Sole survivor of Arden Seven interviewed for war museum

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This article was published 13/02/2019 (2404 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

There are fewer Second World War combat heroes among us each day and Rishi Sharma is racing against time to find them and document their stories.

The 21-year-old native of Agoura, Calif., is on a mission to interview as many combat veterans of the Second World War as he can, knowing that time is running out. He said the youngest among the remaining veterans are 92 years old.

Sharma, who makes no money and whose expenses are covered by the non-profit corporation Heroes of the Second World War, has travelled and interviewed veterans full-time for two years and plans to continue as long as he can.

He will be in Winnipeg on Friday to interview Battle of Hong Kong veteran George Peterson, the only surviving member of the Arden Seven — a group of young men who lived on Arden Avenue in St. Vital and joined the Winnipeg Grenadiers, fighting to defend Hong Kong from Japanese invasion during the Second World War.

Sharma said he recently interviewed his 1,000th veteran. He records the interviews and gives copies to each veteran. If the veteran is willing, a copy is also sent to the World War II Museum in New Orleans. Some interviews are posted on Sharma’s website www.heroesofthesecondworldwar.org and to YouTube.

“I just love them. They’re just my heroes, ever since I was a little kid,” said Sharma, in a telephone interview. “I’m alive today because 75 years ago a bunch of people were willing to go through hell, experiencing, doing things and seeing things that no one should ever have to so that maybe we’ll have a chance at a peaceful life for future generations. We need to hear these stories and preserve them.”

It is just his second time in Canada, previously visiting Toronto. Sharma has been to 47 of the 50 American states and has been to Ireland, England, Wales, Scotland and France. He heads to New Zealand after Winnipeg.

In Canada, there were fewer than 61,000 Second World War veterans remaining in 2016, out of about one million who served. Current numbers were not available from Veterans Affairs Canada. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs stated that only 558,000 of the 16 million Americans who served in World War II were still alive in 2017. The USVA estimates 362 die each day.

The Battle of Hong Kong began on Dec. 8, 1941 and lasted 17 days. The allied forces, greatly outnumbered, surrendered to the Japanese on Christmas Day 1941. The survivors spent the next 44 months as prisoners of war living in horrific conditions. They were malnourished, tortured and forced to work as slaves until their release in 1945 after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

“I never, ever thought of myself as a hero. I did my duty, that was all. And I was as afraid, as scared as everybody else was at times,” Peterson said in 2016 when he was 96 and interviewed by CBC for the $20 coin marking the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Hong Kong. “I never did anything that I figured was heroic. I am a survivor.”

Sharma said the Second World War combat veterans were part of a generation that gave back to society in areas of science, technology, politics and education when they returned.

“These people gave more and did more for other people than anyone ever did for them,” he said.

Sharma is encouraging combat veterans or anyone who knows a combat veteran in Canada to call him at 1-929-313-9037 so he can ask them for an interview.

ashley.prest@freepress.mb.ca