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Far East Prisoner of War
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Haruku
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Haruku - One of the major tragedies amongst the horrific stories of the Far East prisoners of war in Japanese hands during the Second World War is that of the drafts from Java to the Molucca Archipelago or ‘Spice Islands'. By Amanda Johnston
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Prisoner Under The Rising - Harold, sometimes known as ``Bill", ``Chota", and ``The Best Leggi Man in the Business", was born in Bootle, Merseyside on 11th August 1908 of Walter and Margaret Evans. He had two sisters, Margaret and Dorothy. He married the seven years younger Joyce Marty Johnston Hall on 5th August 1939, during RAF leave. They took a short weekend break as a token Honeymoon before he returned to his duties as an RAF Corporal and was posted to the Far East.
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Makassar
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Alf King by Sue Cahill - Sunk aboard HMS Exeter sent to Makassar and Japan as a prisoner of war.
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Rabaul
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Gunner Alfred William Burgess
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Sandakan
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Gunner Reginald Roy Harold
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Taiwan
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Brothers in Arms - Thoughts, impressions and recollections since, by prisoners of the Japanese held at various camps in the Far East. by Maurice Rooney
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Thailand
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And To Think I Volunteered by Harry Thorpe - As a prisoner Harry was taken to Changi and then upcountry to work on the Thailand - Burma, Death Railway.
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Death Railway - By Ron Taylor The Thailand to Burma railway claimed the many lives of prisoners and native workers as they were treated as slave labour by the Japanese.
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Cpl H.T.W. Ashington - Joined the 4th Royal Norfolks and was captured in Singapore
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Hell in Five By Jack Symon - Captured at the fall of Singapore, worked on the Death Railway and then Japan- by Jack Symon
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Major Jimmie James
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Private 5776807 (Japanese POW, Death Railway) By Frederick Noel Taylor - The following chapters are taken from a diary and letters of a young man in his late teens and early twenties. When writing down his thoughts he didn't think them to be spectacular, but from the time he went to fight for his country his life changed and it will take longer then his lifetime for the memories to fade.
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Signalman Wader´s Diary by John Jones - I found this handwritten piece of history abandoned in a book bank near Brighouse in West Yorkshire about 5 years ago and the sacrilege of it forced me to rescue it and take it home. It has since given me a new hobby and an avid interest in similar stories. It has made me realise more personally what these people went through for each of us here today. Covers Malaya and the Thailand to Burma Railway.
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Death Railway
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The Death Railway was finished in November 1943, 415kms in length, over 150 million cubic feet of earth was moved, and nine bridges were built (including the Bridge over the River Kwae), the cost in prisoners lives was 16,000 allied troops and over 100,000 Asians, later it was said 'for every railway sleeper laid a life was lost'.
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Death Railway (An in Depth Look at the Death Railway) A railway was needed to supply the Japanese Army in their invasion of Burma. The surviving prisoners of war taken in Malaya, Singapore, Jave and Sumatra, were used to build this railway that others thought impossible to build in peacetime.
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Painting The Horror
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Painting the Horror (Death railway and Camps) - Working under conditions so appalling with no one to ask for help as slave labour on the Thailand to Burma Railway, some men just gave up and died as there did not seem any hope of survival.
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Since writing these pages I have collated FEPOW related stories under:-
Far Eastern Heroes
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