Eric Lomax, 'death railway' prisoner of war, dies aged 93

[John Ashworth]

Eric Lomax, 'death railway' prisoner of war, dies aged 93

Lomax was among thousands of POWs forced by the Japanese to construct the Thailand-Burma line during second world war

Press Association
guardian.co.uk, Monday 8 October 2012 21.04 BST

Prisoner of war Eric Lomax, whose moving memoir about working on the "death railway" in Thailand has been turned into a film starring Colin Firth, has died at the age of 93.

Lomax, who was captured at the fall of Singapore in 1942, was among thousands of servicemen who were used as slave labour by the Japanese on the railway.

Years later he came to terms with his treatment by meeting his interrogator from torture sessions and writing about his experiences in his book, The Railway Man.

Lomax, who was from Edinburgh, died in the early hours of Monday morning in Berwick-upon-Tweed.

Rachel Cugnoni, of his publisher, Vintage Books, said: "The Railway Man was one of the landmark books of the 1990s.

"It tells Eric's incredible and moving story with grace, modesty and exceptional humility. All characteristics Eric had as a man.

"It is a book that stands as a testament to the great capacity of the human spirit for forgiveness and we are honoured to have published it."

His book has been adapted this year for a movie in which Oscar-winning star Firth plays him in later life, with Jeremy Irvine playing him in his younger days.

Lomax was a signals officer who was captured with many other Allies in Singapore and held at the island's Changi jail. He was then taken to the Thai town of Kanchanaburi, where he worked on the railway link to Burma.

The horrific conditions of the prisoners as they built the line, with a terrible loss of life, famously formed the basis of David Lean's 1957 film, The Bridge On The River Kwai.

Lomax endured savage beatings when guards found a radio he had helped to build within his prison camp.

He went on to become a lecturer at Strathclyde University, but was haunted by his treatment and met the interpreter who had interrogated him while he was tortured, Takashi Nagase, after he wrote about his remorse in a book.

Lomax's wife, Patti, contacted Nagase and both men returned to Kanchanaburi to meet in 1993 and eventually became friends.

Andy Paterson, the producer of the new film, said: "The cast and crew of The Railway Man are deeply saddened to hear of Eric Lomax's death. All our thoughts today are with his family.

"We remember with great pleasure Eric's and Patti's visit to the set in Berwick-upon-Tweed just a few months ago.

"In true Eric style he was intensely interested in the arcane machinery of filmmaking and keen to know the gauge of the track along which our camera crane ran.

"Eric spoke for thousands of men who felt their service and sacrifice had gone unnoticed.

"Whilst we are heartbroken that he will not be with us at the premiere, he lived long enough to see some early images from the film and to share our hopes that this new version of his story will help ensure that the men who suffered with him – and the families who had to cope with the legacy – would never be forgotten."

Lomax was born on 30 May 1919 in Edinburgh and was a Royal Signals officer attached to the 5th Field Regiment, Royal Artillery. He was commissioned into the Royal Corps of Signals in 1940 and was a lieutenant when he was captured by the Japanese at the fall of Singapore.

In 1945, Lomax returned to Edinburgh following three and half years of interrogation and torture. He was awarded the Efficiency Medal (Militia) in 1949 and was granted the honorary rank of captain.

Lomax wrote about his experiences during the war and his reconciliation with one of his former torturers on the The Forgiveness Project website, which is a UK charity that explores how reconciliation can be used to help people's lives.

He wrote: "After my retirement in 1982, I started searching for information about what had happened in Siam. The need to know is powerful. In the course of my search I learnt that Nagase Takashi – my interrogator and torturer – had offered to help others with information.

"I learnt that he was still alive, active in charitable works, and that he had built a Buddhist temple. I was sceptical. I couldn't believe in the notion of Japanese repentance. I strongly suspected that if I were to meet him I'd put my hands round his neck and do him in.

"After our meeting I felt I'd come to some kind of peace and resolution. Forgiveness is possible when someone is ready to accept forgiveness. Some time the hating has to stop."

[Nathan Berelowitz]

This is indeed very sad. I have a copy of the book and it is powerfull reading. The way he describes a steam locomotive in these pages is absolutely magnificent, and the way he endured the terrible treatment during his imprisonment will certainly leave a long lasting impression. So sad. RIP.

[John Ashworth]

Eric Lomax obituary

Prisoner of war who made peace with his tormentor and wrote an acclaimed memoir, The Railway Man

Dan van der Vat
The Guardian, Tuesday 9 October 2012 19.16 BST

The experience of three and a half years of slave labour and torture as a prisoner of war of the Japanese, on the notorious Burma-Siam railway, dominated the rest of the life of Eric Lomax, who has died aged 93. His 1995 memoir, The Railway Man, is a classic of its kind, and work on a major feature film based on it is well advanced for release next year.

It was only when he was in his 7os that Lomax achieved a kind of peace, by meeting Takashi Nagase, one of the men who had interrogated and tortured him, and striking up an unlikely but profound friendship with him after they met in Thailand.

Lomax was born in Edinburgh and on leaving school at 16 began a career in telephone engineering with the Post Office. Realising when Hitler invaded Czechoslovakia in 1938 that war was inevitable, he postponed his wedding plans and volunteered for the army aged 19, joining the Royal Signals and earning a commission as a subaltern in 1940.

His unit was in Singapore at the end of 1941 when the Japanese launched their great assault across a front stretching from the Malayan peninsula to the central Pacific. An all-conquering, lightning march down the Indochina peninsula brought 30,000 Japanese troops to the Strait of Johor, between Malaya and Singapore Island. The British garrison numbered nearly 140,000 but was in total chaos, under‑equipped with no aircraft or tanks, demoralised and disorganised. General Arthur Percival surrendered the island on 15 February 1942 – the greatest defeat in British military history.

The prisoners – British, Australian, Indian and Malayan - were initially force-marched to Changi, which rapidly became an overcrowded and insanitary concentration camp. From there, many thousands went to Burma to work on the railway to Siam (now known as Thailand) in appalling conditions. Brutal interrogations and gratuitous torture became routine.

Despite their suffering, Lomax and fellow prisoners managed to build a radio to try to keep in touch with the progress of the war. They also drew up a map of their area of confinement with a view to escape. But in August 1943 they were caught; 10 men were arrested, severely beaten (two died) and moved to a special prison for prolonged torture. Lomax "escaped" by throwing himself down a flight of steps in order to be sent to hospital.

One in three western prisoners of the Japanese are estimated to have died. Lomax thought David Lean's admired 1957 film, The Bridge on the River Kwai, was a sanitised epic that fell short of the truth. The censors would never have allowed the reality to be shown, he felt.

After the war, he stayed on in the army for two years and then joined the colonial service in what became Ghana. In 1955 he went into personnel management before taking up a post at Strathclyde University as a lecturer in industrial relations, retiring in 1982.

"People thought I was coping," he told an interviewer later in life, "but inside I was falling apart … I had no self‑worth, no trust in people and lived in a world of my own. The privacy of the torture victim is more impregnable than any fortress." He admitted that in some ways his family was made to pay for his suffering, and that he conceived an intense and implacable hatred for Japanese people. His first marriage broke up under the strain.

Lomax dreamed of getting his hands round the neck of his tormentor and beating him to death. On his retirement, he embarked on a long and painstaking period of research, looking for the man who had tortured him. Nagase turned out to be still alive and engaged in charitable work: he had even built a Buddhist temple in Thailand to atone for what he had done in the war.

In 1987 Lomax sought support from the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture, now Freedom from Torture, which helped him surmount his memories and attain a kind of catharsis. Encouraged by his second wife, Patti, who made the initial contact by letter, he went to Thailand a few years later to meet Nagase on seeing his compassionate and apologetic reply.

They met at the bridge over the Kwai, an event which was filmed as part of a prizewinning documentary. Lomax had arrived in anything but conciliatory mood but was taken aback by the deep contrition of the Japanese veteran. After a few days in each other's company, they got to talking and even laughing about their wartime experiences.

Lomax's autobiography appeared in 1995 to great acclaim, winning two literary prizes. The book is an unusual memoir, in that it includes the results of interviews with witnesses, as well as an account of Lomax's own experiences. It formed the basis of a docudrama entitled Prisoners in Time later that year, starring John Hurt as Lomax. The feature film will have the same title as the book, with Colin Firth as Lomax and Nicole Kidman as his wife.

Lomax is survived by Patti and by Charmaine, his daughter from his first marriage.

• Eric Sutherland Lomax, prisoner of war and writer, born 30 May 1919; died 8 Octobe

[Nathan Berelowitz]

Thanks John for bringing this to my attention. I have passed on the news to John Dadford who is currently reading the book.I have tried to find the docudrama filmed when they met on the bridge but have had no luck. With your keyboard talents perhaps you can trace it.

[John Ashworth]

There's a short YouTube "tribute" at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ladeBDc8Ldk but it's not the docudrama.

I believe the docudrama is entitled "Enemy, My Friend?", but I can't immediately find any details of it.

I was really struck by the words in the obituary:

It was only when he was in his 70s that Lomax achieved a kind of peace, by meeting Takashi Nagase, one of the men who had interrogated and tortured him, and striking up an unlikely but profound friendship with him

As I'm in the reconciliation and forgiveness business, it's always heartening to see it being put into practice.

[Nathan Berelowitz]

Enemy my Friend, is the one. I tried to google it, yes I can do some stuff!, but could not track it. See if your lucky.

[M. Hardy-Randall]

The docudrama was titled 'Prisoners in Time'. I ahve not located it yet, maybe somebody a little more keyboard savvy will succeed.