John L Read - Dear Grandpa, Why?: Reflections from Kokoda to Hiroshima

Wakefield Press

John L. Read lives with his wife and young family on Eyre Peninsula, on the largest private nature reserve in South Australia. He is a passionate ecologist and spends most of his working and relaxing hours researching animals from deadly taipan snakes to critically endangered mammals and working with traditional landowners. John has published over 100 scientific manuscripts and two acclaimed books.

Discover more about John L. Read at his websitewww.ecologicalhorizons.comor on FacebookJohn Read The Pragmatic Ecologist.

Wakefield Press

16 Rose Street

Mile End

South Australia 5031

www.wakefieldpress.com.au

First published 2018

This edition published 2018

Copyright John L. Read, 2018

All rights reserved. This book is copyright. Apart from

any fair dealing for the purposes of private study, research,

criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act,

no part may be reproduced without written permission.

Enquiries should be addressed to the publisher.

Cover designed by Michael Deves, Wakefield Press, and

Liz Nicholson, designBITE

Edited by Julia Beaven and Thom Smith, Wakefield Press

ISBN 978 1 74305 588 5

For Sumiko and Jenny

In the near future a Google search will reveal all we need to know about our forebears from their first baby steps to their obituary. In the meantime pre-Google generations will have to rely on hand-me-down stories, diaries, letters and parched newspaper snippets to piece together a record of their ancestry.

John Reads search for meaning over the death of a grandfather he never knew was complicated by the uncertainty of his fate after being shot down near the Kokoda Trail in 1942. His book Dear Grandpa, Why? chronicles Johns quest to get to know him and understand his motivation for flying in a bombing mission that had little chance of survival.

In searching for an answer he sought to understand the Pacific War that claimed millions of Australian, Japanese, American, Chinese, Korean and Papua New Guinean lives. His odyssey provides a historical insight into the cause of the war against Japan and a graphic portrayal of the cultural grief experienced by families from both countries who lost loved ones.

John Reads hope is that an understanding of the causes of the war and an appreciation of the scale of sacrifice and human loss will encourage future generations to seek better ways to resolve differences. He sees international aid as a panacea for building relationships but laments our lack of political resolve to long-term commitments.

Dear Grandpa, Why? is easy to read and hard to put down. It belongs in every school library in Australia, Japan, America and Papua New Guinea.

Charlie Lynn, Kokoda Treks, 2018

29 April 2011

Dear Grandpa

Hello

Need to know

Why did you enlist?

Would you do it again?

Did you make a difference?

Did you survive?

Phew. I was lying awake for over an hour thinking Id like to write you a letter but when I eventually snuck out of bed it took me 20 minutes to put pen to paper. My excuse is not because its still only 5.13 am. Im wide awake. Its just I dont know what to call youI cant work out who to address this letter to. Finally, I just jotted down those notes to get those burning questions off my chest and now I can make a start.

Im writing because Im intrigued, maybe a little lost and sad but mostly confused. Although its difficult to admit, I reckon Im also a little angryI hope you can help. By way of introduction, because this letter has come from out of the blue, Im John Llewellyn Read, born 5 February 1967 in Adelaide, South Australia. I know you are Edward Tompson Mobsby, born 12 October 1910. Our family tree records that you died on 26 July 1942, shot down somewhere in the New Guinea jungle by the Japanese. Im hoping by writing I can find out more about you, and me.

Last year my mother put together a booklet including everything she knew about you. Mum was only three years old when you disappeared. She presented the notes to her three kids on what would have been your 100th birthday so we may know and appreciate you more. You are Mums hero and she longed for us to share her sentiments. A mums hero should be a sons legend but if I had to name the most influential people in my life, unfortunately you dont make the list. Maybe thats why Im confused and angry, and why I have thought about you so often in the past few months. I had no idea how much that booklet would affect my life.

Mum found three photos of you, a photo of your war medals, and your official Royal Australian Air Force Statement of Service. And that was just about it. Apart from a few stories she can vaguely recollect from her childhood, these photos comprise your legacy in my eyes. One of the photos, in particular, shows you with a beaming, almost mischievous, grinyours was no cheesy camera smile. You look genuinely and absolutely excited. Ive looked at your smiling face again and again, captivated by a personality that leaps from the grainy black-and-white image.

In the photo you are holding a blonde baby girl, maybe a year old. At your left shoulder is a strong-armed woman with dark hair pulled back into a bun. She looks like she is blowing into the ear of another baby girl, hair darker than her twin sister. Although I would struggle to confirm the identity of either baby, Grandmas unmistakable eyes look back at me. Grandmas bun is not as large as when I knew her and her confidence and contentment with her young family contrasts with your unbridled elation. The chubby-cheeked dark-haired girl with a sore on her elbow (but that may be a blemish in the photo) is my mum, who you know as Jennifer Mary. You are holding Rae Helena.

I also see you, a dark-haired tallish bloke, so skinny that you look like youre drowning in a baggy shirt and blazer. Your short hair, cropped well above your ears and parted in the middle, is shiny with product, Brylcreem I imagine. Heaps of lads these days put gunk in their hair toobut I have never been into that. My hair has a mind of its own and I dare not interfere! Youve got a long, creased dimple on your right cheek and your broad, open-mouthed and infectious grin has squinted your eyes. To be honest, it is this photo that elevated you from a name on our family tree to a person I want to know.

I reckon Ill start by telling you all I know about you and we can work from there. I know you were born in Hints, Staffordshire, in England on 12 October 1910. You came out to Adelaide as a ten-year-old, the only child of Edward Maylot Mobsby, who has been remembered in the family archives as a gentle botanist who grew orchids and helped establish a plant nursery in Adelaide. Mum remembers her grandma, your mother Nellie Maria, as a strict, dour Englishwoman, but her demeanour may have been influenced by events we will cover later. I guess you were a Pom, at least at first.

Who did you barrack for when the Aussies took on the Poms in Test matches? Mum has always loved listening to, and watching, cricket and I suspect you did too. Im going to run with my notion you supported the Aussies and were a big fan of The Don. You will be disappointed to know, despite still being regarded as the greatest batsman of all time, Bradman just missed out on a career batting average of 100 by four runs in his last innings. Mums aunties reminded her you loved sport. No doubt you would have found a willing ally in your father-in-law, Eric Tassie, who was a football tragic and treasurer for the Norwood footy club.