Speaker: David Moreton
Date: Sunday 27th March 2011
Time: 3-5 p.m.
Fee: 1,000 yen SWET and JAT members; 1,500 yen non-members
Place: Room 201, Hyogoken Shigaku Kaikan, Motomachi, Kobe Map
神戸市中央区北長狭通4丁目3-13 (2-minutes north of JR/Hanshin Motomachi Stns, 7 mins from Hankyu Sannomiya Stn)
Reservations: SWET Kansai

On February 15, 1942 David's grandfather, Albert Moreton, was captured by the Japanese forces in Singapore and spent the next three and a half years as a prisoner of war helping to build the railway between Thailand and Burma. But during this time Albert secretly kept a diary in which he recorded his thoughts, observations and experiences. David will talk about the diaries, and explain how he transcribed and edited them, before translating the contents into Japanese and publishing the book in Japan.

David Moreton has lived in Kyoto, Osaka and Tokushima for almost twenty years. Since 1999, he has been researching the 1,200km pilgrimage around the island of Shikoku and focusing on the history of Westerners and the pilgrimage. He has produced several guidebooks about the pilgrimage and has translated various materials related to the pilgrimage, such as temple miracle tales, into English.

Visit David Moreton’s web site for more information about himself and his grandfather's wartime diary book (English and Japanese).