New for 2021 is our Sharing Research series on this blog. Starting next week you can expect a new post every Wednesday at 10:00am from an author or researcher sharing their latest research with the group.
Keep your eye out for more soon!
Category Archives: News
“Children’s book written by Japanese PoW in weekly instalments for son at boarding school printed 75 years later after manuscript found in loft”
A book, written by Arthur Stirby in installemts so that it could be sent to his son in boarding school, has been published 75 years later.
Arthur Stirby was a Japanese POW Camp survivor and wrote the book about a dog to “build a link” with his son Robert.
You can read more about the book, Now It Can Be Told, and how it came to be publsihed here.
New VJ Day Commemorative Bench Installed
A bench to commemorate VJ Day has been installed in the market town of Swaffham, after it was inially delayed due to COVID-19. In addition to this, “Swaffham Heritage Museum has created a new resource on its website covering the history of the war in the Far East and the involvement of soldiers from Swaffham and surrounding towns”.
To read more about this story please click here.
FEPOW Memorial Stone Unveiled in Leicester
A memorial stone dedicated to all men, women, and children who served or were interned has be unveiled in Leicester. Installed with funds raised by COFEPOW, the stone has been installed in Peace Walk, next to the Arch of Remembrance at Victoria Park.
More information can be found here.
Also in Leicester, an exhibition for the 75th annivaersay of VJ day is being held. VJ 75 – Leicestershire Prisoners of War in the Far East, 1941 – 45 is displayed until the 8th November 2020 at Newarke House Museum & Gardens.
Photo Tribute Project
An online memorial project, organised by COFEPOW members Pam Gillespie and Gail Taylor, is aiming to gather 1000 photos of those that served in the Far East during the Second World War in time for Rememberance Day.
They have so far collected 600 pictures since the project was inspired during the VJ Day 75th Anniversary.
You can read more about the project here.
You can submit a photo of a relative who served by emailing galleryofheroes@outlook.com or through the “VJ Day Gallery of Heroes” group on Facebook.
Captive Memories Relaunch
To mark VJ Day75, and as a legacy of the highly successful Secret Art of Survival art exhibition in Liverpool, hosted and curated by our partners Victoria Gallery & Museum, the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine is re-launching it’s Far East prisoner of war (FEPOW) research website – www.captivememories.org.uk.
As you will see from the attached flyer the exhibition was accompanied by a new book – Captive Artists, the unseen art of British Far East prisoners of war (to order a copy visit the website).
As well as more unseen FEPOW artwork and stories revealed by the exhibition and book, the website now includes:
- A virtual tour of the “Secret Art of Survival” exhibition, with enhanced information about many of the previously unknown artists and their artwork
- Your Memories Page, foranyone connected to this history to leave their memories of a FEPOW relative https://www.captivememories.org.uk/the-far-eastern-prisoners-of-war/your-fepowhistory-
- NEW! Downloadable resources for teachers and families:
Teacher’s resources featuring FEPOW artwork and histories and designed as an aid to explore FEPOW history with a range of Year Groups
Family resources, interactive and craft based activities to do with younger members of the family to introduce a FEPOW relative
In addition, there is a link to the Secret Art of Lockdown, the University of Liverpool’s Victoria Gallery & Museum’s creative arts project marking VJ Day75 commemorations. It features digital images of artwork submitted by members of the public on the theme of connecting people to friends and family who they have not seen for many months.
Secret Art of Survival was funded by players of the National Lottery, Trusts, FEPOW groups and individual donors.
Dr Bill Frankland – Train Name Campaign
A campaign has been started to have ‘Dr Bill Frankland‘ as a name for one of LNER’s ‘Azuma’ locomotives.
LNER are running the naming exercise through an online submission form which is open to anyone to make a submission through. Although not bound by the number of votes alone, it is hoped that the more forms submitted for a particular name, the more weight it will hold with the judging panel.
To lend your support to the campaign please nominate Dr Bill Frankland as a name through this web form: https://www.lner.co.uk/tickets-savings/savings-rewards/special-offers/current-competitions/azuma-birthday/ ) by the deadline which is Monday, 1st June.
UPDATE: 7th International Researching FEPOW History Conference Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine – June 2020
In the light of the growing worldwide uncertainty around the Coronavirus outbreak and its potential impact specifically upon the U.K. over the coming months, as well as in response to some concerns expressed by our delegates and speakers, the Researching FEPOW History Group has regrettably decided that we need to postpone the conference scheduled for June 2020. We have deliberated long and hard over this decision and we also consulted with our hosts, the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine.
This news is of course very disappointing for everyone, especially in this 75th VJ Day anniversary year. However, with the growing uncertainty and anxiety expressed by some of the conference participants who have existing health concerns, we have little choice. We do not wish to put anyone at risk and we cannot run the conference without the required number of delegates and – of course – our team of expert speakers.
The good news is that the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM) have agreed to host the postponed conference in June 2021 (the precise dates to be confirmed). We very much hope that everyone who had planned to attend the conference in June 2020 will be able to join us next year. More news will be posted on the Researching FEPOW History website https://fepowhistory.com/blog (https://fepowhistory.com/blog/)/ as soon as we have the details for 2021. Emails to all the delegates and speakers have been sent.
We would like to thank everyone for their support and understanding and we very much hope to see you in Liverpool in June 2021.
-The organising team of the Researching FEPOW History conference
Connie Suverkropp: Dutch Civilian Internee
Dr Bernice Archer writes…
It is with great sadness that I report the death of Connie Suverkropp.
Some of you may remember Connie and her sister Else attending the RFHG conference in Liverpool in 2015 where Connie told her story of internment by the Japanese in Java during the Second World War.
Connie was just twelve years old when she was interned with her two younger sisters, Else aged 5 and Kathy aged 2, in Tjihapit Camp and Struiswijk Prison in Java. Her two older brothers (aged 14 and 15) were interned with the men in Tjikudapateuh. Their mother, suffering from T.B. was interned in a Japanese hospital. She died just after the end of the war. Their father died in 1943 on the Burma Railway. Her grandfather died in Ambarawa Camp and her grandmother in Bloemenkamp.
So Connie became a mother to these two younger sisters who she struggled courageously to care for and educate while at the same time, as she was no longer considered a child by the Japanese, she had to work in the camps.
Thanks to Connie’s efforts all three sisters survived the gruelling time in the camps, both Else and Kathy survive her and her spirit, strength and courage live on in them and in her children and grandchildren and her wider family.
Throughout her adult life Connie was determined both to honour the memory of her parents who she missed so much and also to ensure that this dreadful part of Dutch history would not be forgotten. Her efforts were recognised on 14 November 2007 when she was awarded the Knight of the Order of Orange-Nassau.The statement made by mayor E.C. Bakker of Hilversum, in Museum Bronbeek (Arnhem) at the occasion of her decoration said: (a précis translation from Dutch to English by Connie’s brother-in-law Derk HilleRisLambers )
For many years of work Mrs Suverkropp focused on an accounting of history that reflects, and does justice to, the experience of the Dutch in the occupied Dutch East Indies during World War 2 – a history which she lived and remembers herself, and which dramatically affected her own family, and which has formed her as a person.
Connie has contributed by serving in the board of the “Foundation Guest Lecturers on WW-2, South-East Asia” (Stichting Gastdocenten WO II Werkgroep Zuid-Oost Azië). The Foundation offers guest lectures on history in schools in the Netherlands.
She made a special effort to get Dutch-Indonesian historic facts integrated into the curriculum History of the Netherlands in secondary schools: through special projects with the Royal Tropical Institute, and exhibits in the educational museum Museon. She also gave lectures on the subject in schools in Japan.
Connie was active in the Film Foundation Japanese Occupation of DEI.
With her activities she helped open the eyes of many Dutch students to this special part of history, Dutch history, of the Dutch East Indies. She has served the Dutch Indonesian community through her efforts to prevent their history from being swept under the rug, and forgotten.
THE 7TH INTERNATIONAL FEPOW HISTORY CONFERENCE – Registration Open
IMPORTANT UPDATE HERE
Making and marking memory: widening perspectives on Far East captivity
5 – 7 June 2020, Liverpool
Co-hosted by the Researching FEPOW History Group (RFHG) and the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM), our 7th international conference will focus on the stories and creativity that sustained prisoners, internees and forced labourers throughout captivity. We will also look at the made, recorded and preserved memories that subsequent generations have drawn upon in their own responses to this rich and moving history. In doing so, we will look for different perspectives and new voices to shed light on all that is yet to learn about – and from – the experiences of captivity, internment and forced labour across Southeast Asia and the Far East.
Taking place during the 75th anniversary year of liberation, and in conjunction with LSTM’s Art of Survival exhibition, the conference will encourage delegates to think of the objects, poems, artworks, and stories that resonated with prisoners and enabled their narratives to endure for many decades post-war.
Located at The Liner Hotel and LSTM buildings in the beautiful city of Liverpool, speakers already confirmed include: award-winning novelist Mark Dapin, acclaimed history writer Damien Lewis, representatives from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, British Red Cross, Imperial War Musem, the WarGen history project plus many more family researchers, academics, photographers and writers.
Hope to see you there!
