Last Voices

 I try to get to the War Museum each year before Remembrance Day, as I find it easier to photograph without so much crowds. This year it couldn't be helped, and I walked out to the Museum after the national service, taking a couple of shots as I approached. The snow was a welcome sight.

The special exhibit on right now into early January is a poignant one. Last Voices Of The Second World War features the stories of veterans, many of which are audibly recorded, telling their stories of life during and after the war. I found it very moving.

Coming home wasn't the same for everyone. Indigenous veterans like Tommy Prince, who was the most decorated soldier in the famous Devil's Brigade saw discrimination after the war. Japanese descended Canadian soldiers saw the same.

The same applied for black veterans and women, all of whom had served with distinction.

These documents speak volumes. At left is a train ticket, while the others are discharge documents.

The train ticket was that of a soldier who spent the war as a prisoner of war after the fall of Hong Kong and finally was able to return home. That ticket brought him the rest of the way home, and he held onto it.

Discharge documents included things like certifications. If your work as a soldier had transferred over into a trade, such documents were your way into that trade in civilian life.