Prisoner of war enlightens history students

The film Empire of the Sun has been shown many times in schools since it was released in 1988, but for Year 10 students at Bunbury Cathedral Grammar School, the famous story came to life with World War II prisoner of war Julia Bell visiting the school last week. Mrs Bell was a prisoner of war in a Japanese internment camp in the Chinese city of Suzhou with James Ballard, who went on to become the subject of the movie after being separated from his wealthy British family living in Shanghai. “I know the Empire of the Sun really well, the novel and the film,” Year 10 history teacher Leon Maag said. “I use snippets of it with the Year 10 students just so they get an idea of the conditions for POWs and the civilians. “But when I found out that someone in our community had stayed in the same camp as James Ballard, for homework I made the kids watch the whole film and formulate some questions they would like to ask someone who was in the same camp.” Mrs Bell, who was accompanied by her daughter and school human resources manager Amy Beaton, spoke to students about her time in the camp, even dispelling some of the exaggerations made in the film, before the students had time to ask questions. “She debunked a few of the things, for example her experience wasn’t as brutal and the guards perhaps weren’t as violent towards the inmates as was made out,” Mr Maag said. “It was really good to hear how useful the film was as a representation of what happened. “The students were stoked they had that connection to a Hollywood film. “It was highly relevant to what we were studying in class and they really enjoyed it.”