Identity and Remembrance in the New Zealand Ex-Prisoners of War Association after the Second World War

Abstract: Captivity was the antithesis of what soldiers expected to experience during the Second World War. New Zealanders who were captured had to reconcile the difference between traditional narratives of wartime heroism with their experience of confinement, which, for some, included assisting the enemy war effort through forced labour. This paper examines the New Zealand Ex-Prisoners of War (POW) Association’s quarterly newsletter and argues that the association was instrumental to the development and promotion of a more positive POW experience. Ex-POWs were usually reluctant to share their stories, but within the confines of this support network they felt comfortable in the knowledge that they were surrounded by people who understood what they had endured. This paper also argues that the hesitancy of ex-POWs to talk about their experiences left future generations ignorant to what captivity had been like. This was partly rectified by the enquiries made by relatives during the association’s final years.