... The radio put them in touch with the allied world and gave them hope, transmitting to them news of the fighting in the Pacific. Eric Lomax and his companions set about forming a chain of communication up and down the railway and spreading any news that they could glean. They saw this as ... Read review
Advantages: Astonishing story of suffering and forgiveness Disadvantages: None
As an officer in the Royal Signals, Eric Lomax was present at the fall of Singapore in February 1942. Like so many other men he was taken prisoner by the Japanese and transferred to a camp in Malaysia. And also like so many of them, Eric Lomax did not understand, when he was captured, the nature of the enemy. Lomax did not move up the railway line to work on the actual construction of the Burma – Siam railway, he was kept in a camp at Ban Pong, a ... ...Kanburi, a little further up the railway line. Conditions were extremely unpleasant: food was scarce and the shelter was inadequate and offered no protection from insects. Mosquitos, huge centipedes, scorpions and snakes were everywhere and malaria was rife. But his expertise as a signalman meant that Lomax was put to work helping Japanese engineers and mechanics, and so he avoided the hell of the railway work which took so many thousands of lives: ... more
As an officer in the Royal Signals, Eric Lomax was present at the fall of Singapore in February 1942. Like so many other men he was taken prisoner by the Japanese and transferred to a camp in Malaysia. And also like so many of them, Eric Lomax did not understand, when he was captured, the nature of the enemy. Lomax did not move up the railway line to work on the actual construction of the Burma – Siam railway, he was kept in a camp at Ban Pong, a large village at the southern end of the railway, and then for a while at Kanburi, a little further up the railway line. Conditions were extremely unpleasant: food was scarce and the shelter was inadequate and offered no protection from insects. Mosquitos, huge centipedes, scorpions and snakes were everywhere and malaria was rife. But his expertise as a signalman meant that Lomax was put to work helping Japanese engineers and mechanics, and so he avoided the hell of the railway work which took so many thousands of lives: British, Australian, Malaysian, Thai, Chinese and other nationalities.
He did not avoid hell altogether though. He and four others managed to build a small radio, which they hid in a rusty silver tin can. The radio put them in touch with the allied world and gave them hope, transmitting to them news of the fighting in the Pacific. Eric Lomax and his companions set about forming a chain of communication up and down the railway and spreading any news that they could glean. They saw this as a morale booster, and also as their duty, although they did not really think too hard about what they were doing. They could not attempt to escape, there were no walls keeping them in their camp, but they were surrounded by hostile jungle. Instead they did everything they could to slow down the work of the Japanese engineers and to spread news about the progress of the war. One day however, in the course of a search, their radio was discovered, and that was when the real hell began for Lomax.
Trains and Lomax’s fascination with them are at the core of this book. In fact they are a defining irony in Lomax’s life. As a boy growing up in Scotland he cycled for miles in his free time, travelling to out of the way stations in order to catch glimpses of particular engines, and trains and trainspotting signified freedom to him. As a young man setting out to war he waved goodbye to his parents at Scarborough railway station, with no idea where he was going, only to find himself the next morning at Joppa station, a short walk from his childhood home. He found a Scottish built engine at Cape Town station as he travelled east to India, and he travelled by train from Bombay to the foothills of the Himalayas on a wonderful epic railway journey. Later he met his wife on a train. Railways and trains were, to Lomax, entirely wonderful, marvellous examples of man’s ingenuity, machines to wonder at and enjoy. He even managed to appreciate the sight of the engines which took men up the line to work to death on the railway in Malaysia. The Burma – Siam railway was an instrument of death and torture so outrageous however, that it was only gradually that what was really happening seeped in to the consciousness of many of Lomax’s companions in Ban Pong and then in the Kanburi camp.
Along with his love of trains, Eric Lomax had a need. He needed to locate himself, to know exactly where he was in relation to other things. This need drove him to make a map of the railway, a general map, but, as he puts it, beautifully drawn. For some reason, one which he never fathomed himself, Lomax took this map with him, even when he and his companions in the radio crime were taken away from Kanburi to be interrogated and horribly tortured. He wonders, in this book, what drove him to take the map with him, since its discovery made his situation so much worse later on. I think though that this need to place himself helped him to survive his terrible experiences in Bangkok and later back in Changi. Lomax’s writing is very precise and observant. He is always clear about place and time, apart from when he is describing the worst of the torture (there is one appalling moment when he emerges from an interrogation thinking that it is evening, only to find that the sunset is, in fact, sunrise), and he seems to have had an inner strength of mind which made him able to be logical and methodical in everything he did, even in the direst circumstances.
The most remarkable part of this book comes after the torture though. After years of mental torment and after much upheaval in his private life, Eric Lomax came across a book written by the man who interpreted for him during his interrogation. This man witnessed much of what happened to Eric Lomax, and became to him the focus of his hatred and fear. In his book this man, whose name was Nagase, described a POW who is a railway fanatic and who has made a sketch of the Burma – Siam railway. I found the passage in which Lomax reads the account of his own suffering as described in Nagase’s book one of the most moving in this story. Eventually, Lomax and Nagase met in Malaysia and visited the site of the railway together. Their final meeting in Japan is so moving that I have never been able to describe it without crying. My own grandfather, who worked on the ‘death railway’ was never able to find the kind of peace which Eric Lomax achieved. I often wonder what he would have said about this book. Perhaps nothing. Most of the survivors of what happened on that line never spoke of their experiences, something which makes this book all the more precious.
There are so many remarkable things to take away from this book. The limits which the human body and mind can endure. The terrible things which it is necessary to do for survival. The time it takes to forgive and heal. It is a book which everyone should read and which no one should ever forget.
The Railway Man by Eric Lomax Published by Vintage ISBN 0099582317 Price: around £6.50 on Amazon
Advantages: A true story of one man's courage Disadvantages: Very distressing at times
...How wrong I was!
The RRP on this is £7.99, although if you shop around, it can be found online for a lot less (try Amazon marketplace for a price of about £3). I always shop around for my books, as I am a bit of a tightwad haha! But seriously I will happily pay for a second hand copy of a book, as sometimes it is just too expensive to buy it new.
Anyway, I digress and should really get back to the review of this book. Eric Lomax (the author) lived ... ...there, he attended school, joined the scouts, and developed a love of trains. I would not compare him to the normal idea of a trainspotter dressed in an anorak and carrying a notebook. But his love of the railway was more a love of the engineering and technical feats that made trains and railways.
In time, WW2 broke out and Lomax joined the Royal Signals. At first his job was more staying where he was and learning about radios but eventually he ...
bonsi6337 23.10.2008
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of The Railway Man - Eric Lomax
Advantages: Excellent clear writing. Disadvantages: Sad story!
This must be one of the most moving books I have ever read. It is simply amazing to read what these poor men had to go through under the hands and gaze of the Japanese! The sheer effort this must have taken to write is breathtaking. The memories that were no doubt dredged up and the feelings Mr Lomax had at the time of the events must have come flooding back to him.
Basically it is the story of his captivity and the brutal way the Japanese treated ... ...railway line. The brave thing I remember from the end of the book is the fact that Mr Lomax met with one of the Japanese who was his captors, and made friends with him. What a brave man and what a great story. Life changing. ...
Angelama 27.07.2000
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of The Railway Man - Eric Lomax
Advantages: A graphic picture of the horror of the life of a Prisoner of War in the Far East during World War 2 Disadvantages: None
...water tortured - choked to the point of death...
The author ,a lover of railways, spices this book with the beauty and power of steam trains as the harrowing memoir charts the Allied retreat from Malaya, the fall of Singapore, and then the brutality of P.O.W life in the Far East in World war 2 where ironically he works on the notorious Burma Railway project where, it has been estimated, one man died for every sleeper laid. Post Traumatic Stress ... ...post-war life. Finally in the 1990s he goes back to Thailand to see again the face of a former Japanese 'Gestapo' interpreter; a face that has haunted his nightmares for decades and brought a longing for retribution to his daydreams. Will he be able to forgive this man?
This book makes one realise and appreciate the utter beauty of freedom, good food, clean water, and mutual sympaphy, human understanding and harmony. ...
Pete222 08.08.2006
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of The Railway Man - Eric Lomax
Advantages: Remarkable, thought provoking Disadvantages: None
...must read mainly due to the fact that nothing can be as bad in life as the experiences Eric Lomax actually went thorugh.
I was intrigued by this and just had to find the book to read it, I quickly found out that i was not going to be disappointed by this story of unimaginable pain and suffering endured during the second world war in the prison camps of Asia.
The author goes into great detail about the torture he has suffered, sometimes not through ...
jonbag 13.06.2008
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of The Railway Man - Eric Lomax
The Railway Man is an autobiographical account by Eric Lomax. It starts with his younger days developing an enthusiasm for railways, a cruel irony sees the author taken prisoner by the Japanese following the fall of Singapore being forced to work on the infamous Burma railway. The story retells of the brutality and cruelty inflicted by the Japanese and in particular focuses on the hatred and loathing which Lomax developed for a particular English ...
BigCheese 17.06.2000
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of The Railway Man - Eric Lomax
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