大象传媒

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Part 6

I was one of the lucky ones, my family and I, had come through a terrible war unscathed. Other relatives were not so lucky, I had lost several cousins during the conflict.
Now we could at least sleep safely in our beds, leave lights on without fear of planes coming over. We could hear the church bells pealing out again, what a lovely sound, after six long years of silence.
Everyone was celebrating, we had a big street party, with a large bonfire, also the first for six long years. Most people felt glad for all the young people who had borne the brunt of the war, and soon they would be coming home, or would they?
We were being told that the war was over, the street lamps blazed down, lights shone from windows and everyone was happy that it was all over for us. Thousands of people were sad however, knowing that they would never see loved ones again.
People from all walks of life had lost dear ones, war had no favourites, so many husbands, brothers, sons, daughters, mothers and fathers, even small children, who would never come home again.
People were singing and dancing in the streets, rations had carefully been saved for this day in time. We all dressed up in our best clothes, and laid out tables in the street, for the biggest party ever. A piano was brought out into the street, and goodies were brought out to eat and drink.
The walking wounded began to arrive through holes in the hospital fence, via our back gardens. They all came to join in the fun, everyone really let their hair down. No more bombs, no more blackouts, no more walking into hedges or falling off kerbs. There was light once again, we could all go back to our own beds and not have disrupted sleep again, lots of restrictions were lifted, but rationing stayed. The war in Europe was over, but the war against Japan raged on, unknown atrocities were happening there. It all seemed so far away, like a bad dream, it was happening, but not really touching us. Our men of the Fourteenth army, often called the Forgotten army, were still in the midst of war, suffering untold miseries, not only from the Japanese armies, but from the silent enemy of tropical disease.
Illnesses that sapped their strength away. Alongside the army were nurses, civilians, women and children, so many captured and taken prisoners. How our hearts ached for them all.
What was to be done ? We didn't appear to be getting anywhere with the Japs. Could the rumours that were circulating about the Japs, really be true ? Were they that bad, or was it all exaggeration, we could only hope and pray that it was.
The Americans had the solution to the problem, a terrible solution, on 6th August 1945, they dropped the first atom bomb on Hiroshima, in Japan, completely devastating the place. Everything was destroyed. One hundred and thirty seven thousand people, were killed or seriously injured. There was nothing left of the city at all.
Three days later, they dropped another atom bomb on the seaport of Nagasaki. Out of a population of two hundred and twelve thousand; seventy three thousand, eight hundred and eighty four people were killed outright, and seventy six thousand, seven hundred and ninety six were injured.
Of the sixty one thousand or so people that survived, many still suffer the effects of radiation to this day.
After the dropping of these two bombs, the Japanese had no choice, surrender they must, and they did so on 15th August 1945. The final end of the second world war.
Once again, the celebrations began, there were street parties, dancing, singing, bonfires, also prayers to thank God for the end of the war, and prayers that there would be no more wars to disrupt the world.
Everyone was waiting for their families to be reunited, unfortunately, those who returned from the Far East were mostly in a terrible state.
What they had suffered at the hands of the Japanese, was absolutely unbelievable. Especially those who had been held as prisoners of war.
The state of these people was indescribable, walking skeletons, with all kinds of illnesses.
They had to have intensive treatment before they could go anywhere or do anything. It was many months before they were allowed home.
So bad was the condition that they were in, that so long as they live, they will never forget. Even those who weren't involved and had only seen the newsreel like us, were devastated to see the state of people that we had known, who had gone away fit, and had come home in such a terrible state.
I was now eighteen and a half years old, and had spent all of my teenage years in the midst of war. If we had hormonal problems, nobody took any notice. You just had to get on with life.
We had never been able to go to the shops to buy anything we wanted, and it would be a long time before the shops had anything to offer. Even if you had money to buy things, ther was nothing available to us. Although things were gradually getting better, it was still nine long years before rationing ended completely.
With so many homes having been razed to the ground, hundreds of people were homeless. As men returned home from the war, big banners were strung across people's houses, saying "Welcome Home". Flags and bunting would be strung everywhere. Every family whose people had returned home to them, were now happy at last.
Of course, as with lots of things, many adjustments needed to be made.
There were exceptions of course, as many wives and girlfriends, didn't last the course, and found someone else, and the same with the men.
Work started on building new homes, hundreds of prefabricated houses were built in factories and then put together on any spare areas of land that were available. People of my age group and older, had a very hard time; we had to grow up very fast. We had something that is missing in these days of plenty, we learned to share everything with others who had nothing. We didn't have time to fight amongst ourselves over petty little things.
We just got on with what we had to do, and made the most of everything. I'm sure that we were basically happier than the youth of today.
The world and the streets seem to be more violent now, than during both world wars.

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