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AFTERMATH A little more can, perhaps usefully be told. It was not easy to fit into life at once here in the heart of Yorkshire with its hills and mills and moors, the blackened stone, the crying curlews, the long vowel, the bluntness, the golden generosity, the sparkling necklace of lights dotting the valleys at night, marking the way to the end of the bus routes and the never-far-distance heather. Lilac and Laburnham bloom in my modest garden as I write; the hills on the horizon are shrouded in summer's mist of rain. I have a son in his late teens, and a fine chubby toddler plays with his toys on the carpet at my feet. I hope that life will be kinder to both than it was for me in the Far East. I could not wish that either should suffer the hideous dream of a return to captivity in a dark land; the sudden convulsion in the night; the remembered pain from the blow of a rifle butt, the sweat-drenched struggle that comes at dawn when the phantasmagoria blights the waking winds with the memory of horror. But those bad dreams pass. The happiness of the family circle, the pleasures of civilised life, are the more vitally important to me because, having been lost, they were regained Sometimes I think too, of those whom ashes lie in the far off lands, Malaya and Thailand. I know what debt of gratitude I owe some of them. We can still clasp hands across the seas - in spirit. It is in the spirit that all live and endure forever. END |
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
To the students of Wootton Upper School. Bedfordshire. Also for their encouragement in the respect of making this book available to young people and schools, so that the new generation can appreciate the experiences of those that took part rather than rely on textbook dates and bare historical facts. Peter Rose of Rose & Partners for the design and layout. Mr Paul Day for the loan of photographs taken in Thailand during a visit made to the Lynnda Thompson for word processing. Societies who would welcome your help:- THE JAPANESE LABOUR CAMP SURVIVORS ASSOCIATION OF GREAT BRITAIN ILEOSTOMY ASSOCIATION NATIONAL ASTHMATIC |