World War II veteran Pu Bordy Weeku, who celebrated his 101st birthday last month, is described by those closest to him as a spiritual and kind man.
As Bordy, as he is known, speaks little English, his son Eh Htoo Saw, and Say Htoo, who is related to the family through her father, translated his story for Star Weekly.
In 1937, at the age of 17, Bordy – a member of the Karen people of Myanmar – joined the British Army in Burma, as it was then known.
He was too young to train with guns, so the army taught him to play the trumpet.
Bordy, now a Wyndham Vale resident, became a bugler and would wake the troops at dawn every day with music.
Eh Htoo Saw said one of his father’s strongest memories of WWII was the three months he and other soldiers spent marching 3000 kilometres from Burma to Karachi in British India – now Pakistan.
“He always talked about the very tough journey,” he said.
Eh Htoo Saw said his father, who became a Lance Corporal, once had a lucky escape after an underwater torpedo fired at his ship by the Japanese failed to explode.
Bordy met his wife Poday while she was serving as a nanny for a British officer.
The pair had five children. Sadly, one of their children was stillborn and another died as a young child. Poday died in 1953.
During the 1980s, Eh Htoo Saw and Bordy became refugees, as the Karen were targeted by the Burmese Army for remaining loyal to the British during WWII.
Eh Htoo Saw said that while living in a refugee camp, his father would clean the church and ring the church bell.
In 2007, Eh Htoo Saw and Bordy were granted refuge in Australia.
They moved to Wyndham, where Bordy met Richard Dove, from the Wyndham Community & Education Centre, at a Karen New Year celebration.
Mr Dove invited Bordy to attend the Werribee RSL Sub-branch’s Anzac Day parade.
Since then, Bordy has attended the Anzac Day march every year, under the banner of the Karen-British Alliance.
Eh Htoo Saw said his father, who has nine grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren, was “was so happy and proud” to participate in the annual parade.
“Before he knows he’s going to the march, he can’t sleep – he can’t wait,” Eh Htoo Saw said.
However, he said that due to his father’s age and health, he was not likely to attend an Anzac service this weekend.
