One man's mission to interview all surviving WWII veterans - and he's in Oxford now

Rishi Sharma founded the non-profit organization Heroes of the Second World War in 2016.

He runs the organisation and films interviews with WWII combat veterans in the USA, UK, Canada and Australia.

The 21-year-old Southern Californian is currently in Oxford seeking to interview veterans in the area and find out their stories.

Mr Sharma said: “There is no commercial aspect involved and I put each veteran’s interview on a DVD and mail it to them free of charge.”

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He continued: “I am just trying to meet and learn from my heroes and preserve their important experiences for future generations.”

Mr Sharma has been on a mission to interview all the WWII veterans he can since he was in high school.

In his senior year of high school Mr Sharma successfully raised $200,000 on his GoFundMe page.

After he raised the money Mr Sharma decided to do the interviews full-time and he has now interviewed more than 1,000 Second World War combat veterans from across the allied countries.

Mr Sharma has been in the UK for two weeks travelling from Scotland to Cornwall and, so far, has interviewed two Oxford veterans but he would like to interview more.

One veteran who lives in Oxford, Wilf Edgar, is 97 and was a prisoner of the Japanese.

He told Mr Sharma that he was sent to Java as part of a maintenance unit for the RAF when the island was taken over by the Japanese.

He was evacuated to Sumatra where he then was imprisoned by the Japanese for three years and made to work on the railroad under horrible conditions.

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Another Oxford veteran that has taken part in an interview is Allen Scott, 98. He was a fighter pilot in the Second World War in Malta.

Mr Sharma doesn’t come from a military family; however, he still believes veterans are our living history and he feels he needs to interview them before it is too late.

Many of the veterans Mr Sharma interviews are in their late 80s and some are almost 100 years old.

Mr Sharma said: “It’s amazing how much history and knowledge is encased in each one of these individuals and how much is lost when one of them dies without sharing their story.”

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He continued: “The fact is, I wake up every day to obituaries, guys who I wanted to interview, and I have to find out they died.”

Mr Sharma believes: “If a Civil War veteran suddenly came back to life from the grave, all the world’s media would be hounding him begging for an interview using the nicest equipment and fancy cameras.”

He said: “What boggles my mind is that we have this opportunity with the WWII veterans. We should not wait until there is only one left to acknowledge their sacrifices and to document them.”

Visit www.heroesofthesecondworldwar.org or call Mr Sharma on 07746934163.