ANZAC Day is coming this Saturday.

Have we forgotten about Deaf people during the Wars?

Did you know that there were Deaf people served the Wars or not?

What about the Deaf victims of the Wars?

Yes, many Deaf people survived the Wars, and plenty of the Deaf people became the victims of the Wars.

I was an ex-health carer to one particular lady who came to New Zealand with her husband for three years. Every week I visited her – Mary was her real name as she passed away long ago and she was deaf, BUT she does not sign, only lip read. Her husband was a POW (prisoner of War in Asia camp and in Europe camp) in two wars. Mary’s husband does not talk about the past for he was angry about the war, and he always chatted to me on something else in our lives in New Zealand. Mary was working during the day and stayed at home with her parents in London and in Kent, England. She remember when the warning bomb raids go off, she had to resort somewhere if there were no escape bunkers near her, she laid down along the gutter next to the road and waited until the warning bomb raids finished. I said to Mary how it is possible that she can not hear the warning, and she replied as she saw many people ran for covers and felt the vibrating of the loud sound from the speakers. Another piece of her stories was food rations. Mary’s husband did mention cruel stories about the experience of living in the POW camps and it was horrible for all men and some women. I never forget Mary and her husband today.

Looking in Japan – Remember the atomic bomb. There was a town called Nagasaki, and there was a Deaf School – Hiroshima Deaf School there.                    Note: – Photo on the right. Ms Eiko Yamazaki delivering her “Peace Message” in Sign Language (Photo provided by the Nagasaki News)

Ms Eiko Yamazaki is the deaf survivor of the atomic bomb (76 years aold in 2003) and her quote through sign language showed here. “My responsibility as a survivor of the atomic-bombing, is to continue to speak on behalf of the many Deaf hibakusha who died… to continue to speak about all the things that I saw and felt.”

Shifts to USA – North America and Canada. Yes, there were many Deaf workers joined the factories across North America, such as the Goodyear and Firestone companies in Akron, Ohio. These factories have employed more than 1,000 Deaf workers, and other factories across America was a war plant. The war plant factories contain between 3,352 to 4,928 Deaf workers during the wars. This information was from ‘The Forgotten America Deaf War Plant Workers’  by Barbara M. Kannapell. In Canada, there was a small team called ‘Alsakan Scout’ (now called the Alaska Territorial Guard). The deaf man was John de Lance, and he was possibly the only deaf man to served the war. The article was from ‘The Deaf American – March 1976’.

What about Deaf people in New Zealand? Is there any history from any Deaf people in New Zealand?