The launch of Victory in 80 Objects project and book took place on Tuesday, May 6, 2025, at the D Day Story in Southsea.
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00:00So Cathy, tell me what Victory in 80 Objects is all about.
00:07So Victory in 80 Objects is a national partnership project that we brought together here at the D-Day Story working with the National Army Museum, the National Museum of the Royal Navy, the RAF Museum, the Army Flyer Museum and the Royal Armouries.
00:20And we've come together to share 80 objects from our vast military collections that tell the stories of victory, Allied victory in World War II.
00:29So tell me, is there any particularly special objects in there? I mean, there's going to be a lot, but any that stand out?
00:36I think the objects that sort of most poignant and resonate most with me are the ones relating to the Japanese prisoner of war camps.
00:44So some personal or very personal objects that prisoners made whilst they were incarcerated there.
00:50But there's also the lead object, which is on the cover of the book and people will see it in Portsmouth on the posters around the city.
00:57It's an astonishing Union Jack, which was actually dropped into the Makassar prisoner of war camp in Indonesia, actually after BJ Day.
01:09So the prisoners were still stuck there. So we think of the E-Day, end of the war in Europe, BJ Day, end of the war.
01:16You know, for many people it wasn't. They were still stuck in that prisoner of war camp and they hadn't been rescued.
01:21And this flag was dropped in with food supplies to keep them going and to give them some hope.
01:25And they've all signed the flag. So it's an object from the National Museum of the Royal Navy.
01:29And I think that object to me, it just, there's so many stories there, those signatures.
01:34You know, those men, they were shipped, they were captured by the Japanese from HMS Exeter and HMS Account
01:41and then put into those awful conditions where a quarter of them died.
01:44And, you know, it's really difficult to imagine, you know, how they survived, the mental strength they must have had.
01:50So I think that object and seeing those brave men's names written there is really important to me and sort of sums up a lot of the project.
01:59Tell me, it's an obvious question, but tell me why this is important to ensure the public, you know, see this exhibition, see the objects.
02:07Well, museums, we hold these vast collections, you know, we have, you know, millions of objects literally in our collections
02:15and we can't show them all. But we have to try. That's our job.
02:20So we need to tell these stories. In essence, we are storytellers.
02:23We need to tell people about these stories, why it's important that we keep them.
02:28And I think bringing the objects online, that means they're accessible to everyone across the world.
02:33And then by sharing an object today, which is what we're doing between VE Day and VJ Day,
02:39hopefully people will share them more widely on social media.
02:43And then people can just learn about the World War Two and VE Day and VJ Day object by object rather than, you know,
02:50a large history book about World War Two is not for everybody, especially the younger generation.
02:54So we have to work harder to make our collections more accessible and tell these stories.
02:58And it's our promise really, especially at the D-Day story here, the promise to the veterans,
03:03that we will keep telling their stories.
03:05And just tell me how long the online exhibition is able to be viewed?
03:12It'll be up in perpetuity. So it's online and the book is for sale.
03:17If people want to buy the book, that supports the work of the museum. So that's fantastic.
03:21And then, yeah, as I said, the social media place will be going out between VE Day and VJ Day.