Schools across Canada have always made an effort, around Remembrance Day, to invite war veterans to speak to students about their experiences more than 50 years ago.

But with fewer veterans around to tell their stories, some history teachers are concerned that this part of Canada's oral tradition may soon be lost.

"Unfortunately a lot of these veterans are dying off so they're not going to be here much longer to tell us in person about this," says Montreal history teacher Mark Anthony Mier. "So we better give ourselves a collective kick in the butt and learn our own history."

Mier invited Second World War veteran John Franken to speak to his class this week. Franken was a teenager when he was drafted into the Dutch army, just in time for the fall of Java.

The Japanese took Franken as a prisoner of war, as he was boarding a ship to Australia.

"The Japanese captain came aboard and he said 'you guys are now prisoners of war'," Franken said. "He said 'everybody is under my command anybody who will not obey will be shot'."

The students were horrified to hear the rest of his story, about his life in a prisoner of war camp at Nagasaki. The prisoners had no winter clothes, and were forced to do hard labour.

One of the benefits to having Franken speak in person, is that the students were able to ask him questions about his ordeal. The main one: How did he find the strength to survive?

"You just live on hope tomorrow we will see what happens you just keep on going," he told them. "And the morale was, to the end ... very high -- you supported each other through the ordeal. You'd be surprised how much you have to share with other people."

So that future generations will have access to these stories, Franken and other veterans have contributed to The Memory Project digital archive. It's a Dominion Institute project that allows veterans to post their stories online.

"It gives me a very good feeling I did my part -- that little bit of time I have left -- to make it fruitful to pass on something," Franken said.