Documentary explores resurgence of ANZAC Day

	Kushla Johnston (24) and her grand-parents Gordon and Luciana at a war cemetery in northern Italy

Our Day to Remember
TV One, Monday, 25 April at 8.30pm
www.tvnz.co.nz

While ANZAC Day celebrations get bigger every year, fewer and fewer of us have any direct memory of the horrors of war.

Our Day To Remember is a DNZ documentary that reveals how ANZAC Day commemorations have fallen in and out of fashion since they started in the 1920s. And why a generation, that has never been to war, turns out in their thousands to remember those who have.

"My interest in this goes right back to my own grandparents," says producer Gary Scott. "It's only in the last few years - as they come to the end of their lives - that they have been comfortable talking about what they did in the war. About life at the 'sharp end' as my grand-dad calls it."

"And that is a very common experience," adds Scott. "The second war generation, and there aren't many of them left, gave the baby-boomers strong messages not to ask about the war. But grand-kids are very curious and grand-parents tend to be quite indulgent."

That cross-generational conversation is demonstrated in the documentary by Kushla Johnston (24) and her grand-parents Gordon and Luciana. The Johnstons returned to Italy in winter to visit campaign sites from the northern part of the war in Italy in 1944.

"Gordon was a gunner, Luciana from an Italian Jewish family. You could argue they were both very lucky to survive the war to have kids at all," says Scott.

After being hammered at Monte Cassino, the Kiwi forces finally started making progress and after breaking a major German line on the Senio River. New Zealanders very quickly rolled the enemy back to the critical northern port of Trieste.

During the documentary Gordon tells Kushla Johnston how his ears bled from pumping thousands of artillery shells, about the devastating attacks on Faenza and Cotignola, and Luciana recalls the brutal treatment of Jewish women by German soldiers. Gordon is made an honorary 'partisan' by the Italian resistance fighters in Trieste.

Says Scott: "There is some phenomenal footage from that northern part of the war in Italy that hasn't been seen much in recent times. The Kiwis were really very effective fighters."

The last days of the war against Germany were also the first days of the Cold War.

"So I think the other historical aspect that is fascinating is the race to Trieste to beat the Yugoslavs, who were communist but had been fighting for the Allies against Germany."

"In fact, Gordon learnt for the first time just how many Italians were being killed by various factions, even as the Kiwi soldiers were relaxing at the beach thinking the job had been done."

RSA historian Dr Stephen Clarke calls the period after WWII 'the Great Silence', and offers insights into why ANZAC Day is now bigger than ever, after surviving it's most controversial period when Vietnam vets returned to protests and rejection. During the early 1970s there were even calls for ANZAC Day to be scrapped.

But the return of the Unknown Warrior in November 2004, and celebrations at Gallipoli show that commemorations in 2005 are as strong as they have ever been.

"In the programme are a number of insights about why that is," says Scott.

"Wars are now history lessons in the curriculum, and a new generation of kids is really curious about what it would mean for them to be soldiers, because they've never seen conscription."

"And there is a non-political element to ANZAC Day that is missing from Waitangi Day at the moment."

The return of the Unknown Warrior is a revisited during the documentary as several families tell their stories from the major conflicts that Kiwis have fought in.

"In particular, while there are still old digs like Gordon to remember WWII, and generations like Kushla who want to understand what they went through, ANZAC Day will be very strong and very poignant," Scott finishes.

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