A young American filmmaker on a mission to interview every last living WWII veteran sets out across Ontario to memorialize the stories of Canadian veterinarians.
Rishi Sharma, 24, has spent the last five years documenting the lives of living World War II veterans in the US, UK, Australia and Canada for his non-profit organization Heroes of the Second World War.
“By capturing these veterans on camera, you give them the opportunity to live forever,” he told CTV’s Your Morning on Friday.
After two years of border closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Sharma is back in Ontario with 45 pending interviews with Canadian veterans, knowing his time is short.
The average age of a World War II veteran today is 96, and the number of survivors is slowly decreasing over time.
“I saved the last of my financial resources to do this trip from California to Ontario because I knew about 45 WWII veterans, Canadians, who needed to preserve their stories,” Sharma said. “I lived off my car just to make that happen, but it was worth it because of the 45 veterans I’ve interviewed so far, 42 have never been interviewed.”
So far, Sharma says, he has interviewed more than 1,500 World War II veterans, whom he calls his “heroes.” And he’s looking for more.
He is asking veterans and their families to get in touch online at heroesofthesecondworldwar.org if they would like to be interviewed and “preserve their stories” while he is in Ontario.
Sharma gives free copies of each interview to the veteran he interviews and shares them with academic institutions to use in teaching students. He added that he does “a lot” of research before each interview so he can “talk shop with the veterans.”
“If you know their regimental history, it’s easier for them to tell their stories without having to explain the difference between a mortar and a machine gunner,” he said.
While Sharma was the same age as many veterans when they traveled overseas to join the war effort, he said the most important aspect of the project was that he was not related to any of the vets, meaning there was no emotional connection .
“They can tell me things they wouldn’t say to their children – not because they don’t love their children – but because they want to save them from even having to think about some of the horrors they have witnessed or had to participate in.” , he said.
Sharma says he’s “always” been interested in World War II since he was a child.
“I used to play a toy soldier and mostly read books about the war,” he said.
But the inspiration for Heroes of the Second World War came when he was in high school and decided to attend a local retirement home.
“I just wanted to thank some of the veterans for their service and the director was so excited to see a younger person there. He personally introduced me to 25 WWII veterans,” Sharma said.
Sharma said the veterans were “so open with their stories,” many of which were telling them for the first time, he says.
Watch the full video with CTV’s Your Morning at the top of this article to hear more from Sharma about the project and a story from a Chicago veteran that catches his eye.
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