40I said, well, what's going to happen to the picture?
42:42Yeah.
42:43And that's something at three years old, I can actually remember.
42:47And we've got a lovely letter here.
42:49Can you perhaps read it out for us?
42:51I'll try.
42:52This was written on Christmas day, 1942.
42:56And at that time I would have been about three weeks old.
42:59Dear little Jimmy, though you won't be able to read this, I hope you'll keep it and cherish it.
43:05Be very good for mummy as she's the dearest person in the world and love her just as much as I do.
43:12A Merry Christmas, Jimmy.
43:14And let's hope I'm home to see you in the new year.
43:17All my love, Daddy.
43:19Oh, heart wrenching, isn't it?
43:21I'm immensely proud of what he achieved.
43:24He was taken from a small office, suddenly thrust into an army and fighting battles all over the world.
43:32Came back home five, six years later and was told not to talk about it and just sent back to work in his little legal office.
43:40And the two shoes were reunited.
43:44Must have been a very good luck charm.
43:46Oh, absolutely.
43:47In March 1945, after months of intense fighting, Allied forces succeeded in capturing Burma's second largest city, Mandalay.
44:06And by early May, the 14th Army took back the then capital of Rangoon with minimal resistance, ending the Japanese occupation.
44:15The son and daughter-in-law of one soldier had brought along a poignant memento from the campaign to retake Burma.
44:22My father was Walter Taylor.
44:25He joined the Yorks and Lakes Regiment when he was 17 years old.
44:28He was a private and an engineer.
44:30And he found this flag tucked into the tunic of a dead Japanese soldier.
44:35The flight's covered in writing and inscriptions.
44:38And we think that the large writing at the top of the flight is the name of the soldier.
44:43And that the rest of the writing would have been written by the local priest who would have put in messages of goodwill and hope for the future.
44:51Names of relatives and things that the soldier might want to carry with him.
44:55But we don't know for sure.
44:57He was very keen to stress that there's no glory in war.
45:00He felt that what we need to do is to use war to make us into better people.
45:07And he said that the soldier that this belonged to was a soldier just like him, who had sadly fallen.
45:13And for him, he saw it as a symbol of hope.
45:17And he encouraged us and everybody he met, really, to live every day and live every minute in it.
45:23After months of fierce fighting, Allied forces continued to drive the Japanese east towards the border with Thailand.
45:35One of those joining the Burma campaign in May 1945 was 20-year-old Bill Redstone,
45:42who became a first lieutenant in the Royal Navy Coastal Forces.
45:46Now aged 100, Bill is one of the few surviving veterans who saw action in both Europe and Southeast Asia.
45:55You were at the D-Day landings, weren't you?
45:57Yes, I went over on D-Day with the Americans.
46:01They said the Americans won't be pleased if the British Coastal Forces leads all the Americans onto France.
46:11So we're going to have to get an American boat to do it.
46:15Once they have been established on the shore, we're expecting to come in at track of dawn the next day.
46:22D plus one on Utah Beach.
46:26When we landed the other side, we said, what happened to the American boat?
46:31And they said she was blown out of the water in the first half an hour.
46:35So that was a narrow escape for you?
46:37Yes, that was lucky that they changed the order.
46:40Otherwise, we could have been blown out of the sea.
46:43So you narrowly escaped death at the D-Day landings.
46:47Yes.
46:48You then, as the war progressed, you were then sent as part of the war effort in the Far East.
46:52Yes.
46:53What were you doing there?
46:54We went with a convoy.
46:56We journeyed over 7,000 miles.
46:597,000 miles?
47:007,000 miles, yes.
47:02And where did you end up?
47:04We ended up in Burma.
47:07How did it feel going to Burma, then, when you were 18?
47:10Personally, I was excited, really, that we were actually going to go in and do something.
47:16They said the Japanese are staying in the tops of all these buildings here, six-storey buildings.
47:23And if you're not careful, they will pick you out as being foreigners and kill you.
47:30So we said, well, that's a fun way to start, isn't it?
47:34And what was your job there?
47:36Our course, really, was to keep the airwaddy clear with the same boat that landed in D-Day.
47:43One of the places we stopped, they said, we think there are Japanese that are hiding in the woods behind the village.
47:52So we went into the woods.
47:54I was 6, 10 yards from my next neighbour, and I saw some footprints.
48:00I thought it was a Japanese, and so I immediately caught my rifle and followed these.
48:09Lo and behold, the figure appeared, and it happened to be the man who was walking on my right-hand side.
48:17And he was an Englishman as much as I was.
48:21That was a close escape, then, because thinking he was Japanese, you could have shot him.
48:25I could have shot him, yes, I could have shot him.
48:28Or he could have shot you.
48:29He could have shot me, yes.
48:30Had they been there, there's no doubt some of us would have been injured or killed.
48:36But, fortunately, we didn't find any Japanese in the woods at all.
48:41When you had to do things like that, what was going through your mind? Were you frightened?
48:46No, no, I think we were excited more than anything else.
48:51Well, good for you, Bill. What an amazing life you've lived, my goodness.
48:55In some ways, a lucky life.
48:57There were at least three occasions when I could have been seerlessly injured or even killed.
49:04And some of my mates were killed or wounded.
49:08For three years, the Allies had fought tirelessly to defeat the Japanese and take back the territories they had occupied.
49:21While British and Commonwealth forces had largely been concentrated on the mainland,
49:25America had waged an unrelenting campaign against Japan in the Pacific, deploying almost two million troops at the height of the conflict.
49:34By the end of March 1945, American troops had taken control of the small but strategically important island of Iwo Jima.
49:44With its three airfields and proximity to the Japanese mainland, it provided the USA with an ideal base from which to launch bombing raids.
49:53But despite this, Japan refused to accept defeat or consider unconditional surrender.
50:00America wanted a swift end to the war without launching a costly land invasion in which many of its troops would perish.
50:08They also wanted to show the Soviet Union that they developed a deadly new weapon.
50:15On the 6th of August 1945, America detonated an atomic bomb over the city of Hiroshima on the Japanese mainland, killing 120,000 people.
50:30Three days later, the second bomb over Nagasaki left a further 73,000 dead.
50:37A shocking and unprecedented act of war, it changed the world forever.
50:4296-year-old Michiko Hattori is one of the few survivors of the bombing of Hiroshima.
50:49When I was 16 years old, I was 16 years old.
50:56I didn't forget about that day.
51:01Michiko had graduated from school early and trained as a nurse.
51:05And at the time of the bombing, she was at work, about two miles from the epicenter of the explosion.
51:12The heat from the atomic bomb was so intense that some people simply vaporized, vanishing without a trace.
51:39The blast destroyed more than five square miles, and the heat from the explosion sparked fires across the city that lasted for days.
51:47Michiko escaped unharmed and was set to work, tending the injured.
51:54It's estimated that tens of thousands of Hiroshima's residents were injured in the immediate
51:58storm bomb.
51:59In the exact situation of Hiroshima's long Bomberman, .
52:01There were people who were told that they were murdered.
52:03I told them the invasion of Hiroshima, the living room, they were dead.
52:05My son hasila and the hands of Hiroshima were murdered.
52:06It washington at the airport.
52:07It was gracias that the town was killed by the invasion of Hiroshima.
52:08It was called out of la
52:10city, and the land at the same time including his mother.
52:19It was estimated that tens of thousands of Hiroshima's residents were injured in the immediate
52:24aftermath of the explosion. One of the many people Michiko tried to help that day was
52:29a small boy.
52:30Michiko and her family all managed to survive the bombing, and little over a month later they
52:59left for Tokyo. But like most survivors of the atomic bombs, known as Hibakusha, they faced
53:06discrimination from many who feared that radiation sickness was contagious and could
53:11cause long-term health defects.
53:29I was the one who was my husband. I didn't know that I was a man. I was
53:41the one who was the one who was the one who was the one who was the one who was
53:46The atomic bomb was controversial, not just the fact that the atomic bomb was controversial.
54:16Not least because some critics argue that Japan was on the brink of surrender when it was deployed.
54:22What's not disputed is that more than 200,000 perished in the immediate aftermath,
54:28and thousands more died from radiation sickness in the years that followed.
54:33Among the memorials here at the Arboretum is one to those who lost their lives.
54:40This cairn in the Anglo-Japanese garden was dedicated in 2012,
54:44and on top of it is the Hiroshima stone.
54:49And it was taken from the pavement outside the old city hall in Hiroshima,
54:54which was just a kilometer or so from where the bomb detonated.
54:58The memorial was initiated by Major Philip Malins, a veteran of the Burma campaign,
55:04and it was his dying wish that this be placed here as a symbol of reconciliation.
55:10And when you read the inscription around the base,
55:12it remembers the millions of people who died and suffered in the Second World War.
55:18It gives thanks that the world has since been free from World War,
55:21and with hope that there will never be another.
55:23And that the people of Britain and Japan will be forever united in friendship.
55:28On the 15th of August, 1945, just days after atomic bombs fell on Hiroshima and Nagasaki,
55:39Japan surrendered unconditionally.
55:42This day would become known as VJ, or Victory Over Japan Day.
55:46The formal surrender ceremony took place on the 2nd of September,
55:52on board the USS Missouri, docked in Tokyo Harbor,
55:56beginning with a speech by General Douglas MacArthur.
55:58We are gathered here, representatives of the major warring powers,
56:08to conclude a solemn agreement whereby peace may be restored.
56:16The Allies looked on as the Japanese foreign minister signed the official surrender documents.
56:22After six long years, the Second World War was finally over.
56:30On a muddy-colored day in September 1945, in a city called Tokyo,
56:36an American flag which had been made by machines in Camden, New Jersey,
56:40rose slowly into the Japanese air, and there was peace.
56:46The campaigns in Asia and the Pacific had witnessed some of the most brutal fighting of the war.
56:56For many, peace came at a terrible price.
57:00But 80 years on, the personal items left by those who endured this forgotten war
57:06are a reminder of their individual bravery and extraordinary resilience.
57:17We've heard so many moving stories today about the war in the Far East.
57:21So, for all those who endured years of suffering and captivity,
57:27soldiers and civilians,
57:28and those who gave their lives,
57:31you are not forgotten.
57:33From this special edition of the Antiques Roadshow,
57:36bye-bye.
57:36God bless you.
57:39God bless you.
57:41God bless you.
57:45Amen.
57:47Bye-bye.
57:53God bless you.
57:54Father bless you.
57:54My God bless you.
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