Day 140: ...*another* day digging in the 1890s.
Yes, I'm afraid I spent another day at the Archives and barely moved from my desk. I couldn't really. There was just too much of interest. Today's main pic was just one of those 'accidental' photos. As I was working away, instead of turning off the camera, I hit the shutter button. Well, it's a desk-eye view of the day I guess.
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| Pre-occupied.. |
But the second pic is part of a document that really moved me. Tomorrow, I will have the chance to talk about it to a group of senior high school history students. It is part of a transcript of an interview, translated into English as told to two Japanese identities on Thursday Island. It appears she was kidnapped, duped into going to Singapore to visit her sister, but taken to Thursday Island to 'work off' her debt in a brothel. She was 21 and in her words, 'I found myself in a strange country without a friend to help me...'. A poignant reminder of conditions for women in history, then and now.
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| Usa Hashimoto's story... |
Sometimes the stuff we find in the course of our work does give us pause for thought...
[Camera : Canon PowerShot A490, 3.48pm, 3.21pm]
