Katana is my first major piece, a memoir
based on my grandfather’s (John 'Jack' Thomas Prosser) colourful and
courageous life before, during and after World War II.
On the 7th May 2010, I was attending my uncle’s wedding at Vaucluse
House. Whilst waiting patiently for the bride to enter the garden, I
saw my grandfather arrive and kissed him hello. At that moment standing on the
immacuately groomed grass, I learnt an incredible story about my grandfather's
past.
It was August 1943, when my grandfather at nineteen years old departed
Australian shoes in the Infantry with the 2nd/17th Battalion. They headed
straight to Lae, New Guinea. This was my grandfather's first battle going into
World War II. For the next six months, my grandfather fought in New Guinea at
three different locations: Lae, Finschhafen and Sattelberg. However, he never
forgot the moment he was on the jungle track in Sattelberg.
After a fierce battle and days of horrific bloodshed on
Sattelberg track, my grandfather’s platoon overran the Japanese position. When
it was time for the Australian soldier's to check through the wounded, my
grandfather came across a Japanese soldier. He was lying on the track with a
fatal wound. In the soldier’s hand laid his Samurai Sword, and next to him were
scattered two photographs. One photo was an official army portrait of himself,
and the other was of him with his family. Looking at the figure before him, my
grandfather felt an immense amount of sadness overwhelm him, and he just
couldn't walk past this soldier. For that split moment before moving forward,
my grandfather decided to pick up the sword and photographs, carefully wrapping
them in a hesham bag. A few days later, my grandfather handed the bag to a
padre to mind at the supply station, as he couldn’t take the rucksack into
battle with him.
Miraculously, by fate or chance, a few months later the same man my
grandfather gave the rucksack too, saw my grandfather just as he was jumping on
the ship back home to Australia. The man yelled out to him “Hey Jack ! did you
want your package?”. With a single bullet alot can change in War, two months
can seem like two years. Thus, when the man yelled at my grandfather, he had
forgotten all about the package the man had held for him. But no doubt, when he
looked inside the rucksack, there they both were, the Samurai Sword and
photographs he had picked up.
Today August 2011, my grandfather is eighty-seven years old. It has
been sixty-eight years since he first picked up the Samurai Sword on the
battlefields of New Guinea. That moment has relived in his mind since. As
a young soldier, my grandfather picked up the sword because he thought he could
one-day restore it to the family. My grandfather was very ambitious, but never
had the opportunity to locate the family.
Hearing this story, immediately something came over me, the story was
beautiful and a dream my grandfather has had for so long. I knew very little
about the war, and had very little writing experience, but very few times in
life does an opportunity come along that would be life changing. So just like
that, on the grass at my uncle's wedding I said I am going to write about this.
Therefore, together with my uncle (my grandfather's son), we have committed to
do everything we can to track down the family in the photos and return the
sword.
My
grandfather's life and the events that led him to the Army, his time in
the Australian Imperial Forces (A.I.F) and the returning of the family
airlume, is what makes this a beautiful journey to write. I hope
you enjoy what's to come ahead.
Photo by Jessica Lindsay © Copyright 2011.
