Hear the 'Last Voices' of Second World War veterans at new War Museum exhibit
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The bittersweet love story is a personal one, and it feels a little surreal to be watching it in public with Susan, who was the first of their three daughters. But she's beaming with pride.
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'I've heard it many times,' she said. 'And I really am happy to be the daughter of a man who was so generous of spirit, to be able to go back to Buddy's grave with my mom and to give her time there at the grave site by herself. And the fact that she wore both her engagement rings her whole life — a lot of men wouldn't have been comfortable with that.'
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Not a lot of men of Reg's age group were comfortable sharing their war experience either. My grandfather didn't talk much about his. But Susan said her father made a decision to open up about it later in life.
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'He never really talked a lot about it until he started to worry that school kids would not learn enough to know how important it was to avoid war,' she said, noting that he attended Remembrance Day ceremonies at a Saskatoon school for 17 years in a row.
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He wanted to make it clear that his job was to 'preserve our freedom and democracy,' she added. 'It wasn't just about defending Canada. He was helping the Allies defeat the Nazis.'
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Reg's life story is also captured in an independently published book, the excellent Crash Harrison: Tales of a Bomber Pilot Who Defied Death, based on a series of interviews with Reg conducted by Saskatchewan-based author Deana J. Driver.
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Meanwhile, other voices in the exhibition come from Canadian army and navy veterans, organized to reflect common themes in a veteran's journey, from the challenging transition to civilian life, the realization that dealing with war experience is a lifelong endeavour, and the search for meaning in one's service.
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You can hear their voices on old-fashioned corded devices, read the all-caps passages handwritten in a journal, and check out a tidbit of wisdom a veteran printed in pencil to his great-grandchildren: 'There is no glory in war. It is a costly and uncivilized dispute,' wrote Russ Kaye, who died last year at the age of 100.
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In a museum that often relies on two-dimensional panels in its exhibitions, Last Voices is a compelling departure. Interactive kiosks offer video clips, sound bites and buttons to press, along with old photos, original art and even a participatory area, dubbed the Civvy Station (for civilians), where you can share your thoughts on a postcard.
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Features like those will make it appealing to younger generations, for whom the lessons of war are most important.
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'I want younger people to hear the voices of those who were there to understand that this history matters,' says Iacobelli, the historian, 'and we want them to make the connections to the present day, to see that there are veterans still around us. Veterans of the Second World War may be going away, but that doesn't mean that war veterans are disappearing. They're all around, and everyone's going through their own personal journey.'
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