world war II

Jim Thompson and the Burmese Kalaga

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Jim Thompson was an American expat living in Thailand.  During World War II he worked for Office of Strategic Services (OSS).  He was a spy.  He arrived in Bangkok shortly after the end of the war to organize and open the OSS office there.  In Bangkok he worked with Kenneth Landon who was first a missionary in Thailand and then was hired to work for the OSS.  Kenneth’s wife, Margaret, lived with him in Thailand and wrote the book “Anna and the King of Siam” which was also made into the musical, “The King and I”.

By 1948, Jim Thompson had left the OSS and become interested in Thai silk.  He formed the Thai Silk Company and his goal was to revitalize the industry.  In 1951 designer Irene Sheraff was designing costumes for the Rogers and Hammerstein musical “The King and I” and decided to use silk from Thompson’s Thai Silk Company.  That was what he needed.  He was a success!  Jim Thompson’s company and the Thai silk industry is thriving to this day.

At one point he thought it would be a good idea to go into Burma and try to revitalize their silk industry as well.  He did not have much luck but there he discovered the royal Kalagas.  These were heavily embroidered tapestries made for the royal palaces of Burma.  The last King of Burma, Thibaw Min, was persuaded to abdicate by the British when they took over the country in 1885.  Some of the tapestries have been around for 150 years.

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Jim Thompson had several of the Kalagas copied and sold them in his shop.  During this time, the late 1950’s, my family was living in Burma and knew all about of Mr Thompson and his silk shop.  They purchased one of these tapestries and it hangs in my parents’ living room to this day.  It is beautiful.

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In 1967 Thompson took a trip to the Cameron Highlands in Malaysia on holiday and mysteriously disappeared.  There was an extensive search made but nothing was found.  Nobody knows what happened to him or why.  There is much speculation around him and his disappearance.

He left a house he had designed full of art and antiques from Southeast Asia.  It is now a museum open to the public.

Berlin: Soviet War Memorial

Entrance to Memorial from Treptower Park

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Battle of Berlin marked the end of World War II.  It took place April to May 1945 and claimed about 80,000 Soviet lives.  Stalin was in a hurry to take Berlin because he wanted to get to their Nuclear research facility before the Americans arrived in order to find out what the Germans had discovered.  The Soviet Nuclear program needed a boost.  Because Stalin was in such a hurry, mistakes were made and an enormous amount of Soviet lives were lost.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are three memorials to the Soviet Troops in Berlin.  One is the Tiergarten Memorial near the Brandenberg Gate.  It is relatively small and compact and was built in 1945.  Another is the Schonholzer Heide in the Pankow district.  It was finished in 1949 and covers 30,000 square meters (98,500 sq ft).  The third is in the Treptower Park.  It opened in 1949 as well and was the main war memorial for East Germany.  Five thousand Soviet soldiers are buried there.

We visited on a warm summer day arriving after walking for miles and miles not knowing how far it was.  The park was lovely and the memorial was impressive, built to a grand scale.

 

 

 

Mother Russia weeping over her dead children