THE search for a young teenage boy from one powerful photo has made a Bolgart woman the unlikely subject of a soon to be aired Japanese television documentary.
Barbara Mottershaw, who lives with her husband Dennis on a 20 hectare lifestyle property between Bolgart and Toodyay, started the personal crusade three years ago.
Initially her purpose was to find out more about her father Gaythorne Bartholomew's three and a half years spent as a Prisoner of War (PoW) in Japan following his capture during World War 11.
But through some chance meetings, her quest for information has led to a far greater calling and captured the attention of virtually the whole nation.
"Dad rarely spoke of the war or of his capture, but following his death I chanced upon some papers relating to his wartime service and I just had to know more," Ms Mottershaw said.
Originally from Worksop, in Sherwood Forest territory in Nottinghamshire, United Kingdom, her father served in the Royal British Navy which he joined as a service cadet at the age of 16 in 1939.
Two years later he was sent to sea aboard HMS Exeter as part of the World War 11 allied war effort, first helping defend Singapore against the Japanese in 1941 and then Indonesia, stationed off Java, in 1942.
Tragically Exeter was sunk in March 1942, ironically in the same battle that claimed Australian warship HMAS Perth.
While Mr Bartholomew survived the sinking, it set him on a destiny to a far worse suffering.
He and his fellow survivors spent 20 hours in the water before being captured by the Japanese and taken to a PoW camp, Maccassa Saleeb (now Sulawesi) on an island off the coast of Singapore.
Conditions there were abominable and they spent eight months forced to clear jungle and dig trenches in preparation for the laying of a railway line before being transported in "hell ships" to another camp at Fukuoka in Nagasaki, Japan.
"Dad was on the Asama Maru along with 1000 other men," Ms Mottershaw said.
"The journey took 17 days from October 8 until October 25 and their destination was the Kawanami shipyard, now owned by Mitsubishi, in Nagasaki.
"For living quarters they were crammed into small rooms in groups of 50 or so with bunk beds made of wooden crates and hessian mats to sleep on.
"Dysentry and malaria was rife.
"They were fed a bowl of rice a day, sometimes with a clear runny broth containing a piece or two of meat or fish, which often was slightly off and certainly not very nutritious for the hard labour they were being subjected to working in the shipyard," Ms Mottershaw said.
"Consequently they supplemented their diet with rats and mice and anything else they could find including shinnying up coconut trees to get the fruit which for them was pretty similar to climbing up ship's masts."
In his two years at Fukuoka Mr Bartholomew would be exposed to the very worst and the very best of humanity and it is where the young boy that has become the centre of so much Japanese interest entered his life.
"Dad rarely spoke of the war or of his capture except on one memorable occasion when he came to visit me in WA for his 70th birthday in 1993," Ms Mottershaw said.
"We were playing cards one night, something they did regularly in the PoW camps and he just started to open up about the food, the bombs dropping and about meeting the Japanese boy who became his friend.
"It was the first I really learned anything about his experiences including what the scars (bayonet scars) were on his shoulders, back and the backs of his legs.
"It was only a tiny taste of his tough life but it sparked a thirst to learn more.
"Sadly that didn't happen until after his death aged 81 in 2004 when I received some of his papers and belongings from a long lost cousin who was still living in the UK.
"That led me to Japan and a fabulous volunteer research group specialising in the history and stories of PWs which is run by two amazing local women, who have since been knighted with OBEs by the Queen.
"They are both in their 70s and work so hard to give closure to Far Eastern Prisoners of War and their families," Ms Mottershaw said.
"They told me about a memorial service taking place in three weeks' time."
That was in September, 2017 and in a calling of the heart she and Dennis "dropped everything and got themselves on a plane to Japan."
"I had sent them a copy of the photo and to my amazement they decided to try and locate the boy ahead of our visit," Ms Mottershaw said.
"Dad met the Japanese teenager when they were both working in the shipyard.
"It was quite common for their government to conscript high school students, farmers and outer lying people to work in shipyards and other such facilities to boost the Japanese war effort which was not going so well at that time," she said.
"They were little more than kids but they were often put in positions of authority over the PoWs.
"This boy started communicating with dad and after a few days he brought an older man to meet him which dad presumed was his father.
"It was around meal time and the man took one look at what dad had been given to eat, grabbed his bowl and threw it away then proceeded to offer him his own food to eat.
"From then on they regularly brought him food.
"It was a very brave move as fraternising with prisoners was strictly forbidden and something you could be killed or tortured over."
While uncertain who took the photo of the pair, Ms Mottershaw believes judging by the film used (US brand Ilford), it was likely taken by a US serviceman at the time of liberation.
When she and Dennis got to Japan, Ms Mottershaw says they were treated like royalty and she was asked to make a speech at the memorial ceremony.
But the greatest notoriety was yet to come.
The memorial service was filmed by a Japanese TV crew and two years on they contacted her to film a documentary about her search for information on her father's time as a PoW and especially the quest to locate the teenage boy.
Consequently she and Dennis found themselves on a plane back to Japan on January 23 this year, courtesy of Fuji TV, and amid temperature contrasts of 46°C here and
-7°C there where they spent five solid days filming a documentary called Arigato Japan (Thank you Japan) which looks at foreigners' experiences in Japan.
"I think I spent half the time crying," Ms Mottershaw said.
"It was incredibly emotional retracing dad's footsteps, meeting people now in their 90s who actually worked in the shipyard at the same time he was there and especially at one spot where the film director put my hand on an old tree and said your dad very likely touched this tree."
Ms Mottershaw said the Japanese people were so courteous and helpful it was at times hard to imagine the contrast for her dad for whom it was a place of such suffering.
But there were random acts of kindness for him too which included from one of their PoW camp commandants.
"He was apparently a kind and decent man, a Christian who stopped the beating of prisoners and even allowed them to celebrate Christmas," Ms Mottershaw said.
"In a show of their respect for him, the PoWs got a petition going which they all signed to keep him in charge of them, when it was announced he was being relocated.
"He was probably shifted (or worse) because he got too friendly with them," Ms Mottershaw said.
"During our time in Japan, they (the Japanese people) loved to practice their English when speaking with us.
"I remember talking at a school during our visit where the students were studying the whole PoW thing.
"Two of the students came up afterwards and thanked me for visiting their country.
"We know and we care and we want you to know we will never let it be forgotten," they said.
Again she was brought to tears.
"Lots of Japanese people really condemned their government and military leaders of the time for their barbaric actions and for not conceding defeat so there is much support for families of PoWs."
Ms Mottershaw believes her father survived the PoW experience because of an inner resilience enhanced by the fact he was a great joker who always looked for the good in everything and everyone.
"He was only five foot one but retained his great sense of humour throughout his ordeal even after he returned home and had to spend six months in hospital from ongoing effects of malaria.
"Liberation for the PoWs came on August 15, 1945, but it was not until September 27, his 22nd birthday, that Mr Bartholomew boarded a ship to begin his journey home via the USA.
"They were all checked out at a US medical facility in Okinawa and then transported aboard USS Howse to San Francisco where they were given a huge public reception and treated like royalty.
"After a few days of recovery in San Francisco they went by hospital train to Halifax, Nova Scotia, but weren't allowed to disembark at all along the way," Ms Mottershaw said.
Typical of his feistiness and obviously with a desire to break free after being locked up and oppressed for so long, he and a few other PoW mates actually jumped train somewhere near Salt Lake City and hitchhiked their way to Halifax doing odd-jobs enroute.
"They made it to town one day before the ship sailed (the passenger liner Queen Elizabeth), finally landing on home soil at Southhampton on November 15, 1945," Ms Mottershaw said.
"Almost a year to the day later he married mum who was just 18 at the time."
Ironically they had met on a train and ended up eloping.
In stark contrast to the huge reception they had received in San Francisco, Ms Mottershaw said the British PoWs were all but forgotten by their government and it is a justice she is continuing to fight for as part of the group Children of Far Eastern Prisoners of War (COFEPOW).
"The Americans had negotiated the surrender of the PoWs and it became very political with one of the conditions of their release being there could be no recrimination against the Japanese emperor," Ms Mottershaw said.
"On the way home they were forced to sign an agreement not to talk about their experiences or living conditions in the camps.
"Dad really had to fight to get a war pension after being discharged from the navy in 1948 because of ongoing effects he was suffering from the malaria and dysentry attacks.
"It made him angry there was no celebration to mark their return and no support shown to them but he did give evidence to British and US war crimes commissions, for which I now have the transcripts.
"But it makes me sad to see so much focus on 75th celebrations for VE Day (Victory Europe Day) to celebrate the end of the war in May.
"We should be commemorating VJ Day (Victory Japan Day) and the end of the war as being in August because that's when my dad and so many others were finally freed."