Lancashire family wants to solve the mystery of this World War Two Japanese fan
It’s a mystery from through the ages.
As the anniversary of VJ Day approaches, a father and daughter from Morecambe hope that a mystery surrounding a family heirloom from World War Two will be solved.
For more than 40 years, Ken Partridge and his daughter, Tina Donald, have been trying to unravel the meaning behind a fan given to Ken’s dad by a Burmese woman just after World War Two ended.
Both Thomas Partridge and the woman had been Prisoners of War. Thomas, who served in the Royal Artillery, was taken prisoner in Singapore and was forced to work on the notorious Burma railway and down mines in Japan.
He was there when the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima in 1945 which triggered the end of World War Two but rarely talked about his experiences.
Before his war service, Thomas had quite an eventful life having given evidence at the trial of Dr Buck Ruxton in 1936. He was the paper boy who delivered the Sunday Graphic to the infamous murderer in Dalton Square which became a vital piece of evidence after Ruxton had wrapped some of his victims’ body parts in it.
Thomas kept the fan safe on his return to his Lancaster home and went on to have various jobs on the local railway and Moor Hospital before retiring from Nelsons.
In the Seventies, he gave the fan to his granddaughter and in the decades since, Tina and her dad have puzzled over the meaning of the wording and design on the fan, which was handmade by the Burmese woman.
“I used to work as a porter at Lancaster University and asked Japanese students about the fan but they said we shouldn’t have it and wouldn’t translate it so we don’t know what the meaning is,” said Ken, 80.
The family even took the fan to the Fan Museum in London and to Lancaster City Museum but none of the staff there could solve the mystery.
Ken and Tina are now appealing to anyone else who might be able to shine new light on the mysterious fan. If you can help, please email [email protected]
VJ Day (Victory over Japan Day) commemorates the surrender of Japan in 1945, which officially ended World War Two, and in the UK is officially observed on August 15.