Eric Lomax wrote the forward to “A Town like Alice,” by Nevil Shute, a novel that takes place around the same place, same time: Japan occupied South East Asia. In the forward Lomax wrote he could attest to the Japanese brutality of their prisoners, being a surviving POW himself. Right away I noted “The Railway Man” for future reading. There is no atonement for the generation that lives in peace that was bought by war with the lives of faceless soldiers. But there is no excuse for ignorance, or worse, ignoring ugly truths. For myself, I hope for humility and betterment through what I learn.
It was incredible to be taken on a historical journey through Singapore in the 40’s: Bukit Timah Hill where the POW’s walked to from the city, Keppel Bay where navy ships docked that now house condos boasting harbor views. Then of course, the POW prison in Outram Road; just down the street from the small bookstore I bought this very book from. It seems surreal and I wonder what Eric Lomax would think of his book being read in Singapore, right near the prison where he was held captive, by a half-Japanese residing in the country.
Lomax located and went on to meet his captor in Thailand, fifty years after the war. When he saw Nagase, his interrogation translator, the man that gave him nightmares for the same fifty years, he said, “Good morning Mr. Nagase. How are you,” in Japanese. I will always remember them in the grim Tokyo war museum, laughing at their own inside joke – a strangely wonderful joke between captee and captor.
“We stood for twelve hours with our backs to that hut. The nerves and flesh of the back become terribly sensitive and vulnerable when turned to an enemy. At any moment I expected to feel a rife-butt on my spine, a bayonet thrust between my shoulder-blades. All we heard was their talk, their occasional rough laughter.”
“With each passing day we felt better. We each found that our skin was losing the intense black of bruising; pale patches began to show up as our bodies mended themselves. The physical healing happens so fast; it is the rest that takes time.”
“Work and the strong pull of the currents that run through everyday life – no matter how threatening they can seem to someone whose memories are bad – give the illusion of sweeping us away from the past.”
JohannaAirth 