Original subtitles

(gentle music)

(wind whooshing)

(seagulls gawking)

- This is an heirloom really, the Japanese keep.

It's a very old sword.

And when the Japanese die,

the very wealthy ones,

and they have their ashes.

And they put their ashes

in these little grooves at the back.

We have about seven or eight grooves there.

So I feel I've seven or eight Japs in the house.

So that makes me nervous at times.

- I was always curious about it because it was in the house.

It was always in the house

and we knew there was something special about it

because dad had got it in the war.

- So we would say to him,

"Oh, Dad, tell us about the war and what happened?"

And he would say, "Well,

"maybe when you're a little bit older."

Or, "I'll tell you another time, maybe."

And we knew not to probe.

And then later on I asked mum,

"Did you ever ask dad about the experiences

"when you first met him?"

And she said, "No,

"because really he'd been through so much.

"He used to have terrible nightmares

"and why bring all that back?"

1979, he had brain surgery, which they think he got a tumor

as a result of all the beatings on his head.

And he was told to use his mind and think,

and just go into his memory.

(anxious music) (guns firing)

So he did write it all out longhand.

And then the book came out.

(gentle music)

- [Interviewer] What would you say

was the single characteristic that enabled you

to survive all of that period?

- [Aidan] Well, it's a combination really

of my Irish Catholic heritage, my family background

and lots and lots of luck.

(gentle music)

(waves crashing)

- Well, my father's love growing up in Beara

and it was his roots.

So even though he traveled the world and was away so long,

his heart was still back here.

This was it.

It was where his grandfather had started the business

and where he had grown up.

And, you know, home is so important, isn't it?

And we saw that all the way through all our travels.

This was the place to get back to.

This was the Mecca for him.

He just adored Beara, in fact he was one of 10.

Yep, five girls and five boys.

But it was his memories of growing up

and his happiness of learning to swim and been

so able in the water, it was most important to him.

- He was sent away to boarding school

and he went to Clongowes Wood.

So he had a good education

and his interest obviously lay in medicine.

So you went to UCC and he studied medicine.

I say part time, studying medicine really,

considering all the other activities like the swimming

and the polo and the general sort of student life really,

that was a big part of his thing as well.

He graduated in 1938 and at that time

it was pretty difficult to get jobs in Ireland.

So he went to the UK.

(train chugging) (train whistle blowing)

And again jobs weren't particularly easy

to get there either.

- [Aidan] I ran into two more friends of mine

who are qualified, it was two Cork chaps,

and we had a boisterous evening around the bars of London,

finished up in the nightclub sometime,

the early hours of the morning

and we had, by that time decided we're all going

to join one of the services.

(upbeat music)

And the Navy and the Air Force were the choice between us.

and we eventually got one of the hostesses to toss up

and it came down on the side of the Air Force.

The following morning,

three very hung-over young doctors arrived down

at the airman street to make inquiries.

They were all so glad to see us that we were interviewed,

medically examined and accepted

and we were out in time to have the first drink

in the pubs opening at half past 11.

(patrons chattering)

- As 1939, obviously war was eminent.

But I suppose being young and foolish, if you like,

they thought it was a big adventure.

(happy music)

- I see someone that's kind of interested in my dad,

I go over and tell them, well,

that's my dad and very proud to tell them.

And then if they're really interested,

I bring down the sword and the metals.

It's a weapon, no matter what, isn't it?

But it's such an important part of my dad's life

that it's like part of our family.

They actually used to test its sharpness

by hold it under a cherry blossom tree,

shake the tree and as the petals fell,

they would be cut in half.

(plane engine roaring)

(bomb exploding)

(tank engine rumbling)

- Then the war started and he was sent to France.

And I suppose at that time, he thought that that was

as far as this war adventure was going to go.

(anxious music)

- [Aidan] We got to Boulogne and we weren't very popular

because most of our chaps were technicians,

fitters, rigors, and weren't soldier material

as such and so we were much use to the Boulogne people

for defending it.

(plane engines roaring)

(bomb exploding)

The German started to dive-bomb us

so we had to scrap our lorries and walk.

(machine gun firing)

(bombs exploding)

And we eventually got to the outskirts of Dunkirk

where we were formed into a unit

and they were marched down the beach.

And there, your name was put into a sort of a lotto,

if you put it a high number, you'll be told

to go back to the beach and wait.

If you get a low number you have to stay.

(gentle music)

(bombs exploding)

(fires blazing)

We had two bad days and three horrible nights there.

You see we were completely defenseless

and we were using just what we could dig into the sand,

sort of fox holes to protect ourself from the bombing.

And a direct hit would've, of course killed us.

The whole thing was a dreadful experience

in that some men were crying, some praying,

some singing, some completely silent,

and everybody terrified.

(terrifying music)

(military music)

It was very difficult, you see,

because there's a very shallow beach.

You had to wade out, really up to your chest very often.

And you were pulled onto this boat

and then brought out to the bigger boat.

(sorrowful music)

And quite a number of chaps wounded.

Some of them with bullet wounds and not shell wounds.

We opened up, what I'd be the dining room of the ferry thing

and we started operating and removing.

And the first thing removed were two or three bullets.

They were British bullets.

So we can only assume that they were fired at

by some of our own chaps on our own chaps.

(waves gently crashing)

- This was a photo album,

which I came across after many months of searching.

Not that I knew what I was searching for.

But my mother had always said

that somewhere in her possession,

there was actually a photograph of the man

that had given my father the sword.

Then I came across this album,

which just contains so much amazing stuff.

This was actually the moment

when it all started to make sense.

That I came across this photograph of a Japanese Officer

in his uniform with the sword,

with some inscriptions on the back.

We had it translated and it says,

"To my friend, Dr. MacCarthy.

"I give you this as a token of my friendship

"and at the outbreak of peace."

So I thought that has to it, that has to be the man.

I don't know if it's a long shot,

but really just hoping that somebody,

somewhere in Japan knows something to do with that man

or his family really.

I mean it's 68 years later now

so whether that's too long for families to have moved,

to have died out to really not be interested,

is the other point.

So it's kind of a long shot,

but we have by having the photograph,

we have at least got a face to sort of tell people about.

(airplane engine roaring)

(upbeat music)

Tokyo.

And if possible could I get an aisle seats, please?

Thank you, very much.

I'm fascinated to find the Kusuno's

to see what the relationship between the two was

and to find why he would have given my dad

such a special gift.

My dad never resented the Japanese after the war

so it would be fascinating to know

what the bond was between these two people.

He tried to protect us from all the horrors and the stories,

but I think in the back of every child's mind,

they want to find out a bit more

about what actually happened in their parents lives.

(bell jingling)

(speaking in foreign language)

(anxious music) (plane engine roaring)

- [Nicola] Dad had a very kind of active time in France

and then when he returned from France in 1941,

he was in RF Honington, which was a sort

of bomber command station.

And he was the senior medical officer on the camp.

- And one day a plane came in returning from a mission

but the undercarriage didn't come down.

- [Aidan] The night Sergeant pilot

was his first job as captain.

He got back from raiding Germany

and he had his red green lights showing on his dashboard

which meant that his undercarriage was down

but didn't know whether it was locked or not.

This chap was told to will come in a bit faster

in case his under carriage collapsed.

He came in over the perimeter fence.

(plane engine roaring)

Touchdown and realized that he was going too fast.

And he was going for takeoff again to keep going

and his wingtips cut the top of a bomb-dump,

which was situated at the end of this runway.

And he crashed straight into it.

(plane exploding)

(worrisome music)

So we got down the runway with an ambulance

and a fire tender.

The others all pulled us out,

the bomb scattered around, took off.

I don't blame them because we are really terrified

I don't think you can really think.

And the driver of the fire tender, myself jumped in

and we found the pilot there and three of the others alive

so we pulled those out and got them clear.

- He won the George Medal for pulling five men out

of the burning plane.

But he did say that, he just act in the moment

and you go and do it.

And when it's life, you know,

that's something that a doctor does,

but maybe it's just a natural instinct.

(heroic music)

- There's two newspapers helping us on our search.

Oh, crumbs, there he is.

(Nicola laughing)

That's the one.

So that's my father, and that's Mr. Kusuno,

that's the gentleman we're looking for.

For 68 years these people heard nothing

and then suddenly to get a picture

of your grandfather in the paper, I mean,

they're gonna get a serious shock, I'd imagine.

Hopefully a pleasant shock and hopefully one

that they'll respond to positively.

But I mean, yeah, could you imagine just opening the paper

and seeing your grandfather there

with somebody searching for him, after all these years.

I mean, I hope he doesn't give them too much

of a shock, really.

(anxious music)

- [Aidan] An urgent call came from help Singapore.

So we set off.

We were carrying the best part of a squadron and a half

of Spitfires and Hurricanes in the hulls.

Got to Singapore, but it was too late.

(guns firing)

(canon firing)

(fire blazing)

- [Nicola] And that's when the next part

of his sort of adventure if you like started.

So he went to Java, then they were sent to Sumatra

and then back to Java again.

Because the Japanese were kind of closing in on everywhere.

(anxious music)

- [Aidan] When we got to Java, it was a complete shambles

because the Japs were beginning

to do landings all right in Java.

(soldiers feet bashing)

(cannon booming)

(gun firing)

(soldiers yelling)

(sorrowful music)

(flies buzzing)

- Then Java was captured by the Japanese

and it's in the culture that you lose face,

if you are captured and that you're just despicable

and should be treated thus.

He was in a camp in Java for over two years.

He was treated very badly.

(troubled music)

- [Aidan] They shouted at us,

slapped you and they kicked you.

And they shot and beheaded several people

for not reacting quickly to the thing.

And if you attain any thought of making an escape or...

(gun firing)

It was terror, terror.

(anxious music)

- They were obsessed about food

because their rations were just so meager,

they had nothing.

They used to just almost hallucinate about food,

but just try and think of meals

and there's one, I think it was a bit of trading done

and they got a tin and he thought it was hot dogs

which he kept for Christmas Day

and it was buried in the corner of a camp.

So on Christmas Day, when he opened the tin,

it was asparagus.

And actually he never touched asparagus ever again.

- [Aidan] We'd creamed off the dirty rice,

we stained it and the maggots, we then collected

and we boiled those and turned those into a maggot soup,

which we give to the sick.

And fortunately we got a hold of some live yeast cultures

and the chemists, especially the Dutch chemist amongst us

soon got to work.

Well, we're adding that as a yeast product

to our rice pap, especially to the sick.

Most of them were living on reserves.

- This was a water bottle that was cut in half.

That's what my dad would've got his rice

with the maggot soup in.

Amazing how he just thought

to bring it back though, as well.

You'd think you'd just wanna throw it away.

(concerning music)

- [Aidan] We tried experiments about different types

of diets to see if we could cure beriberi

and various deficiency diseases that were springing up.

- [Adrienne] Of course there was no penicillin

or anything in those days,

but when they got shaving foam he looked at the ingredients

and he realized that this could be used

to treat certain infections.

And he did.

- [Aidan] My first bad date was when I was going to,

well we were isolating the dysentery cases

and normally I had to pass the guards,

guards were sitting inside of what would be the front porch.

And when I got there, there was no guards,

but there was a monkey on a stand

beside where the guards had been, so I saluted the monkey

but unfortunately one of the guards had come back

and he saw me and he told the others.

- I think my dad, probably did regret it

because he was dragged and kicked

and punched and beaten half to death really.

And that's why he had a very bad elbow

and tram-line of operations.

And actually his arm was so bad even after the beating

that they had to remove a cartilage

which was done with no anesthetic

and he was almost telling them what to do

until he actually passed out from the pain.

And then I mean, he was so lucky not to have got it infected

and to have survived it.

- In 1944, around 1300 prisoners were transported

to Japan in a cargo boat.

It was infested with rats.

(anxious music)

(troublesome music)

- [Aidan] Just about five to midnight,

I was sitting up fighting with a rat,

it had got caught in a bit of mosquito netting.

I was terrified and I think the rat was too,

but he saved my life.

(boat siren blaring)

(torpedo whizzing)

(torpedo exploding)

- The boat was struck by a torpedo

from an American submarine.

He looked around and nobody else seemed to be getting up.

And he realized then that with the steel hold ship,

the torpedo who'd actually reverberated

and broken the necks, whiplash breaks

to everybody that was laying down.

(anxious music)

- [Aidan] So I got up and all the lights have gone out.

The water was beginning to come in.

(water rushing)

I got out, maybe a minute before the ship sank.

I swim the best 50 yards of my life.

(fire blazing)

- [Adrienne] He was in the water for over 12 hours

and they were just hanging on to bits of wreckage

trying to survive.

- [Aidan] So we were hanging onto wreckage

and you're really discovering people during the night

and then they discovered me, the doctor

and they were shouting for help

and I was doing a surface surgery,

I was swimming from one bit of wreckage to the other,

tying up broken collarbones

and trying to splinter broken legs.

- Eventually they were actually picked up

by a Japanese destroyer.

And I suppose, because they were covered in oil

and dirt and blood, and God knows what,

the Japanese didn't know who they were picking up.

If it was POWs or if it was actually the crew

off the Japanese cargo boat.

- [Aidan] They gave us rice bowls to start with.

We were naked, you see.

And then I don't know, but suddenly going,

what we were, or who we were.

They started beating us up and throwing us overboard.

Some of the chaps were hitting,

they were not fully conscious,

they were been caught in the screws of the propellers.

There was an awful lot of red blood.

But a bunch of us from the top we saw was happening,

we dived overboard.

A destroyer going at speed

is a very difficult thing to get off.

But we swam back to our bits of wreckage.

(anxious music)

We'd been 22 hours in the water then

and we were trying to make up our mind,

whether we'd stay there or try and get to one

of the islands, which were away in the distance.

(waves gently splashing)

And a bunch of about five or six boats came into view

and they were Japanese whaling boats.

And they just start picking everybody else up

and took us into Nagasaki.

- So this area in the docks would've been approximately

where my father would've disembarked from the fishing

or from the whaling boat.

I'd say they were very glad to get back onto dry land

after so many traumatic days that they'd experienced at sea.

From been a prisoner of war for sort

of three years before that,

so they were very undernourished.

They were mentally and physically damaged.

Then plus the trauma

of experiencing all the death and carnage.

I mean, of the 780 that were on the transport ship

only 38 made it to Nagasaki.

When the police saw them arriving with a POWs,

they didn't really want them in that state.

And they told the the whaling boat to take them back out

and dump them at sea.

But the whaling boat was so anxious to get home

after their long trip that they refused

and they left them here.

So just up there was actually where the camp was,

where they were marched to.

And that's where they spent the next year.

They were initially put to work in the shipyards

where they were building some sort of big Japanese boat.

They then were transferred to the Mitsubishi Factory,

which was metal work.

But after their time there, then he was transferred

to a coal mine where they were actually working

for 10 cigarettes a week.

(sorrowful music)

- [Aidan] The main beatings I got were in Japan

when I was in charge of the camp and I was held responsible

for any troop didn't work hard enough

or was caught infringing.

I also had to get it, 'cause I was answerable for it.

- There was a lot of brutality.

And it was a ripple effect with the beatings

that if someone did something wrong,

it went from the top down.

So everybody got beaten anyway.

(tram rattling)

- I was just thinking that the wire netting there

at the top, actually still makes it still look reminiscent

of what you could imagine they would have had in the camp.

There's no way across that fence now.

Just like there wasn't then.

I wonder what the people in the factory thought

when they saw people in the camps outside.

Did they really care that they were suffering

like they were, or just got on and ignored it?

I suppose, war times these things happen.

There's no way that you could ever understand

or even feel how we would feel, I'd say.

I mean, there's nothing we would've experienced

that have been any way like it.

(train rumbling)

Well, he never really said much to us.

Really, it was something that was too horrific.

He thought as children we were too young

and vulnerable to know about, really.

Suppose it was only when the book came out,

that we just kind of read of the horrors of it.

Terrifying, isn't it?

(sorrowful music)

Actually been in that situation,

you needed something to hang on to.

You needed some belief, you needed some hope.

You know, it was always an escape

that you could escape into his faith inside himself.

- And one day he tried to imagine the shop,

the shelves and what was on the shelves

and even the people, he tried to bring this back to him

and he couldn't, and he went into a panic

because he thought that his mind was gone then.

And he could imagine Japanese people actually in the shop.

(soldiers yelling)

(anxious music)

To think that they've taken over your sanctuary

would break your heart.

That maybe you realize

that you are actually been broken in spirit.

(birds singing)

(speaking in foreign language)

- Mrs. Sasamoto, do you have any records

of how my father got from Singapore to Japan?

- Yes.

(speaking in foreign language)

- [Nikki] Oh, yeah.

(speaking in foreign language)

- MacCarthy. - Yes.

(speaking in foreign language)

- [Taeko] British.

(speaking in foreign language)

- Also, we have, I found a photograph of Mr. Kusuno.

That was the photograph that he gave to my father

when he presented him with the sword.

And that is also dated on September 45.

So we know that they obviously knew each other

and that's where he received the sword.

That's the sword we have.

And then I also have this photograph,

which was taken in camp 26.

It actually says, camp 26.

And again, in September, 1945.

So I think that's my father there.

(speaking in foreign language)

- [Nicola] Yeah, same kind of roof.

Yeah, that one as well.

(speaking in foreign language)

- Is that different, that's different.

- British? - British, yeah, maybe.

But that one-- - Yes, yes.

- It says on the back, R.A.F. and Dutch doctor.

Four Warrant Officers.

Royal Navy, British Army.

Royal Navy, Australian.

Camp 26, Fukuoka, Kyushu Island, Japan.

(speaking in foreign language)

- [Adrienne] There was a bit of trading done at the fences,

so they were able to put these crystal radio sets together.

So they knew that things were coming

and of course the air raids and the bombings

were getting worse and worse.

So luckily they were allowed

to build a shelter for themselves.

(plane engine roaring)

(machine gun blasting)

(plane engine whining)

(plane exploding)

- [Nicola] As the Japanese was starting to panic

and knowing that the inevitable was happening

they got them to take this big, deep trench.

(anxious music)

- So they were digging away

and then they saw a wooden platform thing been put up

at the far end and they realized

that they were digging their own grave,

a mass grave and they would just be machine gunned into it.

And as he was digging,

he said he could actually imagine himself been shot

and just laying there.

Which was just so, so sad.

- [Aidan] Around about midday, lovely bright August morning,

we saw the aid vapor trails in two lots of four.

So that immediately, the rest of us,

we shut down for the air raid shelter to get in quickly.

(emergency siren blaring)

(plane engine humming)

Three parachutes came out and there was this blinding flash.

(bomb booming)

And we were in the shelter, so we felt the warm air,

but nothing more.

(flames blazing)

And then one of the Australians stuck his head out

and it was his blasphemous remarks

that made us all shoot for the opening and look out.

(anxious music)

And there was no camp.

Gone.

And the day turned to darkness.

(sorrowful music)

I couldn't see any Nagasaki,

just things sticking up here and there.

And then fires everywhere and smoke and screaming.

Then a horrible thing started, black rain.

This was terrifying.

I personally thought it was the end of the word.

(anxious music)

(eerie music)

(terrifying music)

- [Nicola] I mean, it's hard to imagine

that within one second the whole factory,

the whole camp, the whole city

that's been your prison camp is just raised to the ground.

(terrifying music)

- [Aidan] And we all veered then for the mountain

to get out.

'Cause we were in a valley and down the middle

of this valley there was a river

and some of the chaps got stuck in that,

you see, with the mud.

We had an awful job pulling them out.

And we were stopping now and again, to help people

we suddenly realized that it was useless

because one of the chaps pulled some woman

and her complete skin came off her face.

And another chap was trying to help a child

and the child's arm came away, complete.

The thing was obviously that, you know

something beyond our and we kept, we kept running.

- [Nicola] People had been very much injured in the blast

and the aftermath, they had caves in the hills

which were actually made into small little surgeries.

- [Adrienne] The makeshift hospital in the caves

and he went up and just did what he could

for prisoners and Japanese.

Those sort of radiation burns and blindness,

so not knowing really what had happened,

he just used whatever he could to help these people.

- [Aidan] But it was quite useless

because most of the people they were bringing in were dead.

Most of the people treating them were already dying.

And we, we stayed there then

and helped the Japs best we could with the things.

And they were very frightened as we were.

(sorrowful music)

We were eventually rounded up by the Japanese Police,

the camp type.

And they took us outside like a second,

stuck us in, what I imagined was been a small schoolhouse

and then we had to help cremate bodies.

- After what he'd been through,

he'd been in Java for nearly three years as a prisoner,

then transported up to the Japanese mainland,

torpedoed on the way up

and then to be in Nagasaki and the atomic bomb dropped

to be recaptured after all that

when you think you've got freedom, it's terrible.

(birds singing)

(speaking in foreign language)

- Nice to meet you. - Nice to meet you.

(speaking in foreign language)

- When they transferred the prisoners from Nagasaki to here,

did they come by train?

(speaking in foreign language)

- So it must've take quite a long time from Nagasaki?

(mumbling in foreign language)

- 12 Hours. - Yes?

(speaking in foreign language)

(speaking in foreign language)

- [Nicola] Oh, right, yeah, yeah.

(speaking in foreign language)

- [Nicola] Yeah, you can see there.

(speaking in foreign language)

- Thin. - Yeah, yeah.

(speaking in foreign language)

(anxious music)

- [Aidan] We were in this camp

and they stopped us working, they started

to give us some extra food.

And then they were very nice to us, the Japs guards.

And the next thing, all the Japs disappeared

and they came back in their best uniforms

and they put a radio up in front

of the Commandants office on a table

and they all assembled.

And then this voice came out of the radio

and they all bowed.

(speaking in foreign language)

(crickets chirping)

- [Aidan] The interpreter was standing over and things

so we asked him one thing.

And he called me Major, instead of a number.

I was Ichiban number one,

he was crawling, you see (chuckles).

So I said, "It's all over, isn't it?"

And he said, "Yes."

And I turned around to the Japs,

let's go and find the Commandant.

- The rest of the prisoners really wanted to tear him apart

but my dad stepped in and just said that they must wait

because he realized that help would be coming.

So he made sure that the commander

of the camp was kept separate.

Later the camp commandant gave the sword to my father.

We don't if it was to saving his life

or had they built up some kind of friendship.

(birds singing)

- [Nicola] Very nice to meet you.

- It's nice to meet you.

(speaking in foreign language)

- Right, that's interesting.

(speaking in foreign language)

(speaking in foreign language)

- Well, that's interesting.

Very interesting.

(speaking in foreign language)

- That's what both countries wanted at the end.

To just be able to live normally again and have peace.

So he was looking forward to it

as much as my father was as well.

(sorrowful music)

- [Aidan] The Americans flew over the following day

and dropped an awful lot of food and clothing and medicines.

And then they dropped pamphlets all over the countryside

to the Japanese won and that they'd be shot,

if they were caught with even an empty tin

of rations or anything.

And if they found any of the parachutes,

they were to bring them to the nearest camp.

And they did.

- He realized then

that he was the senior officer in the camp

and someone had to take charge.

So he did.

And he just kind of tried to keep things in control

and he issued this order.

At 09;15 hours yesterday, the 2nd of September,

you ceased to be prisoners of war.

This camp is now a British Military establishment

under my command.

From the very beginning I want it to be understood

that the rules and regulations as laid down by me,

together with military discipline will be maintained.

I am now responsible to our government for each one of you

I intend to see to it that you return home

safe and sound and without a cloud

of any sort on your military records.

J.A. MacCarthy.

Squadron-leader.

Commanding.

(heartfelt music)

- [Nicola] My dad was very lucky.

He survived been a prisoner.

He survived the radiation, the brutality,

and then he was free at last.

(plane engines humming)

- It was quite a journey of started from Japan,

they went by ship to San Francisco.

Then they went by train across to the east coast of America.

By November, I think he managed to get back to Dublin.

He came up to the docks in Dun Laoghaire

with plenty of kit bags on the sword.

And he was 14 and a half stone leaving

but seven stone coming home.

But my aunt tells me how they went to meet him

and he still had that cheeky smile coming up the gangplank.

(uplifting music)

The most emotional bit was the telegram from my grandmother

that she sent to my dad when he arrived back into Dublin.

And it just made it full circle as well.

It said, "A thousand welcomes from your loving mother."

(gentle music)

She'd had a stroke in the meantime,

because she had also lost a son, the priest in the last bomb

that was dropped on London during the war.

It was like she just hung on for him,

she died on Christmas Eve that year.

(sorrowful music)

He got the OBE and the Pacific Service Stars

and then he got a Papal Award as well,

he became a Knight of St. Sylvester.

I think it's just for goodness you have done

and I think his bravery was realized

even in the spiritual side.

(speaking in foreign language)

(speaking in foreign language)

(speaking in foreign language)

(speaking in foreign language)

(exciting music)

- [Nicola] I'm Nikki MacCarthy.

- Ah, nice to meet you. - Very nice to meet you.

Very nice to meet you.

- And he, Satpso Kusuno. - Kusuno, yes.

So you're grandson of.

Very nice to meet you.

Very nice to meet you.

Very nice to meet you.

- And his mother, Mitchko. - Yes.

(speaking in foreign language)

Younger sister. - Oh, lovely.

- Cody. - Glad that we found you.

(speaking in foreign language)

- Oh, this is, oh...

I'd like to show you that I have found,

about four weeks ago, I found this photograph

which your grandfather gave to my father.

And you'll see there's a lovely inscription

on the back as well.

Did you see, oh, excuse me.

Did you see that was the photograph with the inscription?

(speaking in foreign language)

- I was just gonna say, how did you feel

when you saw the article in the paper

asking for us, or looking for contact.

(speaking in foreign language)

- Oh, you didn't know, oh, right.

(speaking in foreign language)

- Yeah, my father was the same

that he didn't talk about it.

You know, that's why it's taken us this long

to meet you.

(speaking in foreign language)

- Oh, that's lovely.

Oh, that's beautiful photograph, isn't it?

So it must've been a very sad occasion as well.

And after the war, did your grandfather stay in the military

or did she leave the military?

(speaking in foreign language)

(speaking in foreign language)

(speaking in foreign language)

- We heard a possibility that in the camp in Keisen

there were, I think it was 197 Australians

and just fewer of the allied forces

and that after Japan surrendered

that the Australians were very keen to kill

as many Japanese officers as they could.

And that my father had taken your grandfather

and locked him in a shed or in an office

and he wouldn't let the Australians get to him to kill him.

And then it was because of that, he had given the sword.

But you didn't have anything?

(speaking in foreign language)

- What we would like to do

is to ask you if you would like to see the sword again,

you'd be very welcome to come to Ireland,

anytime to come and see any of your family.

(speaking in foreign language)

- Thank you very much.

And thank you.

And it's been an honor, an honor.

And as I say, I must give you the address now in Ireland

and you can come over and bring the family with you.

It'll be an honor to see you there.

(speaking in foreign language)

(emergency siren blaring) (bell ringing)

(heartfelt music)

(audience applauding)

(bell ringing)

- It's very hard to believe that it actually happened.

That any of that happened, let alone to my father.

You know, in relatively recent times,

I mean, it's still in so many people's memories

and to think that such barbarism.

And it probably still goes on today

and people will be telling the same story in years to come.

But it was always very difficult when he was alive

to actually believe really that he'd been through that

and to come out relatively unscathed.

- And I know it's a different generation

and I know time moves on

but it was still three and a half years of my dad's life.

And I think, suppose just that fact

that really mankind hasn't learned from that.

You know, that's the sad thing as well.

It's still going on in different parts of the world now.

- [Nicola] I think that's why the sword

was something important to him.

It was a sign of humanity.

(heartfelt music)

- One day he was sitting on the lounge watching television

and I was pottering around and when I went in,

I saw his hand hanging by the stairs

out by the side of the chair,

and to find he had a very bad stroke.

Very bad stroke.

- He had done an interview for RTE

and they said, Oh, it'll be on at some future date.

And he said, Oh, they've forgotten about me,

that'll never be on.

And then the day that he actually got a stroke in England,

and got sick, they rang to say,

"Oh, that's going to be on in a week's time."

And my mom said, "Well, I can't talk now,

"'cause he's just going off in the ambulance."

And they said, "Oh no, we'll cancel it."

And we said, no, no, you know, we'd love it to be on

and it'll be great.

- And I stayed with him all night long.

And during the night the doctor called me

and he said, "You know, it's sad news for you.

"There's very little hope."

And I said, "Well, will I ring Ireland?"

And he said, "Yes, ring them."

And I rang home here and he'll bring him home with me.

And then next day, that was it.

(sorrowful music)

(waves softly crashing)

- So he passed away within 24 hours.

And then we brought his body back to Castletownbere,

his roots and his heart were here.

And the day that he was buried,

the program was on the radio.

So people were down in the hotel

and then it was like my dad had the final word

and people just stood up and applauded at the end of it.

And it was just amazing.

- [Interviewer] What would you say

was the single characteristic that enabled you

to survive all of that period?

- [Aidan] Well, it's a combination really

of my Irish Catholic heritage,

my family background

and lots and lots of luck.

(uplifting music)