Reporter Alex Gore was pictured in the Lincolnshire Echo tackling a 28-stone sumo wrestler whose name means “Wisteria branch”.

Albert Edward Gore died in 1942 at the hands of the Japanese Army.

Fifty eight years later, the grandson he never knew – reporter Alex Gore (25) – followed in his footsteps to the Far East at the request of the Japanese government as part of an initiative for peace and reconciliation.

Alex’s grandmother, Elizabeth, was only told of her husband’s fate in a telegram received in 1946 – a year after the Second World War ended.

She went on to become one of the first members of the Far East Prisoners of War Association (FE-POW) and always followed its activities with interest.

Alex explained: “About five years ago she received a letter asking if she had any grandchildren. The Prime Minister of Japan had decided to set up an initiative for peace and reconciliation and had asked a few organisations, including FE-POW, to find relatives of former prisoners-of-war. My name, and those of my two younger sisters, were put on a database.

“Last November, completely out of the blue, I received a letter asking if I wanted to go to Japan. I wrote back saying I was interested, even though I was a bit apprehensive about visiting the nation responsible for my grandfather’s death.”

At the time, Alex, whose NCTJ training at Greenhill College, Uxbridge, had ended in summer 1999, was working as a freelance at the Gloucestershire Echo. In January this year, he went on an intensive orientation weekend for the Japan trip in Sheffield and, two weeks later, he joined the staff of the Lincolnshire Echo.

“I told the editor, Mike Sassi, about the trip – which was planned for April – and asked if he wanted me to write about it,” said Alex.

On his return, Alex produced a three-part feature series about his experiences on the trip.

He was one of 19 young adults, aged between 20 and 25, who joined the 11-day trip called Pacific Venture 2000. All of them had grandparents who had been tortured or killed in Japanese prisoner-of-war camps.

After flying from Heathrow to Tokyo, the group’s itinerary was arranged to allow them to see as much of Japanese culture and society as possible.

They visited a sumo stable where young wrestlers were training. Alex was photographed with Fujinawa whose name means “Wisteria Branch”. He was the same age as Alex, but 14-stone heavier and a good few inches smaller than the 6ft 6ins reporter.

There were plenty of opportunities to meet Japanese students and forge good relations – although the young Japanese did not know why the UK people were visiting their country, and had little knowledge of the Second World War, as this part of history is not taught in many schools.

Alex said he felt most apprehensive about a two-day stay with a family in Nagasaki – the site of an atomic bomb attack by the US Air Force in 1945.

His visit to the city started with a trip to the Atomic Bomb Museum and the garden of remembrance, Peace Park.

“I felt guilty about being a Westerner as I read the horrifying and emotional accounts of survivors of the bombing,” he said.

His host family could not have been more welcoming, and were delighted that Alex had taken the trouble to learn some Japanese phrases.

Alex ended up singing Beatles songs with the father of the family and proved a hit with the 16-year-old son’s school football team because of his height.

Alex said: “I feel very lucky and proud to have taken part in a trip which I believe brought our two nations closer together.”

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