Activists in Hong Kong have again blocked roads and clashed with police a day after some of the most violent unrest During 5 months of pro-democracy protests Riot police fired tear gas on a university campus and commuters were forced to abandon a train objects were found on the line on Monday Hong Kong's Leader Kerry Lamb said the unrest had brought the territory to the brink of no return hundreds of schools and colleges across the Australian state of New South Wales have been closed as the region prepares to deal with potentially catastrophic bushfires Shane Fitzsimmons is the head of the Rural Fire Service we are certainly starting to see an increase in foreign activity and therefore the foreign danger is increasing Accordingly the reality is conditions will simply continue to get worse a little here right now only coming hours and particularly to start anew when the combination of of all the temperatures draw our atmosphere and the strengthening winds all come together to draw a far I've you know 3 people have been stabbed on stage during a theatre performance in the Saudi Arabian capital Riyadh video shared on social media appears to show a man wielding a knife rushing on to the stage set up inside King Abdullah park he was chased and tackled by another man as people fled state television says the injured are in stable condition. One of those famous voices in Canadian sports the ice hockey commentator Don Cherry has been fired over comments suggesting that new immigrants failed to all of the countries warded his remarks described as divisive by his employer were carried live cheering a National Hockey League game on Sunday he said immigrants loved living in Canada yet wouldn't pay a couple of dollars for a poppy lapel pin worn in early November to commemorate war veterans b.b.c. News. Hello I'm Joe and this is Outlook the home of personal stories on the b.b.c. World Service today full remarkable stories about war and the love that can transcend it will be hearing about a Syrian couple who got engaged in Aleppo as the missiles flew around them you know what they say like a wise man will tell you like leave each day like there is no tomorrow so at that moment like we don't know if that it will be to morrow for us this is the girl that I wish to spend the rest of my life with and actually. This is the bigger I wish to die with. But also be hearing from a Polish soldier in the 2nd world war about a brown bear that was given the rank of private of course he did get up to mischief but most of it was harmless we had a lot of from with him in renewed that he always had good intentions for example he was sometimes sneak into and they live there in the mess and he would eat the whole general honey in one sitting when the company was sent to fight in Italy the bear went with them on to the battlefield and from the 1st World War the letters sent by a young soldier to his mum back in Britain 4th of January 9 $117.00 my own dear mother I have joined the regiment who are just at the end of 6 weeks rest since I set foot on Cali keys I've not had dry feet I'm perfectly well and strong but unthinkably dirty and squalid the favorite song of the men is the roses round the door make me love mother more I don't disagree your very own w.e.o. W.e.o. Was the much loved British war poet Wilfred Owen more on their stories to come but we starting with husband and wife Rex and Keiko whose home nations were on opposite sides in the 2nd World War and have sought in their own way to bring pace to families on either side Rex is American and Keiko Japanese She comes from Kyoto province and her grandfather was sent to the front line in Burma when he left his village he took with him a full size national flag as did many Japanese soldiers signed by family and friends it was meant to bring good luck but Keiko's grandfather never returned he left behind 2 young children who didn't really know anything about him grandmother never talk about grandfather and so much pain in their family so when I grew up myself I remember one another we visit my grandfather's grave there only what my mother said to me is my father disappear somewhere in Vama and then that the time when I go mother received the death notice they send a little small rock inside the box that's all for me received so my grandmother. Barry that Little Rock which you received from the government and so when I was a little I thought oh my God in the how can be possible just Iraq it's something we cannot talk about it because it's just so sad 62 years after the war Keiko's uncle received a phone call that caught him off god someone call my uncle asking me Do you know this name and he said yes that's my father and then he goes Well I have something that there has his name on it then I can send it to you so he received that package what was in that package inside of the package was the Japanese flag in the white merging it was written in his father's name his family's wife neighbors all the people surrounding grandfather's friend their relative many signature was written in the Japanese flag what does this flag symbolize to my family my mother set grandfather disappeared in the war and then you use that finally grandfather coming back home many years he wanted to come back and finally he made it to come to see us so he she cry she she just was very. Happy to have the grandfather finally coming back home. So the flag meant that much it represented your grandfather's return home yes that's his spirit is still strong that he disappeared we don't know what happened to him. And we have no idea why in the world that flag coming back so we all concluded that it was a miracle it turned out that all the time the flag had been in the possession of a British soldier who at the end of his life had asked his son to return it to the dead soldier's family and hate tracked him down to Kyoto Keiko lives in the United States and she told her American husband Rex SIAC about her grandfather's flag and it seemingly miraculous written kick on told me the story and I did not understand anything of what she was talking about she said a Japanese flag and writing and all so I then did a little bit of research and I realized that. For the soldiers on the battlefield who want to bring home some sort of momento of the war eventually they discover that in the pocket of if they need to see East Japanese soldier that they encountered would be one of these flags or 2 of them or 3 of them in some cations And so these became these highly sought after souvenirs and they came back home by the thousands and thousands and so when I realized the impact that the return of this had on Keiko's family I realized well maybe we could help this miracle occur for aether people as well Rick started looking into where all these facts it's going to be more than 2000000 Japanese soldiers have been killed in the war around Huff happened this does as missing in action I begin to get books and look at them and I saw pictures of American soldiers and Australian soldiers and British soldiers holding up these flags and I was maybe on the internet one day just just reading what I could find and I stumbled across a fellow who had one of these flags in his possession and he wrote this paragraph below it and he says I want to go back to the family so I contacted him and I was talking to him and he said to me this was my father's flag my father was a Marine and he listed all the islands where he fought and my father brought this back and he had it on his wall for years and years as a trophy in his office but my father passed away and I inherited it but I wanted to go back to the family and what unfolded was a story and he told me I joined the military and I fought in Vietnam and he said one day I was out to be had this battle and I was walking through the grass and I I stumbled across the body of a Viet Cong and I bent down and I opened his pocket and here was a wallet and I took out. His wallet and I opened it up and here inside of this Viet Cong wallet was a photograph of this man with a beautiful wife and a child. And he said My mouth dropped open because in my wallet I had that exact same photograph of myself with my wife and my child in the exact same pose in the exact same place on the wallet and he says it startled me so much I dropped the wallet and I ran away. And he said later I thought about that wife who would never know what happened to her husband and that child who would never know about their father and I thought to myself Why did I not bring that wallet so I could connect with that woman and returned as to her and he says that has haunted me for 40 years and he started crying telling me about this and then he said I have my father's flag here he should go back I didn't do the right thing but I can do it. So Rex and k.k. Received their fast good luck flag now they just had to find out who it belonged to I'm native Japanese I read Japanese when I look at the flag I can't read everything but these written scenes this is their personal Graffy and the old fashion and cursive So even the reading is not easy so it is a long way Johnny the very 1st flag it took probably about 4 yes it find a family Keiko and Rex decided they wanted to do more and set up a not for profit called the Obama society to collect these flags and return them since 2009 they've located more than 700 and have returned more than $200.00 each one of these flags came from somewhere it came from a house that came from a family and so it has its place of origin and for us when we receive these we look at it and it might have 40 names on it there might be $250.00 names on it and kick off has somehow attracted a group of people we call them scholars and they are people in Japan now what they have done and what they've done for years is we show them detailed photographs of these flags and these people their knowledge of Japan and their knowledge of names and their knowledge of the geography is so fine that it makes sense to them and they look at that and they start to read those names in little details know say where this came from the north of of Japan those names those groupings and names those are common names in that area and here's a mention of a shrine and they will take this flag that for most of us is just all of this writing and they will trace it back to a region and then down to a village and then down to a street until we knock on the door of the family. Where this originated among all the stories attached to these flags there's one that really stands out for Rex It concerns a man called Mr Watt and his brother went missing in action in Canara and all her life his mother grieved was desperate to know what had happened to him she begs have remaining son to do everything he could to find the body of his missing brother so he gets out some books and he begins to study about the Battle of Okinawa and then he gets out more books and he contacts the government and he finds out his brother's company and the division and what group he was with and then he gets maps of Okinawa and this goes on for 10 or 15 years this research in the study trying to pinpoint where on earth his brother's company made their last stand whether it was on a beach or a hilltop or a valley or where any fire in the is convinced that he has found the ridge where his brother would have fought and so then he gets a shovel and he goes down to Okinawa a long distance he's way in the north of Japan and he goes to that ridge and he starts to dig and he's looking for his brother and he digs and digs and finds nothing and he comes home and he goes back another year and then the following year and this man goes back to Okinawa for 30 years digging looking for his brother. And he finally gets cancer he's sick he's dying and here of all things we happened to receive a package that has a flag in it and so our scholars look at it in a search that they know it's from the north and they track it down and they determine Well it's going to this house this is word originated and so they contact that number and here is Mr Watson Abhi in they say we have this item with this name on it and he says hot What are you talking about and he said well we have this he says send me pictures and so they send photographs he goes that's my brother. So we sent in the flag and he was in treatment for his cancer and as soon as he's done with his treatment he takes this flag dresses up in a suit and he flies back to Okinawa and he goes to the battlefield where he's been digging for 30 years and he holds up the flag. Has a picture taken. And then he comes home and he goes the cemetery and he unfurls and front of his mother's grave. And shows her the pro there can. Tracks and Keiko aren't surprised by how emotional it can be for the families receiving the flags What has surprised them is how emotional it can be for the people handing them over the Americans would ask Can I take that to them Can I meet that family and probably 70 or 80 percent of the flags we returned whoever it is who sent it writes a letter to the Japanese family and they tell about themselves or they tell about their feelings or their or their hopes that this provides a family with closure and in many cases the Japanese will write back to them and tell them about their story and their feelings and how they are that the Americans have kept this precious family item and returned it to them what we're doing is we are writing the final chapter of what was probably the biggest and most destructive war in the history of this world it's becoming an all consuming passion for Rex and it is our mission in their lifetime mission sometimes we feel like a cycle doctor when we talking to people that is just so much meaningful so we have just a living with it Keiko and I are in it 7 days a week she works probably 16 or so hours a day without a break and my load is much less because I'm not bilingual in Japanese but I'm probably 10 or 12 hours a day and it's been like that for years I know you've described this is your mission Keiko but why has it become so important to the 2 if you. I really remember my mother's reaction in there I believe that this so important to my farm money so the reason we do this yes I know many of the family. Who had that same exact experience as my family they want to feel joy maybe or closure and we are the bridge inbetween the family to family so that's our mission and I hope we can make more miracles to many families. Keiko and Rex give up their time and money to return good luck Slax to the families of lost Japanese soldiers through the open society that they set out you're listening to you remember and stay edition of Outlook with stories about war and its impact on people's lives not just people in fact we're going to hear now about a bat that played an important role in one of the most famous battles of the 2nd World War Monte Cassino where allied forces launched a series of attacks on Nazi and Fascist positions among those fighting for the Allies was the Polish 22nd artillery supply company its mascot was a bear called Wojciech he was adored by the men in the company and when they were deployed to Italy and told mascots had to stay behind the soldiers didn't want to give him up so Wojciech was made a private given a ration book and sent into battle a teenage soldier called Wojciech no read for too long side him the fact that they had the same name a pretend usual name meant the pair of them where for I have a linked you don't they various history where you were in the oval huge scar what took the bear was already with the company when I joined up so when I went to see the commanding officer he said oh you already have a void Dick you would be a little boy take it because you're short and that's where even though he's small right now he'll grow up to be a big better one day so he'll be big boy Dick what can I say the name stuck and I was called the little boy thick and the bear was big whiter. How was he treated by the humans around him on the no bottom he was out of market we are absolutely loved him we were all far away from home far from our loved ones and for us he was a substitute for having someone close by he was a piece of home and the beggar Sybil The bear was close to us as he was so affectionate he was there like a baby we used to say that even though he is in a bad. Skin he has a Polish soul as he grew up from being a cub he was surrounded by Poles and he grew with us how do you describe a Polish so he was very kind he was very sociable few felt as if he was one of the gang. Did he behave like he was one of the gang to do the things that you were doing he had his own character or a keeper corporate plane this was his name and the bear treated him as a father he would climb into bed with him when he was small and wanted to sleep with him of course he did get up to mischief but most of it was harmless if you had a lot of fun with him and we knew that he always had good intentions for example he would sometimes sneak into and they live there in the mess and he would eat the whole Joe honey in one sitting What about the drink time to stand tonight to tranq Well the soldiers I have to blame for that because animals always try and copy their only resort Katter's he would see the cadets all drinking Australian canned the beer and he would wavy Aspies have to say give me some of that I want to try it so they gave him some and so they taught him how to drink beer that would seem to go to people who I think also like to dress up we had this one fellow young and strong who used to wrestle the bear but then the envoy take was very well behaved because if you won the contest and managed to pin down the young man he would lick him on the face did you ever wrestle him yet no no not me I was too small for that well I. Understand that one day when you were out with him he spotted the sea so when you were fighting you need to be close to the other the attic void take love that because we were very close to the sea our company would often move from place to place and boy take traveled on the company's crane truck he was tied with a chain much like a cow but breaking the chains didn't prove to be a problem at all often he would stand up and address these paws against that all of . The driver's cab one day it was a very hot day in June or July he broke free from his chains and saw that the sea is nearly 50 metres away he just ran off towards the beach and on the beach there were girls who were debating so the bad ran onto the beach but completely ignored the girls who had started shouting so we called out to them saying Girls Don't worry Nona be at the power any time. That the hour this bit is very bad behavior he won't do you any harm he was not in the least bit interested in the girls just in the sea because he wanted to go for a swim to have a good swim through our car he was a good swimmer Were you present Russia had the battle of Monte Cassino Yes our company transported them initially which was kept in boxes they were very very heavy weighing around the $140.00 kilos each and one thing again when he saw as we were doing wanted to join in he saw that we would have a king very hard and that he took 4 soldiers to carry just one of these boxes to load up on to the lorry by this stage he was much bigger weighing it is around $200.00 kilos and he was able to pick up munitions box and loaded onto the lorry or he would stack the boxes up on top of each other so we didn't have to bend over and pick up the boxes from the ground but it's such an extraordinary image of a bomb carrying these autonomy shells do you ever. When you with that bass stop and think oh yeah he's a bad this is this is surreal. You know he became so used to hearing very simply talk as normal that he was with us when the war came to an end the 2 Wojciech Swinton different directions little Wojciech