0:00:13 > 0:00:15October 1943.
0:00:16 > 0:00:18Japanese forces in Thailand
0:00:18 > 0:00:22celebrate the completion of what would become known
0:00:22 > 0:00:23as the Death Railway.
0:00:25 > 0:00:27TRANSLATION:
0:00:37 > 0:00:39TRANSLATION:
0:01:08 > 0:01:14They used to say, you know, fancy you buying a Japanese car
0:01:14 > 0:01:17or buying a Japanese television or something like that.
0:01:17 > 0:01:20I thought that was a load of nonsense
0:01:20 > 0:01:22because that didn't make any difference.
0:01:22 > 0:01:25I had my worst...
0:01:25 > 0:01:28erm, nightmare...
0:01:28 > 0:01:30ten days ago.
0:01:31 > 0:01:33Now that's...
0:01:33 > 0:01:3670-odd years after.
0:01:37 > 0:01:39TRANSLATION:
0:01:56 > 0:01:59A third of a million men were forced to work on the railway.
0:02:00 > 0:02:03Over 100,000 died.
0:02:03 > 0:02:08My original group was 1,700-strong.
0:02:08 > 0:02:12By the time that the railway was finished,
0:02:12 > 0:02:15erm, there were only 400 left.
0:02:15 > 0:02:17DRAMATIC MUSIC
0:02:27 > 0:02:32By 1941, the Second World War had been raging across Europe
0:02:32 > 0:02:36for several years and was not going the Allies' way.
0:02:36 > 0:02:39Setback followed setback.
0:02:39 > 0:02:42In the Far East, Germany's ally Japan
0:02:42 > 0:02:44attacked US forces at Pearl Harbour,
0:02:44 > 0:02:48invaded territories across the Pacific and rapidly advanced
0:02:48 > 0:02:53towards Malaya and the impregnable British fortress of Singapore.
0:02:55 > 0:02:58Thousands of British and Australian troops
0:02:58 > 0:03:00were sent to defend the colony.
0:03:01 > 0:03:06For many, this was to be the defining moment of their lives.
0:03:11 > 0:03:14People ask me, how is it that you reached the age of 100?
0:03:14 > 0:03:18I've said so many times, I have just missed death.
0:03:19 > 0:03:21This has happened to me so often
0:03:21 > 0:03:24and I've said it's so much of my life that's been luck.
0:03:27 > 0:03:31I don't feel old. I don't want to feel old.
0:03:31 > 0:03:36I think it's preposterous when I suddenly have a 93rd birthday.
0:03:36 > 0:03:38This is crazy.
0:03:38 > 0:03:40But...you know...
0:03:40 > 0:03:45it's just that life is full and rich and interesting and I love it.
0:04:17 > 0:04:19I have never spoken about it
0:04:19 > 0:04:23apart a bit with my family, but never really.
0:04:24 > 0:04:27There's a certain point where...
0:04:27 > 0:04:29you don't, erm...
0:04:30 > 0:04:33..want to talk about it.
0:04:38 > 0:04:40TRANSLATION:
0:04:56 > 0:04:58LOUD AEROPLANE ENGINE
0:05:00 > 0:05:01EXPLOSION
0:05:04 > 0:05:06EXPLOSION
0:05:07 > 0:05:12The Japanese were, I suppose, only about 100k up the Malay Peninsula
0:05:12 > 0:05:14from Singapore when we got there.
0:05:14 > 0:05:16They were dropping bombs on the docks
0:05:16 > 0:05:19and killed a lot of people in the ships that came in
0:05:19 > 0:05:23and the docks were full of people trying to get away.
0:05:23 > 0:05:25It was absolutely tragic.
0:05:25 > 0:05:27We were the last ship in the convoy.
0:05:27 > 0:05:31It was about 11 o'clock in the morning
0:05:31 > 0:05:34when we were going in there
0:05:34 > 0:05:37and a flight of bombers come over...
0:05:38 > 0:05:41..peeled off one at a time, come in, bomb us.
0:05:41 > 0:05:43EXPLOSIONS
0:05:46 > 0:05:49We had got hit several times.
0:05:49 > 0:05:51She started to burn, like,
0:05:51 > 0:05:55and there was thick columns of black smoke coming along the deck.
0:05:55 > 0:05:59I said to my mate, Pat, "I'm going over the side."
0:05:59 > 0:06:01So I leave him now...
0:06:01 > 0:06:06we're crouched down by the cabins and I get up on the rail,
0:06:06 > 0:06:10stand up on the rail, I said to him, "Come on, Pat, I'm going."
0:06:10 > 0:06:12It's the last I seen of him.
0:06:15 > 0:06:18- REPORTER:- "In the same dark, steaming, tropical jungle,
0:06:18 > 0:06:20"men of the British and Imperial forces go through
0:06:20 > 0:06:23"an intensive training course to fulfil the need
0:06:23 > 0:06:27"for officers of the Malayan Defence Force. Using collapsible boats,
0:06:27 > 0:06:30"they perfect themselves in the methods of jungle warfare."
0:06:30 > 0:06:34It was terribly British stuff really, you know.
0:06:34 > 0:06:36Tremendously British.
0:06:36 > 0:06:39For a time when you should have been training, we didn't,
0:06:39 > 0:06:44and so we went really into war not well trained at all.
0:06:44 > 0:06:47I mean, we hardly trained. It was crazy.
0:06:47 > 0:06:50- REPORTER:- "The jungle holds many a secret to counter any move
0:06:50 > 0:06:52"directed against Singapore or Australia."
0:06:52 > 0:06:56Absolutely no preparation whatsoever had been done,
0:06:56 > 0:07:00even to clear a field of fire so you could see what you were doing.
0:07:00 > 0:07:02We just faced mangrove swamps.
0:07:02 > 0:07:05The Japanese, they had tanks.
0:07:06 > 0:07:08They had armoured cars.
0:07:08 > 0:07:10But they also had bicycles
0:07:10 > 0:07:13and those bicycles won their war.
0:07:17 > 0:07:21They came down Malaya like a wire through cheese.
0:07:26 > 0:07:3036,000 Japanese soldiers closed in on Singapore.
0:07:32 > 0:07:37Facing them were almost 85,000 British and Allied troops.
0:07:40 > 0:07:43But the Japanese were motivated, experienced
0:07:43 > 0:07:45and expert at jungle warfare.
0:07:47 > 0:07:50The Allies found themselves constantly outflanked
0:07:50 > 0:07:53and outfought.
0:07:53 > 0:07:56So we had this brief spell of fighting,
0:07:56 > 0:08:00and a certain amount of fairly close-contact fighting,
0:08:00 > 0:08:02which is horrific.
0:08:02 > 0:08:05We were actually under mortar fire
0:08:05 > 0:08:08and my colonel literally lost his head.
0:08:08 > 0:08:11There's no question I was always scared stiff...
0:08:11 > 0:08:14when one had shells landing near one.
0:08:17 > 0:08:20Despite fierce and stubborn fighting,
0:08:20 > 0:08:24the Japanese advance continued to close in on Singapore.
0:08:25 > 0:08:27Winston Churchill warned his generals
0:08:27 > 0:08:30that surrender was out of the question.
0:08:31 > 0:08:35We had heard rumours that the Japanese didn't take prisoners,
0:08:35 > 0:08:38so we didn't know what was going to happen, like,
0:08:38 > 0:08:43but it was a terrible, terrible reflection
0:08:43 > 0:08:47of the, erm... the powers-that-be of ours
0:08:47 > 0:08:50that were running that show out there.
0:08:50 > 0:08:52It should never have happened.
0:08:56 > 0:08:59February 15th 1942,
0:08:59 > 0:09:02and the unthinkable did happen.
0:09:02 > 0:09:05The British commander General Percival surrendered Singapore
0:09:05 > 0:09:07to the Japanese.
0:09:07 > 0:09:11The white flag went up at about four o'clock on the Sunday.
0:09:11 > 0:09:16Churchill would later describe this as the worst moment of the war.
0:09:17 > 0:09:22The extraordinary thing is that the Japs, of course,
0:09:22 > 0:09:26were completely amazed at having captured so many prisoners.
0:09:29 > 0:09:35In all, 130,000 men were captured during this short campaign.
0:09:36 > 0:09:39To add to the humiliation of defeat,
0:09:39 > 0:09:42they were forced to watch the victorious Japanese generals
0:09:42 > 0:09:44drive by.
0:09:45 > 0:09:49The Allied prisoners were marched up to the northern tip of Singapore
0:09:49 > 0:09:52to the military base Changi.
0:09:53 > 0:09:55We learnt that the...
0:09:55 > 0:09:59that everyone was going out to this Changi area
0:09:59 > 0:10:01and they marched us 18 miles.
0:10:02 > 0:10:05People say, what's it like being taken a prisoner of war?
0:10:05 > 0:10:07Chaos.
0:10:07 > 0:10:10The fall of Singapore and every way in. No law or anything.
0:10:12 > 0:10:16When things began to break down, which they did very quickly,
0:10:16 > 0:10:21malaria started and then people got dysentery.
0:10:23 > 0:10:25The Japs, as part of this,
0:10:25 > 0:10:29they literally brought out lorry-loads of barbed wire
0:10:29 > 0:10:34which they then told us to put up around a certain perimeter
0:10:34 > 0:10:39and that was the first time you could say we were in a prison camp.
0:10:41 > 0:10:43You learnt Japanese,
0:10:43 > 0:10:45or pseudo-Japanese.
0:10:45 > 0:10:50I can still swear in Japanese, but I've forgotten all my Japanese.
0:10:50 > 0:10:51They would point to your shoes
0:10:51 > 0:10:53- and say... - HE SPEAKS JAPANESE
0:10:53 > 0:10:55..meaning, what is the name of it?
0:10:55 > 0:10:58And so you would say, "shit", you see?
0:10:58 > 0:11:02And so they would go around pointing at other people's good boots,
0:11:02 > 0:11:06pointing and saying, "You number one shit",
0:11:06 > 0:11:10meaning that you had a very good pair of boots, and it was hilarious.
0:11:10 > 0:11:14We had a lot of fun for about two weeks
0:11:14 > 0:11:17and then they suddenly got the message through an interpreter
0:11:17 > 0:11:21and then we had to learn Japanese orders.
0:11:25 > 0:11:29The Imperial Army had a very tight grip on Japanese society.
0:11:29 > 0:11:32They had been fighting a war in the Far East since the mid-1930s
0:11:32 > 0:11:36and were the driving force behind Japan's territorial ambitions.
0:11:37 > 0:11:40All young men were conscripted at 21
0:11:40 > 0:11:43into a tough and brutal training programme.
0:12:17 > 0:12:18THEY ROAR
0:13:13 > 0:13:18By June 1942, the Japanese advance had continued across the Pacific
0:13:18 > 0:13:21and up into Burma, towards India.
0:13:24 > 0:13:27With an urgent need to move supplies,
0:13:27 > 0:13:31the solution was to dust off an old British plan to build a railway.
0:13:34 > 0:13:39The railway itself was only about 415km long.
0:13:39 > 0:13:42That's not an enormous distance
0:13:42 > 0:13:45at all to link it up with Rangoon,
0:13:45 > 0:13:48So they could bring people to Saigon,
0:13:48 > 0:13:51across to Bangkok and then take them on the railway
0:13:51 > 0:13:53right up to the Burmese frontier.
0:13:53 > 0:13:58So, really, the railway was not a long railway in those terms,
0:13:58 > 0:14:02but it was through the most hellish conditions to make it.
0:14:04 > 0:14:08The Japanese realised they had a vast pool of potential labour
0:14:08 > 0:14:10in their prisoners at Changi.
0:14:11 > 0:14:14Things always changed in these camps,
0:14:14 > 0:14:18and some months later I was called to
0:14:18 > 0:14:23the orderly office and told I was put on a draft
0:14:23 > 0:14:26to go to a holiday camp.
0:14:27 > 0:14:33There was about 600 of us that were selected
0:14:33 > 0:14:38and we were taken down to Singapore and loaded onto trucks.
0:14:38 > 0:14:42And then we had a train journey to Thailand from Singapore.
0:14:44 > 0:14:49There were 32 in my own particular truck and that meant that only
0:14:49 > 0:14:53a certain small percentage could actually sit down at any one time.
0:14:56 > 0:15:00And you had all your kit was stuck in the centre, like, you know.
0:15:00 > 0:15:04There was no sanitary conditions and all, like, you know.
0:15:04 > 0:15:05Absolutely appalling.
0:15:05 > 0:15:11This is where... the real degradation starts.
0:15:11 > 0:15:14And that journey lasted five days.
0:15:26 > 0:15:29We went up to the first place we stopped in Thailand,
0:15:29 > 0:15:32was a place called Ban Pong.
0:15:32 > 0:15:34That was
0:15:34 > 0:15:37an ex-Japanese camp there.
0:15:37 > 0:15:39The Japs had been stationed in there
0:15:39 > 0:15:43but the camp was under about a foot of water.
0:15:47 > 0:15:51I had a large box of Winsor & Newton watercolours
0:15:51 > 0:15:55and I had to throw the box away cos it'd have been too obvious
0:15:55 > 0:15:58but I kept about six to eight or ten little palettes
0:15:58 > 0:15:59and, of all things,
0:15:59 > 0:16:04those little paints lasted me for as long as I wanted them.
0:16:07 > 0:16:11And we were taken up the river.
0:16:11 > 0:16:14We were going to start up the transit camps
0:16:14 > 0:16:19and they dropped us off then at 20-mile intervals
0:16:19 > 0:16:23to go into the jungle and start clearing the jungle,
0:16:23 > 0:16:27because there would be the main body of men coming from Singapore
0:16:27 > 0:16:30and they would be marching up the jungle track
0:16:30 > 0:16:32that followed the River Kwai.
0:16:45 > 0:16:47And then we were told,
0:16:47 > 0:16:50"All men march."
0:16:50 > 0:16:52150km.
0:16:54 > 0:16:56I mean, the question of escaping
0:16:56 > 0:16:59was something on occasion you thought about
0:16:59 > 0:17:00but very quickly dismissed
0:17:00 > 0:17:04cos you had at least 1,200 miles of sea,
0:17:04 > 0:17:08with lots of islands in between, admittedly, but 1,200 miles before
0:17:08 > 0:17:13you'd get to safety or 1,200 miles up-country onto the Burma front.
0:17:13 > 0:17:16If you fell by the wayside
0:17:16 > 0:17:20and couldn't go any further and nobody could help you,
0:17:20 > 0:17:24you were left to die, or they made sure you died.
0:17:27 > 0:17:29It's called the death march.
0:17:32 > 0:17:35The POWs, already weak and ill,
0:17:35 > 0:17:38were forced to build a railway track for the Japanese
0:17:38 > 0:17:41through the mountainous jungle terrain.
0:17:43 > 0:17:47Then we had to climb up about 1,000 feet in this June monsoon,
0:17:47 > 0:17:49of course, and it was just appalling.
0:17:49 > 0:17:53You took two steps and slid back two in the thick jungle there.
0:17:53 > 0:17:58And we started clearing the jungle for where the railway trace was
0:17:58 > 0:18:02going to go through. So that was the first introduction to the actual job.
0:18:04 > 0:18:08And so it gradually got worse from then on.
0:18:11 > 0:18:13EXPLOSION
0:19:07 > 0:19:09They had so much cheap labour.
0:19:09 > 0:19:15Like, apart from us, they had the native populations of these places
0:19:15 > 0:19:17that they took over, like, you know.
0:19:17 > 0:19:19They had brought up something like
0:19:19 > 0:19:23about a couple of hundred thousand natives from down in Malaya
0:19:23 > 0:19:28and that, like, you know, with promises of, oh, a great life,
0:19:28 > 0:19:31but lots of them died in the jungle. Yeah, yeah.
0:19:38 > 0:19:42I forget how long, but two or three months it was monsoon.
0:19:42 > 0:19:47For the first quite a few weeks at this camp that had no rooms,
0:19:47 > 0:19:52we just ate, worked, slept under the rain.
0:20:27 > 0:20:30It was really a problem of supply.
0:20:30 > 0:20:33The only communication was the river.
0:20:34 > 0:20:39And, being a time of the monsoon, the rivers tended to flood
0:20:39 > 0:20:43and this rendered it almost impossible for supplies to get up.
0:20:45 > 0:20:50All we got was supposed to be 250g of rice.
0:20:50 > 0:20:57That usually came in the form of rice full of weevils and so forth,
0:20:57 > 0:21:00so we ate any vegetation that we could.
0:21:02 > 0:21:07Snakes were very good to eat if you could get them.
0:21:07 > 0:21:12The first one I killed was by accident and I just banged...
0:21:12 > 0:21:15It takes a lot to kill a snake because they thrash, you know,
0:21:15 > 0:21:19a tremendous amount. I said, "We've got something to eat," you see.
0:21:19 > 0:21:21He said, "Do you know what you've just killed?"
0:21:21 > 0:21:24And I said, "No." He said, "That's a king cobra."
0:21:24 > 0:21:27And I haven't the faintest idea what this thing was.
0:21:27 > 0:21:29But it didn't matter, really.
0:21:29 > 0:21:31The lizards were quite nice.
0:21:31 > 0:21:35They were quite big. They were maybe up to about 18 inches long.
0:21:35 > 0:21:40Quite big, like, you know, and we'd just kill them, skin them
0:21:40 > 0:21:42and cook them.
0:21:42 > 0:21:47Either grill them or put them in some water and cook them in a pot.
0:21:51 > 0:21:54The men were now starving,
0:21:54 > 0:21:57but the Japanese had refused to sign the Geneva Convention,
0:21:57 > 0:21:59which protected the rights of prisoners of war.
0:22:02 > 0:22:05If our men misbehaved, if the Japanese said they did -
0:22:05 > 0:22:08the misbehaviour was nearly always stealing food -
0:22:08 > 0:22:15then we were all, as officers, lined up and had what's called bintos.
0:22:15 > 0:22:18That is an officer, a Japanese officer, comes up
0:22:18 > 0:22:22and gives you a really hard bang on your face and so on, in front
0:22:22 > 0:22:26of all the men, to try and teach them that they shouldn't steal, you see.
0:23:11 > 0:23:15There's nothing wrong with the ordinary Japanese people.
0:23:15 > 0:23:18No, it was the Japanese army was the problem, like.
0:23:18 > 0:23:22Especially the army, like. They were taught to be brutal.
0:23:22 > 0:23:24That was part of their life.
0:23:24 > 0:23:26You know, it was no...
0:23:26 > 0:23:33It was something that you have a job to understand
0:23:33 > 0:23:37but right from the top of their headquarters,
0:23:37 > 0:23:40right the way down through the army, they were...
0:23:40 > 0:23:42They were even brutal to one another.
0:24:17 > 0:24:22If somebody tried to escape and they were caught,
0:24:22 > 0:24:26they wasn't pleased with just shooting them.
0:24:26 > 0:24:28No, no. They had to torture.
0:24:57 > 0:25:01If you weren't working hard enough, one thing they would make you do
0:25:01 > 0:25:05was you'd have to stand and hold a stone above your head. Once you...
0:25:05 > 0:25:08I mean, when you're weak anyway, if you put both arms up,
0:25:08 > 0:25:11you start to feel faint really quickly.
0:25:11 > 0:25:13And so you would drop the stone.
0:25:13 > 0:25:18So we learnt you dropped the stone fairly quickly and picked it up,
0:25:18 > 0:25:21which was better than collapsing,
0:25:21 > 0:25:23because once you collapsed on the ground they knocked you about
0:25:23 > 0:25:25and kicked you all over the place.
0:25:25 > 0:25:30So you'd probably get more damage through fainting than...
0:25:30 > 0:25:32So, you had to play the game, really.
0:25:58 > 0:26:00I was coming back from the latrine one night
0:26:00 > 0:26:07and one of these Korean guards started to be homosexual with me
0:26:07 > 0:26:08and I...
0:26:09 > 0:26:13Without thinking, I just kicked him in the spot where no man wants
0:26:13 > 0:26:17to be kicked, and he fell to the ground screaming and hollering.
0:26:17 > 0:26:24I got beaten up for a night and a day
0:26:24 > 0:26:26and the following night.
0:26:28 > 0:26:30Until I...
0:26:30 > 0:26:36I no longer remember much, other than the pain and so on.
0:26:36 > 0:26:38And then I was put in the black hole.
0:26:42 > 0:26:49That, really, was probably the one time when I felt this was the end.
0:26:52 > 0:26:57Sweat boxes, they used to put them in. Put people in.
0:26:57 > 0:27:04Made of bamboo, standing about that high off the ground,
0:27:04 > 0:27:07and they were made of small, thin bamboos.
0:27:07 > 0:27:10Constructed... They were made
0:27:10 > 0:27:15so they weren't long enough for a man to stretch right out in
0:27:15 > 0:27:19and they were so low, you know, that you couldn't sit up properly
0:27:19 > 0:27:22so that you were cooped up in there like, you know, and you could get,
0:27:22 > 0:27:28perhaps, you'd be sentenced to, perhaps, for sentence things,
0:27:28 > 0:27:30you'd get a fortnight's punishment in there.
0:28:06 > 0:28:10By mid-1943, the Japanese were still fighting in the north of Burma.
0:28:10 > 0:28:13But, short of supplies and troops,
0:28:13 > 0:28:15the war was no longer going their way.
0:28:20 > 0:28:26We saw Japanese going up to the Burma front.
0:28:27 > 0:28:29We watched the Japanese troops
0:28:29 > 0:28:33and they were unbelievable in what they put up with.
0:28:33 > 0:28:37There were times where the treatment and even the food they got,
0:28:37 > 0:28:41perhaps it was generally better than ours but not much.
0:28:52 > 0:28:55It was such an urgent project to get a line through
0:28:55 > 0:28:58so they could feed them all at the front, the troops.
0:28:58 > 0:29:00This is what the railway was about.
0:29:00 > 0:29:03So there was this urgency about the whole thing.
0:29:03 > 0:29:06It was called the speedo movement. It got worse and worse and worse.
0:29:06 > 0:29:08We had to work harder and harder and so on.
0:29:13 > 0:29:16As anxiety to get the railway finished grew within
0:29:16 > 0:29:20the Japanese ranks, the death rate amongst the POWs
0:29:20 > 0:29:23and native workers increased dramatically.
0:30:01 > 0:30:05If my sick parade got too large, a Japanese private...
0:30:05 > 0:30:09Cos they wanted... Everyone had to work for the Japanese.
0:30:09 > 0:30:13A Japanese private would come along - a non-medical private -
0:30:13 > 0:30:18take my sick parade and, as long as a man was fit enough to stand,
0:30:18 > 0:30:20then they were fit enough to work and off he would go.
0:30:31 > 0:30:34One of the most difficult sections of the construction
0:30:34 > 0:30:37was an area called Hintok,
0:30:37 > 0:30:40better known as Hellfire Pass.
0:30:40 > 0:30:42When they were making these big cuttings,
0:30:42 > 0:30:45which were done largely with hammer and tap,
0:30:45 > 0:30:49they used a certain number of charges to blow the rock
0:30:49 > 0:30:51and one of their games was occasionally
0:30:51 > 0:30:54they would fire a charge without telling anybody.
0:30:57 > 0:31:02So some people got very badly injured with flying sharp rock.
0:31:02 > 0:31:06I mean, why? You thought, "What's the sense of all this?"
0:31:13 > 0:31:17We went out in the morning with all the tools that had been issued
0:31:17 > 0:31:21and, after work, when we returned,
0:31:21 > 0:31:23there had to be a roll call of everybody,
0:31:23 > 0:31:26all the tools had to be handed in
0:31:26 > 0:31:30and if one was short - there were usually a few short -
0:31:30 > 0:31:34then we had to parade.
0:31:34 > 0:31:38Incidentally, with practically every day,
0:31:38 > 0:31:42the odd one or two dead who died out there,
0:31:42 > 0:31:46they had to be put down at the end, at the side, in order to prove
0:31:46 > 0:31:52that the same number had returned as went out in the morning.
0:31:55 > 0:32:01Every morning, I psyched myself up to survive that day.
0:32:01 > 0:32:03That day only.
0:32:04 > 0:32:11Because every day was never as good as the last one.
0:32:11 > 0:32:12It was never good.
0:32:13 > 0:32:16There was never any hope.
0:32:16 > 0:32:17Never any hope.
0:33:08 > 0:33:14In Konyu camps, I think, every disease imaginable was there,
0:33:14 > 0:33:20but the worst one, with the most lives lost, was cholera.
0:33:21 > 0:33:24And the Japanese themselves were scared...
0:33:26 > 0:33:29..and we had to burn these bodies.
0:33:30 > 0:33:38That was, I think, perhaps the low point of my experience up there.
0:33:38 > 0:33:39I mean, looking back now,
0:33:39 > 0:33:42I can hardly believe I experienced all this.
0:34:48 > 0:34:50The medical officers,
0:34:50 > 0:34:52in my opinion,
0:34:52 > 0:34:57were absolute angels.
0:34:57 > 0:35:02They had no drugs to work with, not even an aspirin.
0:35:04 > 0:35:08A colonel in the hospital camp at Changi,
0:35:08 > 0:35:11Colonel Weary Dunlop,
0:35:11 > 0:35:14an Australian,
0:35:14 > 0:35:16did fantastic work.
0:35:18 > 0:35:23Weary Dunlop, this most wonderful Australian surgeon.
0:35:23 > 0:35:25A man I can't praise enough.
0:35:26 > 0:35:29I had something on my forehead. He was going to take it off.
0:35:29 > 0:35:31There wasn't any anaesthesia for it,
0:35:31 > 0:35:34but I think it was melanoma or something he was worried about.
0:35:34 > 0:35:38And beside us was another table
0:35:38 > 0:35:41and there was an Australian who was
0:35:41 > 0:35:43really almost a skeleton, really,
0:35:43 > 0:35:47kneeling on it with his bum in the air because Dunlop wanted to use
0:35:47 > 0:35:50a proctoscope, which was made in the camps, actually.
0:35:50 > 0:35:54And I remember him looking into this man's bottom, you see,
0:35:54 > 0:35:58and he had this lovely Australian voice and he said,
0:35:58 > 0:36:01"Oh, yes," he said, "I think I've seen you before."
0:36:01 > 0:36:04And I nearly fell off the table.
0:36:04 > 0:36:07We were rolling about. What a lovely way to greet your friend, you know.
0:36:11 > 0:36:13At one camp alone,
0:36:13 > 0:36:16over 120 legs were amputated in a single year.
0:36:17 > 0:36:21Operations, mostly amputations,
0:36:21 > 0:36:25as a result of these jungle ulcers...
0:36:26 > 0:36:33..were done with a saw borrowed from the Japanese, which they said
0:36:33 > 0:36:38they wanted back cleaned after the operation or operations.
0:36:39 > 0:36:43They did occasionally produce a bit of sake
0:36:43 > 0:36:47so that people could be put out to some extent.
0:36:52 > 0:36:58I said to him, "I've got this ulcer. What can I do?"
0:36:58 > 0:37:02He said, "Well, I'm sorry. I've nothing to give you.
0:37:02 > 0:37:03"I don't have any drugs.
0:37:04 > 0:37:09"But if you go down to the latrine,
0:37:09 > 0:37:12"pick up maggots,
0:37:12 > 0:37:14"count them,
0:37:14 > 0:37:17"put them on top of your ulcer
0:37:17 > 0:37:20"and let the maggots do their work."
0:37:20 > 0:37:22I said, "Well, what will they do?"
0:37:22 > 0:37:26"They'll eat all the rotten flesh."
0:37:26 > 0:37:31And he said, "There's a good chance you'll get a clean wound."
0:37:31 > 0:37:35I'd been badly... They'd kicked my nose in.
0:37:35 > 0:37:38I had a bad fractured nose and a hole between my eyes
0:37:38 > 0:37:40and I couldn't see anything.
0:37:40 > 0:37:45I was next to an Aussie who'd had his leg cut off that morning.
0:37:45 > 0:37:47A big Aussie.
0:37:47 > 0:37:52And, I mean, it was routine stuff under the most crude circumstances.
0:37:52 > 0:37:54We were lying on bamboo.
0:37:54 > 0:37:58And, anyway, in the middle of the hut was another man
0:37:58 > 0:38:01who was in my own regiment and he had an ulcer that was getting...
0:38:01 > 0:38:03It was granulating quite well.
0:38:03 > 0:38:07It was in a far better condition to hundreds of the others round him.
0:38:07 > 0:38:10And he was kneeling up and hugging his knees
0:38:10 > 0:38:14and rocking like so many of the ulcer patients did out of sheer agony
0:38:14 > 0:38:16and pain and he kept on saying,
0:38:16 > 0:38:20"I'm going to die. I'm going to die. I'm going to die."
0:38:20 > 0:38:23And this Aussie said, "Look, mate,"
0:38:23 > 0:38:25he said, "If you're going to die, hurry up and bloody do it.
0:38:25 > 0:38:29"I want some sleep," in this lovely Australian voice.
0:38:29 > 0:38:32And we were falling about. It was hilarious.
0:38:32 > 0:38:34But in two hours, he was dead.
0:38:34 > 0:38:36And I remember the Aussie in the morning, he said,
0:38:36 > 0:38:40"Oh, Christ!" He said, "The last thing anybody ever said to him."
0:39:00 > 0:39:04The railway was finally completed in October 1943,
0:39:06 > 0:39:11on schedule, but at the cost of over 120,000 lives.
0:39:47 > 0:39:50The POWs and local workers who died building the railway
0:39:50 > 0:39:53were buried where they fell.
0:39:53 > 0:39:56One life lost for every sleeper laid.
0:39:57 > 0:40:01The jungle was full of British dead.
0:40:01 > 0:40:03You know, we buried them, a lot of them, where they fell.
0:40:03 > 0:40:07You know, we left 12,000 dead up there,
0:40:07 > 0:40:10quite apart from the wreckage that survived, you know.
0:40:11 > 0:40:14But it had all been for no purpose.
0:40:14 > 0:40:17Within months, the war had turned against the Japanese
0:40:17 > 0:40:21and the Allies started to regain lost territories.
0:40:21 > 0:40:24NEWSREEL: These converted Hurricanes, now called Hurribombers,
0:40:24 > 0:40:28carry two 500lb bombs tucked beneath the wings.
0:40:28 > 0:40:31Down there, somewhere in that tangled wilderness, lies their target -
0:40:31 > 0:40:33or rather that's where their target lay.
0:40:33 > 0:40:34After this heavy pounding,
0:40:34 > 0:40:37there'll not be much hospitality left in it for the Japanese invader.
0:41:44 > 0:41:48I think some of the officers... I think Weary Dunlop had had some
0:41:48 > 0:41:53intimation from somewhere that things were getting pretty sticky.
0:41:53 > 0:41:56We had this huge camp with huge pits around it
0:41:56 > 0:41:58and a big band at one side
0:41:58 > 0:42:03and they'd put a machine gun into the wall at one end,
0:42:03 > 0:42:05which really told us
0:42:05 > 0:42:08quite a lot about what they were intending to do, anyway.
0:42:08 > 0:42:10But, still, we didn't know.
0:42:10 > 0:42:14And then, of course, within about nine or ten days,
0:42:14 > 0:42:19they had Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and that finished it.
0:42:19 > 0:42:21It was just saved by the bell, really.
0:42:36 > 0:42:41The Japanese had ceased to fight
0:42:41 > 0:42:44from that time onwards.
0:42:44 > 0:42:46We knew then that we were officially free.
0:42:51 > 0:42:54Japan surrendered to the Allied forces
0:42:54 > 0:42:56on the second of September 1945.
0:42:58 > 0:43:01The POWs were at last free men.
0:43:15 > 0:43:19The Allies had retaken Singapore and, a couple of days
0:43:19 > 0:43:20after that, they were beginning
0:43:20 > 0:43:23to march the Japanese - by then, prisoners.
0:43:25 > 0:43:28And one of our divisional people, soldiers, was, you know,
0:43:28 > 0:43:32like people do, sort of just watching what was going on
0:43:32 > 0:43:36and at one point he turned to his pal and said,
0:43:36 > 0:43:39"Look at those poor buggers. Now it's their turn."
0:43:39 > 0:43:45And that, to me, sums up the attitude of the ordinary soldier.
0:43:45 > 0:43:49We had a sergeant major, a British sergeant major,
0:43:49 > 0:43:52that was in our camp. We didn't have any officers with us.
0:43:52 > 0:43:58And what he said was... He gave us a bit of good advice.
0:43:58 > 0:44:00He said...
0:44:00 > 0:44:01He advised us
0:44:01 > 0:44:08not to take any action against the Japanese.
0:44:08 > 0:44:14He said, "You've survived three and a half years of being prisoners."
0:44:14 > 0:44:17He said, "Now think of your families.
0:44:17 > 0:44:21"Don't do anything stupid that might get you killed," like, you know.
0:45:35 > 0:45:38NEWSREEL: Japanese guards were made to carry the sick and wounded
0:45:38 > 0:45:41to the quayside, where landing craft will take them
0:45:41 > 0:45:43to the hospital ship near the bay.
0:45:48 > 0:45:51Other prisoners who are able to walk make their way to the landing
0:45:51 > 0:45:55craft which will carry them on the first stage of a happy journey.
0:46:09 > 0:46:13From the Far Eastern shores, many have already started a longer voyage,
0:46:13 > 0:46:16taking them back to the land they have served so bravely.
0:46:17 > 0:46:22We... There was no-one there to meet us, you know, it was...
0:46:22 > 0:46:26There was no bands there to meet us or anything like that.
0:46:26 > 0:46:30But we were just taken off the boat
0:46:30 > 0:46:36and taken to a transit camp there in Southampton.
0:46:36 > 0:46:42And we were there for, oh, about a couple of days, like, you know.
0:46:42 > 0:46:47And then we were just stuck on a train and sent home.
0:46:48 > 0:46:52I used to go out in the morning
0:46:52 > 0:46:57and I'd walk the streets of Aberdeen for hours and hours on end...
0:46:59 > 0:47:00..looking...
0:47:03 > 0:47:06..looking for somebody that I knew.
0:47:07 > 0:47:10I was forgetting I had been away six and a half years.
0:47:10 > 0:47:14When I got back, I decided I'd forget everything.
0:47:14 > 0:47:16"I'm going to start a new life."
0:47:16 > 0:47:20I didn't join any ex-prisoner of war outfits or anything.
0:47:20 > 0:47:22I wouldn't have anything...
0:47:22 > 0:47:25As far as I was concerned, although I'm talking about it now,
0:47:25 > 0:47:31I just wouldn't talk about any of my prisoner of war experiences
0:47:31 > 0:47:34or anything. No, I'm going to start a new life and something quite new
0:47:34 > 0:47:36and I'd have nothing to do with what's happened to me.
0:47:36 > 0:47:39That's just happened. It's finished.
0:47:39 > 0:47:41It was...
0:47:41 > 0:47:46a bit overwhelming with having so many people coming to you
0:47:46 > 0:47:51and wanting to know everything about you and all that, like, you know.
0:47:51 > 0:47:55They had no understanding of what horrors we had lived through,
0:47:55 > 0:48:02like, you know, and how the comparison between people's kindness
0:48:02 > 0:48:05and the brutality that we had been experiencing.
0:48:22 > 0:48:27It's been very difficult with the family
0:48:27 > 0:48:29because I never spoke about it.
0:48:29 > 0:48:32My wife died without knowing.
0:48:34 > 0:48:40Mind you, she must have seen and felt...the swinging of moods.
0:48:40 > 0:48:41She must have done.
0:48:43 > 0:48:48And one night, when I had a nightmare,
0:48:48 > 0:48:51I finished up with my hands around her throat.
0:48:53 > 0:48:57So at that stage, I went into the spare bedroom,
0:48:57 > 0:49:02where there was a chair, and I used to sleep in that for weeks.
0:49:03 > 0:49:07I couldn't sleep properly for about ten years. That sounds a long time.
0:49:07 > 0:49:10I could only just sleep under the surface.
0:49:10 > 0:49:14In the camps, you just slept under the surface.
0:49:14 > 0:49:16You were ready to move off because
0:49:16 > 0:49:18they might come in and start beating people up
0:49:18 > 0:49:20or turn everybody out for a working party.
0:49:20 > 0:49:24You didn't know what was going to happen by day or night, very often,
0:49:24 > 0:49:25so you slept like that.
0:49:25 > 0:49:29I knew exactly where everything of mine was
0:49:29 > 0:49:31so that I could put my hands on it.
0:49:31 > 0:49:34Especially my little few drawing things.
0:49:34 > 0:49:37So you were always ready to move.
0:49:37 > 0:49:40And when I came home, it was much the same.
0:49:40 > 0:49:43I would fold my clothes up, and I still do it that way now,
0:49:43 > 0:49:45and I know just where they are.
0:49:53 > 0:50:01Well, compensation. I think I'm right in saying that I got £30,
0:50:01 > 0:50:05we all did, several years after the war.
0:50:07 > 0:50:11We were certainly the worst country of the lot of doing
0:50:11 > 0:50:15anything at all to get compensation from the Japs.
0:50:16 > 0:50:19I blame it most, well, on politicians
0:50:19 > 0:50:24and, above all, the Treasury because we finally got, I think
0:50:24 > 0:50:29the figure was £10,000, about,
0:50:29 > 0:50:33I'm guessing, 15 years ago. Not much more.
0:50:33 > 0:50:34And...
0:50:37 > 0:50:39..there weren't many left,
0:50:39 > 0:50:41so the Treasury obviously saved a lot of money.
0:50:41 > 0:50:46When they talked of trying to get some financial benefit out of it,
0:50:46 > 0:50:50that might have done a bit of good for to help to have healed
0:50:50 > 0:50:51some of the things for the blokes
0:50:51 > 0:50:55but, you know, for me, the...
0:50:56 > 0:51:02I have no, as I said, no ill feeling against the Japanese at all.
0:51:02 > 0:51:05I mean, I meet Japanese here now - no trouble.
0:53:32 > 0:53:36I mean, the Germans, for all what they did,
0:53:36 > 0:53:43they have repented and the generation know what happened.
0:53:45 > 0:53:47But in Japan, they don't.
0:54:22 > 0:54:26No, let the Emperor come and apologise to me.
0:54:26 > 0:54:30That might be the answer.
0:54:31 > 0:54:34And I will decide whether he's sincere or not.
0:54:38 > 0:54:42And, actually, there are two reasons why I don't hate the Japanese.
0:54:42 > 0:54:45One reason is it would do them no harm,
0:54:45 > 0:54:47but if I hate anyone, it does me harm.
0:54:47 > 0:54:49And I've said that the other reason, I'm a Christian
0:54:49 > 0:54:52and Christians are taught to love, not to hate.
0:54:52 > 0:54:57I can't stand this... The way we all, I suppose - I do it sometimes -
0:54:57 > 0:55:02we generalise about people, nations or groups or...
0:55:04 > 0:55:07..bankers or industrialists or whatever.
0:55:07 > 0:55:11Cos there are some good, bad and indifferent anywhere.
0:55:11 > 0:55:16In all, I think I've just been terribly lucky.
0:55:16 > 0:55:22I'm very happy doing what I'm doing and I've no regrets, really.
0:55:22 > 0:55:24It doesn't matter.
0:55:24 > 0:55:26I've been there and I've done it.
0:55:26 > 0:55:34All the things I've ever wanted to do. And I have no regrets.
0:55:34 > 0:55:37I mean, the fact that I was a prisoner of war
0:55:37 > 0:55:40was just a blip in my life, like, you know.
0:55:41 > 0:55:47I am determined to live and beat the Japanese,
0:55:47 > 0:55:50because I'll outlive them all, I hope.
0:55:52 > 0:55:54All those who were involved.
0:55:56 > 0:55:59One of the most interesting parts of this was the sheer ingenuity.
0:55:59 > 0:56:02You put a lot of people together - there are tent smiths,
0:56:02 > 0:56:05there are pharmacists, chemists, all sorts of people.
0:56:05 > 0:56:10So you put all these people together and you can begin to start moving
0:56:10 > 0:56:13half the mountain and I think that was the sort of corporate magic
0:56:13 > 0:56:16of the whole thing, which was so important.
0:56:29 > 0:56:31Thank you to them!
0:56:37 > 0:56:41MUSIC: "The River Kwai March - Colonel Bogey March" by Mitch Miller