Stories of Changi and the Railway

Discussion in 'Prisoners of War' started by liverpool annie, Mar 21, 2009.

  1. liverpool annie

    liverpool annie New Member

    I have been researching a POW who was present at the Fall of Singapore ... ( what an awful time these men had on the Railway of Death ) ....... and came I across these books - that maybe of interest ....

    There is a book called The Naked Island written by Russell Braddon, an Australian who was also at Changi and the Railway - this book describes in detail what it was really like. This is a short excerpt from Russel Braddon's book which in a few short words describes the horror that was the "Railway of Death"

    The Price of Freedom

    My Place - Where everything is free!
     
  2. Antipodean Andy

    Antipodean Andy New Member

    The Naked Island is another book that waits patiently on my shelf. Annie, have a look at anything on Weary Dunlop as well.
     
  3. liverpool annie

    liverpool annie New Member

    I have his War Diaries Andy !! :)

    I need to stay off here and do some reading I think !! ( but I'm too nosey ... I like to see whats going on !! :becky: )
     
  4. Antipodean Andy

    Antipodean Andy New Member

    LOL, know the feeling, Annie. Have you come across Ian Denys Peek's One Fourteenth of an Elephant?
     
  5. liverpool annie

    liverpool annie New Member

    Well I wanted the Railway Man or that one .... and at the time I couldn't afford both ... so I flipped a coin and I got the Railway Man !! ... I had forgotten about the Elephant book .... I need to go visit my little store .... though I've been trying to stay away !!;)
     
  6. spidge

    spidge Active Member

    The area where I was born was housing commission built post war in 1949 (not far from Heidelberg Repat Hospital) and was made available, amongst others, to ww2 vets.

    Many of my friends fathers were POW's from the 8th Division who were captured in Singapore. Seeing the family life these friends had as a result of breakdown of the family unit was very sad indeed.

    My father was 6th division AIF and critically wounded at Tobruk. There were 7th Div and a few 9th Div vets as well who used to come to our house and us to theirs. New suburb, new school, new church and new environment for those men and women who had been born of the depression era.

    We had great family lives however all but one POW's family had problems.

    My hatred of the Japanese Military (then not now) stems from here. I still wonder about these children and if they were ever able to shed the scars of their childhood.

    Yes we won the war but not much is mentioned of the families of those allied POW's who came back from the atrocious conditions on "the railway" and in Changi etc.

    These were all victims too!
     
  7. liverpool annie

    liverpool annie New Member

    We went through the same Geoff when we were growing up ..... after the Blitz in Liverpool ... we were housed in prefabs on little housing estates .... and now I realise that a lot of men who came home after the war lived there too .... we just didn't realise at the time !!

    One family the father would go into terrible furies and the kids would all scatter .... I couldn't understand my Dad telling me "don't be scared ... you just have to feel sorry for him ... and stay away when you know he's like that !! " and my friends Dad who would tear up little bits of paper and roll them !!

    It was all just a fact of life .... it didn't occur to me at the time what was happening ... it was only as I got older looking back that I realised what was going on ... and my heart went out to them !!

    It seems that the kids I knew grew up to be quite well adjusted .... but I think that was because we were a real community and everybody looked out for each other ... probably when I think about it ... it was a case of "the village bringing up the child "!!
     
  8. liverpool annie

    liverpool annie New Member

    Andy ! ... I found this ... have you seen it ?? :)

    Biography
     
  9. Antipodean Andy

    Antipodean Andy New Member

    Wow, Annie, no I haven't. It'd be worth using to create his bio thread.
     
  10. spidge

    spidge Active Member

    There is a hint Annie!

    I was reading something the other week where some people (from the era) were stating that "many others" did as much if not more than "weary". (Apologies for not keeping the link - a little disgusted at the inference)

    He was a quite unassuming person and there were certainly others who worked tirelessly for their fellow POW's.

    I do not know of any who stood in front of a sick POW about to be executed by a Japanese soldier and saved his life.
     

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