Hostility

 On the same day the Japanese military launched its surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, they launched attacks elsewhere in the world, including at Hong Kong, where Canadian soldiers were stationed. The survivors of that battle would spend years in Japanese POW camps, subjected to inhumane treatment and starvation. Those who survived that were haunted by it. This first photograph features one of those survivors, George MacDonnell, back then and in recent years. The Hong Kong monument is near Green Island; I haven't photographed it in some years, though I passed nearby when I was up at the Rideau Falls.

The survivors were allowed to add an HK in red patch to their jackets coming home, a nod to the suffering they had endured.

Another of those survivors was William Allister, who experienced the worst as a POW, internalized the trauma for years, and then found healing in an extended trip to Japan with his wife, and found outlets in writing and art.

I was reminded of an American veteran featured in Ken Burns' documentary on the war, who found himself a POW in similar treatment, and for years held onto anger towards the Japanese, until he was able to put that down.

This is Returning As A Bird, by William Allister, dating to that time, showing a mix of Western and Eastern influences.

This plate, commissioned by members of a military hospital unit, depicts their travels from Canada to the European theatre, where they served in the Italian campaign. It belonged to a nursing sister, Margaret Mowat.