70 years separates these two accounts, both written by Barbara Anslow. Barbara wrote the first one in Stanley Camp not long after the Japanese surrender. She says:
You will see that 'Is it really true' was written on August 24th 1945, 6 days before Admiral Harcourt liberated us. Although I was still writing my diary then, I had this urge to record how things were during the period when we knew the war was over but had no contact with the outside world.
She follows up with a description of taking part in last week's VJ Day ceremonies in London. Over to Barbara...
24th August 1945 - IS IT REALLY TRUE?
Even a week after all this started, we still ask each other is it really true, or is it just another of those dreams which has haunted and tortured us for 3 and a half years? We have been nominally free for a week, but neither envoy nor Fleet having arrived, our suspicious natures are inclined to wonder whether they ever will materialise, or whether this is all a trick. We feel we want to urge the Allies to come while the coming is good, lest the pendulum should suddenly swing the other way, leaving us in a far worse position than that in which we have been for so long. The sure knowledge that <Read more ...>
