As a result of the Covid 19 pandemic restrictions on assembly many of the planned VJ commemorations across the UK were either cancelled or significantly scaled back. The Museum decided to have a modest private commemoration for VJ Day within the rules on limited assembly and social distancing. The focus of the event was the FEPOW war memorial steam locomotive “SINGAPORE”, itself a prisoner of war of the Japanese, a fate it shared with many thousands of allied servicemen at the Fall of Singapore in February 1942.

At the ceremony the museum was pleased to welcome representatives of the British Army and a variety of veteran groups and individuals. We were honoured by the attendance of Captain Nijenhuis, Defence and Naval Attache at the Embassy of the Kingdom of Netherlands to remember Dutch prisoners of war and internees under the Japanese occupation of the Far East.

During the ceremony these representatives were invited to place a white orchid (the Far East flower of Remembrance) on the footplate of the FEPOW memorial locomotive beneath the memorial plates – in memoriam. The FEPOW prayer was also read:

As we that are left grow old with the years

Remembering the heartaches, the pain and the tears

Hoping and praying that never again

Will man sink to such sorrow and shame

The price that was paid – we will always remember

Every day, every month – not just in November