Antiques Roadshow: VJ Day Special (BBC1)
The words are inscribed on war memorials across the country: ‘When you go home, tell them of us and say, For your tomorrow, we gave our today.’
Many may not realize that the words sometimes referred to as the Kohima Prayer are connected to a battle fought in an obscure part of India in 1944, which proved to be a decisive moment in the war against Japan.
Unlike Alamein or Arnhem, Kohima is not frequently remembered.
Sadly, the courage and the sacrifice of the British and Commonwealth soldiers who defended it, the 14th Army, are often overlooked too.
No wonder they sometimes called themselves, with dry irony, the Forgotten Fourteenth.
The narrative was a blend of seriousness and nostalgia, as some descendants brought cherished World War II mementos from the Far East to the Antiques Roadshow: VJ Day Special.
As historian Robert Tilney examined a Japanese officer’s shin gunto sword, a memento from Kohima, he commented, ‘It’s like holding history,’ adding that it was a moment that gave him chills.
This episode traced the conflict chronologically, from Pearl Harbor to Hiroshima.
Unlike battles such as Alamein or Arnhem, Kohima is not often remembered. Unfortunately, the bravery and the sacrifices of the British and Commonwealth soldiers who defended it, known as the 14th Army, are frequently forgotten. However, their story was commemorated on the Far East-themed Antiques Roadshow: VJ Day Special.
This episode followed the sequence of events from Pearl Harbor to Hiroshima. While the names of battles are well-known, the intense hardships endured by soldiers in the South-east Asian jungles are unimaginable. Pictured is WWII veteran Bill Redston with Fiona Bruce.
The children and grandchildren of the survivors often echoed a common phrase: ‘He didn’t talk about it much.’ Pictured here is Fiona Bruce with two guests whose father served on opposing sides in The Battles of Kohima and Imphal in 1944.
The names are familiar but the horrors suffered by troops in the jungles of South-east Asia are beyond imagination, as viewers of The Narrow Road To The Deep North (which followed on BBC1) can attest.
Children and grandchildren of the survivors all repeated versions of the same line: ‘He never talked about it much.’
In part, as presenter Fiona Bruce discovered, this was because soldiers who returned from the murderous Japanese prisoner-of-war camps were under orders not to discuss what they had endured.
I’ve always felt there was another, subtler psychological reason: these men had been through hell to protect their families.
By making light of what they suffered, they were able to continue giving that protection.
There was no doubting the debt of gratitude, coupled with a deep sense of respect, that everyone on the show felt.
None of the artefacts was given a valuation — that would have been crass.
In any case, how can you put a price on a bowl fashioned from a coconut shell, which was one man’s only possession during his long imprisonment?
Many of the items were impossibly poignant, such as a chess set carved from balsa wood with a penknife, or the hat worn by a soldier with the Chindits, an explosives expert fighting deep behind enemy lines
There was no doubting the debt of gratitude, coupled with a deep sense of respect, that everyone on the show felt. None of the artefacts was given a valuation — that would have been crass
Many of the items were impossibly poignant, such as a chess set carved from balsa wood with a penknife, or the hat worn by a soldier with the
Chindits, an explosives expert fighting deep behind enemy lines.
Possibly the most touching of all was a letter from an artillery man to his baby son, and preserved with care for more than 80 years.
‘Dear little Jimmy,’ he wrote, ‘though you won’t be able to read this, I hope you’ll keep it and cherish it. Be very good for mummy as she’s the dearest person in the world and love her just as much as I do.’
Jimmy had a lump in his throat as he read it. And so did I.
