The numbers nowadays are small, but their sacrifice remains enormous.
Veterans of the bitter war in the Far East came to the Cenotaph to remember. Sixty-five years after Japan's surrender to the mighty of the atomic bomb. The nation, too, paid its respects.
"When you go home, tell them of us, and say：for your tomorrow, we gave our today.""They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old. Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning, we will remember them."The war with Japan costed thirty thousand British and Commonwealth lives. A further twelve and a half thousand men died in prisoner of war camps from beatings, disease and starvation.
Now aged 91, Alf Locar was a prisoner for three years. "Japanese has a nature of ... If they told you do some and I wasn't speaking Japanese. They didn’t know what I was saying, so they used the tip of a stick to try and ban docs and sentence you."The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall also attended today's ceremony, David Cameron laying a wreath on behalf of the governments.Also there was Frank Thake, he served a border hospital ship, treating liberated prisoners of war, many barely alive.
"With four grown men, you will pick up and demolish, one man, really. Some of them are disgusting. It was just horrible to watch and come near. When we first met, we brought a first ah'o port on them in Malaysia. That was the worst scene I've never seen here.''With many veterans now in their nineties, the numbers able to attend commemorations like these are slowly dwindling. But while their memories may have faded slightly with age, their pride in their part in the so-called "forgotten war" remains as strong as ever. |