The Candle
A candle into darkness,
but it still burns bright.
Rising hope and unwavering faith,
victory isn't out of sight.
The candle flickers its light,
the future looking bleak.
Burning sun and roasting skin,
bodies turning weak.
The candle starts to burn out,
melted and deformed,
soft wax collapsing,
its hope and faith now gone.
The candle has lost its spark,
it falls and turns into slop,
unable to rekindle, the battle lost
goodbye brave one, it's time to stop.
One line during the movie that hit me was ‘there were many, many, dead bodies’. The story focuses on a particular soldier who was able to survive the ordeal, he has really suffered a lot, and thankfully he made it out alive. But what about the other soldiers who suffered equally, but were not able to make it out? In this poem, I wrote about the possible experience of one of the ‘many, many’ soldiers who didn’t manage to make it. I compared the willpower of the soldiers to a candle. First a candle burns brightly, then as it is left to stand, it flickers in the wind. After some time as the wax runs out, the candle starts to burn out, and eventually when all the wax is used up, the candle will extinguish itself.
In the first stanza, the soldier, though thrown into the labor camp, still stands strong and keeps his mission and values in mind. In the second stanza, his willpower starts to shake as he is forced to slave away as he suffers from malnutrition, dehydration, and exhaustion from working on the railway line. In the third stanza, the candle is ‘melted and deformed’. The soldier is tortured and beaten till he barely looks the same. ‘Soft wax collapsing’ refers to how his body is failing and he is falling apart due to grievous injuries sustained. Lastly, the candle ‘falls and turns into slop’. The candle has been pounded and mushed down, and it is when the soldier dies suffering.
The poem I wrote may not reflect the real experiences of a soldier in the labor camp but their suffering is real. The Japanese were so immersed and brainwashed by the power they have over the ‘superior white men’, that they dehumanized themselves and let themselves fall into a state where they were completely devoid of human morals and had not a drop of mercy in their heart. The Japanese may very well feel that the British are well deserving of their treatment, but the British soldiers were merely protecting and serving their country. If the British were to invade Japan, wouldn’t the Japanese soldiers protect their land with the same determination? My heart really aches whenever I think about the Japanese occupation, because no one deserves to be treated so brutally, not even the Japanese themselves.
It is truly admirable how soldier Eric Lomax was able to forgive his torturer, it must have taken a great deal of courage and strength, to put aside the past and embrace the present. Times have changed, and although the scars may not fade, they can be forgotten. It also takes courage on Nagase’s side to seek forgiveness from Lomax. Though I carried negative impressions on Nagase throughout the movie, when Nagase wept in front of Lomax, I really felt his sincerity. I feel like the story of Lomax and Nagse is truly a beautiful one, where both parties have decided to start re-writing their stories together on a fresh page.
"Forgotten"- A Writing Journey 