1. It took 18 months for my grandfather's family to find out if he was dead or alive after the fall of Singapore in 1942 - he sent this prisoner postcard (restricted to a few words) and it brings me to tears every time I see it because... #VJDay75

2. I know that by the time it arrived he was unlikely to be 'in good spirits' as he, along with 4,000 other men, had since been crammed into trains and moved 'up country' to work on the Burma railway. Of these men known as 'H Force' 27% died amid brutal conditions...

3. Records were kept of each prisoner held by the Japanese army - if you died your card was edged in red ink - here is my grandad's record in the box of some other men with a "G" surname - see how many in that box were made red (these are at @UkNatArchives at Kew) #VJDay75 ...

4. Grandad was lucky though because he was chosen to work, not directly on the railway, but in the kitchen camp that served those poor men cutting through rocks who were beaten if they refused... I treasure this cup which he used during captivity #VJDay75 ...

5. Between June 1946 and July 1947 111 Japanese and Korean soldiers were convicted for crimes against POWs on the Thai–Burma railway in Singapore. Death sentences were given to 32 of these men. #VJDay75 ...

6. VJ Day it may have been on this day 75 years ago but it wasn't until 8th September that 2nd Lt CDA Greenwood of the 9th Gurkha Rifles 'got out' of Changi Jail. I'll be back here in a few weeks to commemorate this #VJDay75 ...

7. His girlfriend, my gran, wrote to him throughout (it took a year for letters to arrive). Soon after he was freed they married but he kept the horror to himself - men were told not to share 'lest it upset the folks'. No "Made in Japan" items were allowed in his home. #VJDay75

8. He died aged 61 when I was a baby - it took a further 27 years before the UK government made payments of £10k to former Far East POWs recognising they had been so badly treated and the state had failed to help them recover when they were freed. They'd been forgotten. #VJDay75

9. Finally I wanted to share two pictures with you of CDA Greenwood or "David' to those who loved him. The first is of him in 1941 shortly before he went to war. The second is on his ID card four months after POW release. He was lucky. We are luckier. #VJDay75