VJ Day 75 years on: stories, sound and pictures by Meg Parkes and Geoff Gill

01 Jul 2020
This sketch of a self-retaining ileostomy tube, designed and made by Vaughan at Chungkai POW hospital camp in Thailand in 1943, also featured in the exhibition (courtesy LSTM)

In this, the 75th anniversary year of VJ Day, authors and alumni Meg Parkes (MPhil Tropical Medicine 2013) and Geoff Gill (MA Tropical Medicine 1999, PhD 2009) look back at the recent "Secret Art of Survival" Exhibition at the Victoria Gallery & Museum and pay tribute to the VJ Day 75.

Meg Parkes is Honorary Research Fellow at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM) and Geoff Gill is Emeritus Professor of International Medicine at both LSTM and the University of Liverpool.

On 15th August we mark the 75th anniversary of VJ Day, a day when we remember those who endured, died or survived, up to four years of captivity in the Far East.

During the Second World War 50,000 British servicemen were taken prisoner by the Japanese. Captive for up to four years they suffered malnutrition, overwork and tropical diseases.  Almost 25% died. Many survivors suffered long-term health problems, including relapses of malaria and dysentery, chronic intestinal worm infestations and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Read more at the UoL’s Alumni page.