One aspect of my research into the work of New Zealand’s broadcasting units, is to verify the names of the voices heard in the surviving recordings.
Documents listing the names of the speakers were sent back to New Zealand with the discs, but they have long since disappeared, with only the discs surviving in the sound archives of Radio New Zealand, which are cared for by Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision.
So today, the only way of knowing who is speaking, is by listening to the recording and when a speaker is introduced by a broadcaster, making an educated “best guess” at how that person’s name is spelled. I have then been searching in Auckland War Memorial Museum’s wonderful Online Cenotaph database for speakers’ names and matching up the enlistment records with dates of recordings and other details, such as the New Zealand hometown the speaker sends greetings to.
In early 2026 I finished listening to the recordings made of New Zealanders serving in Japan as part of J Force (1946-1948) and verified nearly 500 speakers’ names. you can click on the link at the top of this page to download an alphabetical list of them, with their military service numbers and a link to their page in Online Cenotaph. (Where possible, iwi affiliations have also been added for speakers who were identified as iwi Māori, but this is not be complete.)
If you find someone on this list you want to hear, you can then search for their name on Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision’s online catalogue, and find their recording. (Most of the J Force recordings have been made available to listen to online, but if not, click the purple “Ask about this item” button to send a message to Ngā Taonga to ask if you can hear it.)
If you find any errors or want to know more about the list of J Force speakers, please feel free to get in touch. And if you find an ancestor or loved one – please take a moment to go to their Online Cenotaph page and consider uploading a memory or even leaving an email contact address.
When I have identified speakers via Online Cenotaph I have sometimes been able to let their whānau know I have found a recording of their family member – but I can only do this if they’ve left an email address. There are many ways to contribute to Online Cenotaph, so get involved!