WYOMISSING, Pa. — “As soon as the British left, the Japanese arrived. Nicky saw them on bicycles, adorned with their flags… as they made their way to Taiping town… These Japanese soldiers set up a camp… and would raid homes looking for food, goods and women. This first wave of soldiers… was known as ‘suicide squads,’ as they were frontline military. They were brutal.”
This is the story of Cheryl Nicholas’ father, who was a child during the Japanese invasion of Malaysia during World War II. Stories such as this inspired Nicholas, associate professor of communication arts and sciences and global studies at Penn State Berks, to document other real-life stories of Malaysian survivors of WWII.
This past spring, Nicholas and Heidi Mau, a professor from Albright College, led a team of students on the creation of a virtual reality (VR)/digital exhibition at the Perak Museum in Taiping, Perak, Malaysia, which opened on Aug. 15 to a crowd of more than 3,000 attendees, including government ministers. The exhibition runs through Oct. 22 — extended from Sept. 30 — and gives viewers a snapshot of that moment in history.
Original Article: https://www.psu.edu/news/berks/story/berks-professor-tells-malaysian-wwii-survivors-stories-vr-digital-exhibit/
Image Caption: Student researchers Chantel Bennett and Avery Rivera test the Oculus Meta Quest 2 and mobile virtual reality technology before the opening of the exhibition. Credit: Courtesy of Cheryl Nicholas. All Rights Reserved.
Recent Comments