A Town like Alice

Many of us may have had parents who were in service too.

Most children left school at 14 and were sent away to work in The Big House or even further afield.
Some who had spirit and a sense of adventure escaped and perhaps joined the Forces where they came up against the Sergeant Major or the Chief.

I remember head teachers being terrifying.

Kali you are judging the past by the standards of today. The behaviour and wielding of authority by British colonials was no different to the way their local leaders spoke or behaved or the way that people in charge behaved in the UK.

It was an age when anyone with any kind of authority spoke as an autocrat and expected to be obeyed. We talk about an age of deference and those 'below' deferred to those above

Many of us older members remember head teachers who ordered people around and spoke down to anyone they thought below them and of people not daring to question authority, however it came; doctors, teachers, ministers, 'the boss', a solicitor.

Yes I know about the kittens. On the face of it it sounds a hideous thing to do, but to those of us who have never even remotely experienced what, these men in particular, went through and and that they were starving in the literal sense of the word, not the way we glibly use it if we miss lunch by a couple of hours. Eaten alive by insects, riddle with Cholera, Malaria, Berri Berri and more besides, as well as being worked to death, beaten and tortured. My stepfather suffered from bouts of Malaria all his life, its horrible. I wonder which one of us would have behaved differently?

jabberwok Of course Ronald Searle was a prisoner of the Japanese and took a huge risk keeping his drawings hidden. One of them was of a pair of kittens that they later had for dinner.

Kali2

I'm not sure who you were referring to in your OP

Much more aware of the arrogance and superior attitudes of the colonialist 'invaders', and felt moved to tears by the plight of the Japanese soldier who had to accompany them. Very moving.

Were you unaware of the atrocities that the Japanese 'invaders' perpetuated?

M0nica

*Callistemon*, I was not referring to anyone on this thread, more the current fashion in blaming every one alive now from any country involved in slavery for what happened several hundred years ago. I am not talking about all the complicated issues around that subject, but silly simplistic blaming of the present for the past.

Yes, got it now, sorry.

Yes, I agree with that post too especially silly simplistic blaming of the present for the past.

We can look on the past with a different perspective but cannot change what happened.

M0nica

*Callistemon*, I was not referring to anyone on this thread, more the current fashion in blaming every one alive now from any country involved in slavery for what happened several hundred years ago. I am not talking about all the complicated issues around that subject, but silly simplistic blaming of the present for the past.

Have you got the wrong poster, M0nica?

My post to you said:
Thank you for that perspective, M0nica.

I think many who endured and survived rarely spoke about the atrocities.

As we saw too in 'Tea with Mussolini'.

All I was saying- and again, same with the Book Thief- I perceived the film differently 55 years later. I felt aspects of the film I had not seen at the time. No-where am I demeaning the suffering of those women and children and thousands of others.

But do not deny that the lifestyle and standards of those women were not vastly different to the local people and most Japanese at the time- very privileged in comparison.

My stepfather was a P.O.W with the Japanese,captured at the fall of Singapore. He always hated the Japanese to the day he died, although he never talked about his time in Changi. We did find out after my mother died, that he had had a Chinese girl friend and they had had a baby. The Japanese murdered them both. Yes I loved A Town like Alice,both the film and the book. The Naked Island by Russell Braddon is another good,rather horrifying book, with excellent illustrations by Ronald Searle.

I'm with you there MOnica. I grew up in a small village, most of the houses were owned by a local landowner from a big house.
This landowner family were actually referred to as 'Gentry' and the adult men would touch their hats and the women give a strange little bob if they were spoken to.
I did find it a bit odd, even then (1940s)
Times change, I imagine no-one saw anything wrong with slavery when it happened, just as no-one thought the Vikings were violating the human rights of the British when they invaded.
Times do change.
You can't blame this generation fit the atrocities of the Victorians over slavery.

Callistemon, I was not referring to anyone on this thread, more the current fashion in blaming every one alive now from any country involved in slavery for what happened several hundred years ago. I am not talking about all the complicated issues around that subject, but silly simplistic blaming of the present for the past.

I hope also that those condemning modern populations for dreadful things that happened in the past, will see the contradiction in there attitudes.

I hadn't seen anyone on here condemning today's populations for what their grandparents may have done in WW2.

No, I don't think anyone is misreading what you were saying

The=they

I fear the dont at the moment M0nica

No television programme, least of all a drama, could ever show the horrors of the Japanese occupation, not just of Malaya and Singapore, but most of East Asia, any more than any television programme could truly show the horrors of the (Jewish and non-Jewish) concentration camps, or extermination camps.

But just as we today accept that these horrors happened in the past and do not hold the Germans and Japanese alive today responsible for past horrors.

I hope also that those condemning modern populations for dreadful things that happened in the past, will see the contradiction in there attitudes.

Saw the film as a teenager and had a huge crush on Peter Finch for a bit. Seen it on TV before but I did catch a bit of it this time - just as PF's character was explaining why he called the heroine "Mrs Boong"! So non-PC on so many counts! How things change. Japanese culture was and is so different to western ideals. It's historical in theme and of the time it was made-nothing matter with that.

One of our neighbours here was the daughter of a Belgian diplomat serving in Singapore when it was invaded by the Japanese. She and her mother were put in a camp for the duration of the war. She rarely spoke about it.

You are misreading what I am saying - just as in The Book Thief- you realise that some of the German soldiers were just forced into doing what they had to do, and suffered themselves too. Something I never really saw initially.

Thank ou Monica.

Thank you for that perspective, M0nica.

I think many who endured and survived rarely spoke about the atrocities.

Franbern

Think the tv series referred to is TENKO.

No, there was a tv series before that, Franbern, starring Bryan Brown

www.imdb.com/title/tt0081949

There have been a couple of Japanese camp series on TV. There was a series about aTown Like Alice as well as Tenko.
Bryan Brown was I think also in a serialised production of The Thorn. Birds.

I loved Tenko, i had never seen anything like it and was totally engrossed when it came on the Tv. I have copies of the whole series and have watched it a couple of times. Anyone who hasn't seen it will notice it looks very dated obviously, but the story line is brilliant.

Think the tv series referred to is TENKO.

Deedaa

Does anyone remember the television series with Bryan Brown? It covered the whole of the book with their life in Australia building a town like Alice.

It was very good.

Gordon Jackson played Jean’s solicitor.