Nearly a million Australians served abroad in World War II: fighting in Europe, North Africa, the Mediterranean, and the Asia-Pacific region.  

The National Library’s collection holds many manuscript collections from Australians whose lives were irrevocably shaped by their participation in the Asia-Pacific theatre during World War II.  

From the papers of pioneering war correspondents Chester Wilmot and Osmar White, embedded with the Australian Infantry Force during their gruelling campaign on the Kokoda track, to material from Australian prisoners of war in Singapore, Java and Thailand, these singular and important collections tell the story of the effect of World War II on our nation at the ground level of the conflict.

Included in this material are the diaries of John Harrison, who was interned at the Changi prisoner of war camp from 1942 to 1944 and at the Syme Road camp until his release in 1945.  

Harrison left England at 22 to join the Malayan Police, later studying Cantonese in China. As a World War II POW in Changi, he taught the language to fellow prisoners. He was also an artist of considerable skill and talent; his diaries contain many sketches and watercolours of his fellow prisoners and their day-to-day surrounds.

Harrison’s diary entries provide priceless insight into the everyday life in Changi prison, but one of the diaries itself also has its own story to tell. Upon a sudden raid in his cell block, Harrison hastily hid the book in a pail and buried it in the prison grounds. It was not until the end of the war that the diary was found and returned to John’s possession. Various entries and notes towards the end of the diary detail this journey.

These collections, along with many others, are available now on Trove as part of a new digitisation project supported by Principal Patron Jane Hemstritch AO.