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About John Peel
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Chris Best's father had been imprisoned in a Japanese convent during World War II and she travelled back to Fukushima in Northern Japan to see for herself where he'd been held...
 Chris's dad Malcolm Scott |
Chris Best's father, Malcolm Scott had been a radio officer serving in the Merchant Navy, when his ship was sunk in the South Atlantic and was picked up by a German ship called Thor.
Chris's Dad was a PoW for 3陆 years during World War II with over a hundred other civilians, including women and children, in a convent that had been commandeered as a prisoner-of-war camp.
Chris's father died when she was 12 and although she knew the name Fukushima, he never spoke about it with anyone. Three years ago she got a computer and decided to look for a reference to it on the internet. To her surprise up came an amazing photo taken of the camp, with a man standing on the roof waving a white flag.
 Fukushima Convent |
Suddenly this place came alive for her and she decided she had to go there to see it for herself. She wanted to found out what it was like for her father to be incarcerated for 3陆 years. Her son offered to go with her but she felt it was something she had to do alone - she wanted to lay the ghosts to rest. She wanted to understand what it felt like going to a strange place, not being about to speak the language or know anything about the culture and environment, just as her father had done.
When she walked in through the convent gates she remembered the photograph. It had very high walls, and remembers just what a lovely building it was. She walked up the steps, but instead of feeling excited she but felt nothing, an emptiness and coldness, maybe because the building was empty as the nuns had moved on. She stood outside her fathers room, which was 10 foot by 12 with a window which 3 people shared with just old tatami mats on the floor. There were 168 rules in the camp, the most telling of all was 'must not be too happy' and the starvation was terrible.
 Chris Best at the convent in Fukushima |
While she was there she met the camp interpreter who remembered her father. She told her a story of when the nuns had to move out of the convent in a hurry to make room for the prisoners, and let behind books in the attic. The prisoners found the books and as her father had a 麻豆官网首页入口 announcers' voice, he had the job of camp storyteller reading them ghost stories.
 Malcolm Scott (with white hat) & fellow prisoners |
After the visit she felt anger and hatred towards the Japanese - but it only lasted for a few hours and then she felt at peace. It was something she felt she had to do, she knew it wouldn't be pleasant but it had to be done. It was important for her to understand what her father had gone through and she did.
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