My Granddad turns 90 on August 8th, and with the 70th anniversaries of landmark World War 2 events around the same time (Hiroshima, Aug 6th; Japanese surrender, Aug 14th; VJ Day, Aug 15th) I think it’s an important time to tell his incredible accounts of these historic events, before it’s too late.
As a 16 year old, he enlisted and later became a Royal Marine Commando. After manning a landing craft during D-Day, he travelled around the world to fight the Japanese. It is here he experienced first-hand the Japanese surrender, the devastated, molten city of Hiroshima just a few weeks following the explosion, and the aftermath of the Japanese rule of China.
One of his tales involves a bizarre encounter with three Japanese soldiers shortly after the Japanese formally surrendered. In search of bananas, he embarked by himself down a jungle pathway, when suddenly the armed soldiers appeared. Just as my Grandad believed he was doomed, they stopped, stood to attention and saluted him.
Of course, my Grandad can tell these stories much better than me!
For the past few weeks I have been emailing journalists and historians, with the hope that someone will be interested and willing to interview my Grandad and record his experiences. However, although I have received responses, those that I have contacted have been unable or unwilling to help.
If anyone can help in any way to get his experiences recorded (and even published through a media outlet), I would be thrilled. I’m sure my Grandad would be too. He survived the war (unlike many of his friends and family), worked for most of his adult life at an oil refinery whilst bringing up eight children, and cared for my Grandma during her 10 year battle with Alzheimer’s, but the one consistency throughout these decades is his wartime memories and desire to share them.
My Grandad lives alone, can barely walk and rarely leaves his house. As you can imagine, such a life can make him feel forgotten, and forgotten is something he definitely should not be. The one thing worthy I can think of to do for him for his birthday, is make sure his stories get the audience they deserve.
My fathet is an author and interviews ww2 vets. PM me if youd like.
The sort of recording or gathering of recollections you're describing is often done as what's called an "Oral History" - a recorded interview that can be listened to, transcribed, and preserved as needed. It is a project sometimes undertaken by archives, museums, and specifically devoted historical or community groups. While I'm in the US and don't know specific projects from UK groups (assuming Royal Marines = UK), I would suggest contacting:
The Royal Marines Museum (check the third project on that list) and by extension, The Royal Marines Assocation
The former is more likely, I think, to be interested - they appear to have active oral history projects going on for RM veterans, and are specialists in the topic. The latter may still be a good one, or if they have a reference archivist willing to reply, might be able to suggest a good place to check, if they aren't themselves engaged in collecting that history at present.
If you're unable to find someone soon, I suggest you try recording his memoirs yourself. A recording device and a thoughtful set of questions are all you really need.