Island Life Magazine Ltd February/March 2011 | Page 34

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Island Life - February/March 2011

Self portrait of the artist who drew these
line drawings pictured in Island Life. Ronald
Searle. (1942)
The Japanese frequently be-headed anyone
who got in the way of a Japanese soldier,
the poor victims were mainly Chinese or
Malaysian. This practise was common place
throughout Singapore during the 40's. They
also used them for rifle and bayonet practise.
Many Chinese people were killed in this
horrific way.

down, so that when we finished the

“But if you happened to bend down in

continue laying the line the following

trains could run virtually straight away.

the hole, the air would go out the back

The idea was to complete the railway

of the helmet, and the water would

line all the way to Burma.”

come in the front, and there you were

mood changed to one of deep emotion.

with a helmet full of water. But we

He said: “We were moved by night,

completed, work began on the concrete

managed to dig out the foundations,

and I was near the back of the column.

and steel bridge. The plan was to

and then the holes were filled with

One man next to me fell down because

build concrete pillars with ‘shoulders’

hand-mixed concrete. We were still

he couldn’t go any further. He was just

on the top to carry the rail track. Jim

down in the hole making sure it went in

lying there by the track, and the Jap

explained: “We had to go into the river

the right place.

soldiers would not allow anyone to stay

After the wooden bridge was

and dig out the soil and mud. When

morning.
Suddenly, but not surprisingly Jim’s

“So if you can imagine it, we were

with him or go to help him. He just had

we had done so much wooden shutters

standing in water, in this wooden

were pushed into the hole, and then

box type construction, with concrete

The railway eventually stretched

you had to stand inside them to dig out

coming in on top of us. Basically we

all the way to Burma, well over 200

more stuff.

had to stand as near to the side of the

kilometres, and all built by the prisoners

to lie there on his own and die.”

“That’s how the foundations were

hole as possible and put our shovel over

of war, with picks and shovels. “It

put in, but eventually with the water

our head to protect ourselves when the

didn’t matter to them if someone

running into the hole you were working

concrete was poured in.”

fell off a construction and was killed,

neck-deep in water. So what did the

Eventually the construction was built

because labour was cheap. We were

Japs do? They found some copper

and the railway lines installed on the

given two bowls of rice each day as

divers’ helmets, with an air valve on the

bridge. But the slave labour did not

food, but not rice as we know it. The

top. Two guys then pumped air down to

end there. The men were marched

bugs in it were the vitamins, and it was

you so you could keep working.

each night to the head of the track to

bloody horrible, but we were starving

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