My grandmother was on the phone speaking to her friend Dulcie when I came into the kitchen for breakfast. The latest translation was on the table waiting for me.

After putting the phone down, she told me that Dulcie still had the letters written by her father during his imprisonment and had invited us to come and read them.

‘And by the way,’ she said, ‘I had second thoughts about writing to Chappy. Instead I included a message in Dulcie’s next letter to Harry: “We like the new drawings. Oriwia loves the little basket and the little star.” Though Harry wasn’t able to pass the message on to Chappy, from then on he included the basket and star in all his letters – Little Star eating an apple, Little Star fishing over the side of the basket, Little Star in a hospital bed, Little Star within a semi-circle of hearts. That’s how I was able to keep up with some of what was happening to Chappy.’

One day about six months later, the Krauss family received a letter showing that the little star, having sprouted wings, was flying from the basket. The prisoners had all been moved to a camp in Pahiatua by then. It was a new camp built on what used to be a racecourse. Harry didn’t like it there. It was cold in winter and, unlike the island, bare of trees. There were no more interesting walks and no beaches. They could not swim or fish. The worst thing of all was that it was too far away for his family to visit regularly. He was lonely, and felt his life was being wasted in idleness while his family and business suffered.

My husband’s been deported, Oriwia thought, when she saw the fly-away star; either that or they’ve killed him. She found out later that by the time she received the message of the flying star, Chappy was already on his way aboard the Kamakura Maru to the Port of Marmagao in India. This was where most of the Japanese prisoners were evacuated to as part of a prisoner exchange agreement. Commonwealth and American civilians who had been interned in Japan and other parts of Asia were also exchanged at Marmagao.