Carolyn Newman (editor). Legacies of our Fathers.

Carolyn Newman (editor). Legacies of our fathers, Lothian Books, October 2005, Card covers I 236 pp., RRP $29.95.

In recent years, many former prisoners of the Japanese have written of their experiences in horror circumstances. These accounts largely focus on their wartime experiences. We see only glimpses of the 'what happens next' and almost nothing of the short term and long term impact of their experiences on their families. Carolyn Newman, herself the daughter of a former prisoner of war, has compiled a moving collection of personal stories and reflections to help fill this gap.

Newman introduces this collection with a scene-setting essay and includes brief biographical detail of each former prisoner. The dedicated reader of POW literature will recognize some of the fathers: Able Seaman Allan Howard Gee from his daughter's biographical family history

Long way from Silver Creek: A family memoir; Captain Astley 'Maurie' Arvier from his daughters account "Caesar's Ghost!": Maurie Arvier's story of war, captivity and survival; and John Waterford's own account of his prisoner experiences entitled Footprints. Most of these men, however, are unknown outside their own circle. Because these accounts are written (almost entirely) by their offspring who experienced some sort of physical or emotion separation, we do not get a sense of knowing the former prisoners, as we would in a fully rounded biography or autobiography. However, and so importantly, we are given the opportunity, often denied the reader, to learn of the quite often tragic results of imprisonment.

We learn of families where their father was virtually a stranger. We read of the painful experiences of children who lost their father at an early age, and who now attempt to discover something of the strong men who went to war--but who returned fractured in many ways--and to piece together fragments of a story that was largely denied them. We read of the regrets: how aberrant behaviour was not understood because the child (no matter how old, you are always a child to your father) had not known of the extent of the prisoner experiences, or had simply been protected from the horror. We read of the personal journey of discovery and share the sorrow-tinged joy when knowledge is gained. We also share the emotion when the journey of discovery leads to some sort of peace and reconciliation with the past.

To put your feelings on the line so baldly, as these writers have done, is not easy. There is always the risk of misinterpretation and the risk that the love that they felt for their father could be betrayed by the pain of their story. All of the authors here are owed adept of gratitude. Our knowledge of prisoner experiences and impact has been broadened in a wonderful and purely emotional way. Michael McKernan, in his brilliant This war never ends: the pain of separation and return clearly signposts the fact that the war has not ended for former prisoners and it will never end for their families. But here, we see that for some there is a coming to terms with the impact of the war, and even if their father is no longer here, their relationship has been made better and stronger by discovering why their lives were fractured as they were.

There are very clear themes of discovery, healing and a final finding of peace, but there is also a strong sense of family. In the case of sisters Di Elliott and Pauline Morgan, we again see different perspectives of the same story: Di, the younger daughter who grew up with a returned prisoner for a father, and Pauline, who knew her father before the war and who met a different man when he returned. But for Pauline, the story does not end with her father: she married her father's close friend, who was also a returned prisoner and tells of her experiences as a wife, as well as a daughter. The theme of family is not just apparent in the struggle to discover and establish a relationship with an alienated father but in the discovery of shared experience, understanding and support in the wider POW family, and the broader sense of family that Newman has experienced as her friendships developed with many of the writers.

This compilation has been beautifully and sensitively put together. It will prove a significant addition to POW literature. Highly recommended.