Getting to know Dad

On the eve of the Pacific War, the Southerton family returned from a trip to Australia expecting to resume their life in Shanghai’s International Settlement. Instead, their journey ended in sudden upheaval. While passing through Hong Kong, the family of four was torn apart, scattered across Manila, Hong Kong, and Shanghai by Japanese forces, and then miraculously reunited in Shanghai only to be interned again.

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Getting to Know Dad is the result of over three decades of devoted research by Lorna Loveland, Bob Southerton’s eldest daughter. Bob never spoke of his wartime experiences with his children, offering only the quiet refrain that ‘others had it much worse’. After his passing Lorna felt compelled to uncover the truth behind her family’s harrowing journey through a world thrown into chaos by World War II. She painstakingly gathered records, traced connections across continents, and assembled the fragments of a story long left unspoken.

The book explores the historical context of the war, tracing the upheaval that followed the Japanese occupation of Shanghai and the way it upended civilian life. Among its most moving inclusions are Bob’s own drawings – quiet, meticulous sketches he created while imprisoned in the Santo Tomas camp in the Philippines and later at YuYuen Road in Shanghai. These images, preserved across decades, offer an intimate window into the world he rarely spoke about, capturing not just the places he endured but the strength of character that carried him through.

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The book stands as a deeply personal work of discovery and a powerful testament to the endurance, resilience, and devotion of a family shaped by extraordinary adversity.