44 Months of Hell: The Story of the Winnipeg Grenadiers

The Manitoba Museum

This phase of the project focused exclusively on the research and development of a school program. Developing programs using the Historical Thinking Concepts approach calls for great attention to detail and this phase of the project definitely highlighted that point to our staff.

Based on the results of surveys conducted in the first phase of the project, the wars (WWI, WWII) were the number one area of interest for teachers and students alike. The Manitoba Museum houses a large collection of artefacts, documents and photographs, in addition to hours of oral histories, from veterans of the Battle of Hong Kong/Japanese POW camps. The Hong Kong Veterans Collection, noted as one of our Significant Collections, was the perfect repository for unique primary sources that fit perfectly with the results of our surveying. In her permanent role at The Manitoba Museum (Human History Cataloguer), Cortney Pachet already had a fair amount of experience with the material, but combing through each piece of evidence and assessing its historical significance, whether it could viably be replicated (either in-house or by an outside contractor) and whether it fit with the overall program took a great deal of time. The Hong Kong Vet collection is comprised of 710 artefacts, including 10 diaries and 113 letters, and 94 oral histories.