Poignant keepsake

It's 15 August 2017, VJ Day, 72 years after the end of WWII in the Pacific, 75 years since WWII was felt in the Pacific region. I've written about it and its impact on my paternal family before, for example here.

What I'm showing here today is something my grandmother has kept all her life and what I cherish for her after her death. This was a selfmade gift, possibly something for St Nicholas Day or Christmas made for her (Paula Grandia) in the internment camp Tjideng on Java by a fellow internee/prisoner of war in 1942. I've added an image of the back of the little wooden brooch in , so you can see how it was made and what was written on the back.

We're 75 years later, and two years after wondering when we will learn the world has become an even darker place. Madmen threatening each other and their nations with atomic bombs :-( As if we have forgotten just how terrible using these was and would be again.

Here's hoping on this day of commemoration that somehow reason will still prevail and as many citizens of the world as possible will be able to know peace.