Author(s): Hank Nelson

Australia

One of Hank Nelson's earliest schoolboy memories is of waiting at a small country railway station to meet a returning prisoner-of-war. The ex-prisoner, a frail figure in a voluminous army uniform, hesitated in front of the line of children who gave three cheers and waved flags. Uncertain of what was expected of him, the ex-prisoner looked around, perhaps thought about making a speech, then walked away. The man was one of those 14,000 survivors who had experiences he could never share fully with anyone who was not there.