Explore Orkney’s links with Japan in a fascinating exhibition currently on at the Orkney Library, Kirkwall.
David Eunson
The remarkable story of David Eunson was revealed in a talk by Peter Kornicki at the Orkney International Science Festival in ‘Eavesdropping on the Emperor’ on Thursday 3 September at the Lecture Theatre, Kirkwall Grammar School (KGS).
David Eunson was an outstanding scholar at KGS but his academic studies after only a year at Edinburgh University were interrupted in World War 2 as Britain’s Intelligence Services recognised his Language skills in the Classics. David became part of a decrypting and translating team stationed in Brisbane Australia. The team decoded Japanese messages and documents found on captured, or dead combatants.
Peter Kornicki’s meticulous research into this untold wartime story entranced the audience. Some of those listening had been pupils of David Eunson’s who had taken up a teaching post at Stromness Academy once he’d graduated. Little did they know the past secret life their teacher had during WW2 and for some time post war. Those activities which took place after the war in Italy and the Middle East are still secret, and the details have not been released.
Orkney Library Exhibition
The exhibition in the Orkney Library has a display of fascinating images of our islands’ links with Japan dating back to the 1870s.
There are photographs and images from illustrated journals created by Henry Scharbau, grandfather of the 11th Laird of Breckness. The images capture the people and landscapes of Japan just a few decades after the country had re-opened to trade from the West.
A series of photos taken by the McCance family show the devastation caused by the Great Kanto earthquake of 1 September 1923.
It had an approximate magnitude of 8.0 on the moment magnitude scale (Mw), with its epicenter located some 100 km (62 mi) southwest of the capital Tokyo. The earthquake devastated Tokyo, the port city of Yokohama, and the surrounding prefectures of Kanagawa, Chiba, and Shizuoka, causing widespread damage throughout the Kantō region. – Wikipedia.
1 September is commemorated annually in Japan as Disaster Prevention Day.
105,385 were reported as dead or missing. 2 million people were made homeless.
The exhibition is excellent and can be found as soon as you enter the Library and along the Wavy Wall where the series of images can be found.
Orkney International Science Festival runs to 9 September.
Fiona Grahame