Visiting the Imperial War Museum is one of my favorite parts in the study tour. In the past, I could only learn the causes and consequences of the two World Wars from History textbooks. However, I could understand how ordinary people especially children lived during hardship.
There was a caption of a poster in UK during the Second World War- Keep Calm and Carry On. This spirit was shown in different aspects in the exhibition such as advertisements and even letters from children and their parents. One of my most unforgettable moments was a sharing from an evacuee. He was an old gentleman. He did not talk about the pain he suffered but how he lived normally like how his mother baked bread in a hot summer day. It was hard to believe that the life he shared was in the World War period. When I asked him whether the children had to wear the gas mask every day in order to protect themselves from enemies’ attack, he said it was for drilling only. After that, he laughed and said: Sometimes I would feel itchy and stretched my face. When my teacher saw me, he would hit my palms. Ha-ha! ” I was very impressed in hearing and seeing how British people at that time kept living patiently and calmly.
From reading every letter written from the children who had to leave their parents and were sent to suburbs or foreign places, I was touched by every word they wrote to their parents. They might not have to chance to see the parents again and suffered from homesick and health sickness. Yet, they did not write their fear but their ordinary life or love to their parents. The capacity of love was seen in every single word. Those were written by the children who might suddenly become orphans in a second. By reading and seeing the exhibits about them, all those are hints telling how wars lead to separation of numbers of families.
Vulnerable children had no choice but were forced in participating in the War inevitably. Every photo and letter has shown their ordinary life in the wartime, creating their spirit of calmness in facing the War even though they were little and innocent. Still, I could imagine how they were tolerating the bitterness during the War. The words “the only time I write to you” in the letters became the last letter they have written. The smiles were captured in the daytime. But, how about in numerous silent nights? The destruction of the war shown in this exhibition was as powerful as the weapons shown in the museum.
There was a caption of a poster in UK during the Second World War- Keep Calm and Carry On. This spirit was shown in different aspects in the exhibition such as advertisements and even letters from children and their parents. One of my most unforgettable moments was a sharing from an evacuee. He was an old gentleman. He did not talk about the pain he suffered but how he lived normally like how his mother baked bread in a hot summer day. It was hard to believe that the life he shared was in the World War period. When I asked him whether the children had to wear the gas mask every day in order to protect themselves from enemies’ attack, he said it was for drilling only. After that, he laughed and said: Sometimes I would feel itchy and stretched my face. When my teacher saw me, he would hit my palms. Ha-ha! ” I was very impressed in hearing and seeing how British people at that time kept living patiently and calmly.
From reading every letter written from the children who had to leave their parents and were sent to suburbs or foreign places, I was touched by every word they wrote to their parents. They might not have to chance to see the parents again and suffered from homesick and health sickness. Yet, they did not write their fear but their ordinary life or love to their parents. The capacity of love was seen in every single word. Those were written by the children who might suddenly become orphans in a second. By reading and seeing the exhibits about them, all those are hints telling how wars lead to separation of numbers of families.
Vulnerable children had no choice but were forced in participating in the War inevitably. Every photo and letter has shown their ordinary life in the wartime, creating their spirit of calmness in facing the War even though they were little and innocent. Still, I could imagine how they were tolerating the bitterness during the War. The words “the only time I write to you” in the letters became the last letter they have written. The smiles were captured in the daytime. But, how about in numerous silent nights? The destruction of the war shown in this exhibition was as powerful as the weapons shown in the museum.
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