Six decades have passed since World War II but for those who were captured while serving their countries the memories have not diminished.
Many stories of horror and brutality have been told over the years by those who survived and some of the worst conditions were endured in the parts of Asia invaded by the Japanese.
Despite their experiences a group of veterans has created a memorial near Lichfield in honour of those who died building the Sumatra Railway for their Japanese captors in 1944 and 1945.
Around 700 Allied POWs and 25,000 native Indonesians, called Romushas, perished constructing the 140 mile track, which was never used.
One Dutch author dubbed it 'The Death Railway Through The Jungle'.
Now a plinth and stretch of track, officially unveiled at the National Memorial Arboretum at a special service yesterday (15th August) - the anniversary of VJ Day - will stand both as a permanent tribute to them and as a symbol of peace. There are only a few British survivors remaining. One is 83-year-old Jack Plant, from Great Wyrley, who has led the drive to establish the memorial.
He explained that the design for the memorial was inspired by a sketch drawn by a late veteran of the railway, Owen Greenwood.
Track has been place on a raised embankment and a plinth has been built with mounted plaques that tell the story of the railway.
Trees are to be planted on either side of the track so that in years to come it will look as it did in Sumatra.
Jack added that the sketch is evocative of the railway. "When we look at the sketch we can smell the jungle again."
'You learned to do
what the guards said'
Originally from West Bromwich, Jack was just 21 when World War II broke out. After 2 years at bomber command where he was employed as a medic he was posted to Malaya in Asia which was still at peace.
Jack was based at RAF Sungei Patani when the Japanese began their offensive, bombing Pearl Harbour in Hawaii and a host of other air force bases including his own on December 8 1941.
"It was clear that the Japanese were very well prepared," he recalls.
The Japanese worked their way through Thailand and Malaya swiftly.
Jack was posted to Java but the Japanese invasion continued and he was eventually captured on the island in March 1942.
Jack was taken to Jaarmarkt Camp where he was among 10,000 other POWs who suffered terrible conditions and physical abuse.
"When you passed a guard you had to bow to him - if you failed to do that you were given a beating" said Jack.
"You had to play the game and you learned to do what they wanted very quickly."
Jack was then shipped to Haruku in the Spice Islands where he described the task of helping to build an airfield for his captors as a 'terrible time'.
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His work on the railway began when he was taken to Sumatra in May 1944. The conditions were terrible.
Prisoners‘ accounts have told that death was no stranger in the camps. They were overworked, underfed, provided with little medicine and subjected to constant physical and mental abuse by the Japanese.
Workers had to endure leeches and the risk of contracting diseases such as malaria and dysentery. The work was back breaking.
Heat or monsoon,
work never ceased
Some teams of men had to carry rails which were 15 metres long and weighed three quarters of a ton in sweltering heat.
And the work never ceased - even in the monsoon it continued where slipping could mean a broken limb or even death. Throughout their ordeal, the men were forced to work harder and the guards were particularly brutal, prodding prisoners to work faster with bayonets.
Jack reserves particular sympathy for the Romushas. "The Japanese told them that it would be a good thing to work to get rid of the foreigners.
"But they chain-ganged them into working. They were given no food, no clothes, bedding or shelter and those that died had no grave and no record was made of their death. "After they were taken to work, many never say their families again."
Jack explained that some of those native labourers were so badly treated they begged from the allies - some 25,000 of them died.
'Many workers never
saw family again'
Thousands of slave labourers being shipped over from Java never even reached Sumatra, their ships being sunk en route.
The 140-mile Sumatra railway was intended to be for the movement of coal and troops, and was to run across the central portion of the island, inland from Pakenbaroe on the northeast coast to meet up with an existing railway at Muaoro in the west of the island.
But construction did not begin until after completion of its notorious counterpart, the Burma-Siam railway, and work wen on for a year, by which time the tide of war was turning against Japan.
It is believed the railway was never even used by Japanese troops.
After the war Jack was Mentioned in Dispatches at the behest of King George VI.
he received the Oak Leaves decoration 'in recognition of gallant and distinguished service whilst a prisoner of war in Japanese hands'.
Jack explained that there are three principles behind the memorial; to provide a monument so that everybody is remembered, to promote reconciliation and to promote peace.
"We are in no way jingoistic - everybody is welcome. We see no point in continuing the hatred."
Jack said that he and his comrades have hoped to establish a memorial ever since the war ended.
The result has been one year in the making. "We wanted everything to be just right," he added.
The National Memorial Arboretum is a fitting tribute to the brave servicemen of every nationality who gave their lives.
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 The memorial plinth to Prisoners of War who died building the Sumatra Railway is a symbol of reconciliation.
It stands at the end of a length of railway track resembling that which was built by the soldiers and forced labourers.
On each face is a plaque which, combined, give details of the history of the ill-fated railway, its conception, the personnel who built it and how it was constructed.
This is an interesting feature of the memorial which informs visitors of its significance.
Japanese and European maple and cherry trees have also been planted at the memorial as a symbol of reconciliation between former enemies.
The National Memorial Arboretum praised the generosity of sponsors Forest Enterprise, which carved the railway sleepers, Railtrack, which provided the track, and Ibstock, which built the plinth. |
