[Leica] They That Are Left

[mark at whitedogs.co.uk (Mark Pope)]

I can relate to your uncle's feelings Frank.  My Father in Law was the 
same, though he never smashed anything.   He did change his mind when 
Honda came to Swindon and buit their car plant, resulting in thousands 
of jobs for many who were put out of work by the closure of the Swindon 
Railway works.  Being a staunch union man anyone who brought work to the 
town was, in his eyes, not all bad.

As far as talking about wartime experiences are concerned, it's clearly 
a personal thing.  I never asked Norm about his experiences as I could 
tell that he didn't want to discuss them - I assumed this was because 
they were too unpleasant to recall.  Norm's next door neighbour also 
spent time in India and Burma.  He wouldn't talk about it either.

Two things that did make us laugh though were his hatred of rice and the 
colour green.  I think he had more than enough of both in Burma!





Mark Pope,
Swindon, Wilts
UK

Homepage               http://www.monomagic.co.uk
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                (2008) 
http://www.monomagic.co.uk/index.php?gallery=paw/2008


Frank Dernie wrote:
> My father was a German POW and talked almost never about it, my uncle was 
> a Japanese captive and worked on the Burma railway. He never spoke about 
> it but absolutely forbade anybody in the family ever buying anything 
> Japanese. My cousin bought a little Sony portable radio in the 60s with 
> the money earned on his paper round. My uncle smashed it to tiny pieces 
> using his hammer, and gave him the money...
> Frank
> 
> On 1 Apr, 2010, at 13:52, George Lottermoser wrote:
> 
>> My dad was an airman and became a bit of a WWII historian. Always more 
>> than willing to talk about it. Ann's dad served on the ground in Korea 
>> and never (like never) talked about. And that that reflects my experience 
>> with veterans of those two wars. The closer they were to the horror the 
>> less they opened up about it. Air and Navy men who successfully kept 
>> their distance have a different view and story to tell. Those in the heat 
>> of it kept it to themselves - mostly.
>>
>> Regards,
>> George Lottermoser
> 
> 
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