Hello. How ARE you?! I am good. Hope you are too!
I have been having nice times with the family and crocheting a blanket for this adorable lady’s baby and watching DVDs. I have been watching Series One of Tenko. Have you seen it? It’s an ABC/BBC series based on the lives of women in the Japanese Prisoner of War Camps, after the Japanese invaded Singapore, in 1942. It’s pretty gruelling, but really powerful telly. I highly recommend it.
I’ve been googling around looking at all the horrible wartime facts and figures and photos and stories. I am like that. I want to know more, most of the time. The more in this case is pretty awful. But I think it’s important to never forget such tragic events. I am sure we all have families touched by war in some way. And war really is completely tragic and horrible, isn’t it? Let’s not ever forget that.
Google lead me to this story. There are some horrible details in that article, be warned. But there is a really strong message about craft, friendship, women and community, and their place in the war too. For those that prefer not to revisit the awful details, the article is all about how the V & A in the UK exhibited a quilt earlier this year. The quilt, dubbed ‘The Tenko Quilt’ was made secretly by female Prisoners of War (Girl Guides even!) whilst they were imprisoned in Changi Prison.
It’s weird, because as I was watching Tenko, I wondered about quilting. They were making hats and darning things and crafting dolls and cooking up something from nothing every day. They were amazingly resourceful and determined and handy, even building their own Hospital type hut when the Japanese could not or would not provide it. It made perfect sense that there was a secret quilt. And how amazing that it survived. And that some of these women survived too.
Have you watched Tenko? Or seen this quilt?
xx Pip
