John Waiko discusses his childhood, making fire and listening to the elders discuss the fortunes of the coming day. He recalls his mother telling him that she placed him in a bilum and ran away when the Japanese invaded during the Second World War. He relates the reaction of the people to the invasion, and the role of Anglican missionaries in staying with them.
Henry Chow discusses how his schooling was interupted by World War II, and the placement of Chinese in concentration camps. He describes how all citizens and their animals were registered by the Japanese and males required to report to Namatanai every month.
Henry Chow discusses his mother's education by German nuns at the Catholic mission in Kokopo and how his grandfather had converted to Catholicism and started the building of the Chinese Catholic School in Rabaul. He discusses his own education prior to World War II.
Henry Chow relates how his grandfather in 1941 moved the family away from Rabaul to a plantation in New Ireland, from where they witnessed the Japanese bombing of Rabaul.
Ted Diro relates how he was a member of cadets and his passion and interest for the military, and the high regard in which teachers and soldiers were held in PNG after World War II. He describes how his relatives were either soldiers or carriers in the war. He relates an anecdote about questioning the pay rate of incoming soldiers compared with the pay in the public service.