大象传媒

1946
I can vividly remember the first time I saw my father. I was two and a half and he had been away at war for almost three years. He was a Chief Officer on a Royal Fleet Auxiliary oil tanker in the Pacific war. RFA ships provide back-up to the Royal Navy, acting as tankers and freighters. My father had been involved in many RAS (re-fuelling at sea) operations, made hazardous by the Japanese kamikaze pilots (or suicide bombers) for which he was awarded an OBE. After the Japanese surrender Father helped with the rehabilitation of prisoners of war and visited Hiroshima not long after the atomic bomb was dropped. (I am submitting a separate story about this).

On the day of his arrival back home my mother took me to Cardiff railway station, which was a new and exciting experience for me as I had never seen a train before. I can see my father now, looking handsome in his naval uniform, standing on the steps of the train with a Japanese Kewpie doll in his hand. After embracing my mother he swept me into his arms and presented me with the doll. I didn鈥檛 want anything to do with him or the doll and screamed blue murder! I continued to scream as he carried me down the steps of the railway station and out to the bus. For days afterwards I persistently asked my mother who that strange man in the house was!

It must have been a mixed homecoming for him but was probably a common experience shared by other returning troops who were meeting their children for the first time.

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