The book is not as graphic regarding the horrors of the POWs’ treatment as Louis Zamperini recounts in Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand. There is satisfaction in realizing that Eric Lomax does not die a tormented, lonely old man. This section makes slogging through the rest of the book bearable. Slowly, he finds peace through forgiveness and reconciliation with one man who served as translator at his trial. He suffers from nightmares, failed relationships, obscure job assignments, regrets and an overwhelming desire to make those who tortured and mistreated him pay for their crimes. The final third of the book outlines his post-war maladjusted adulthood. This portion of the text closes with their liberation in August 1945, his rehabilitation in India and repatriation in Scotland. He details the brutal conditions and regimen at Outram and shares the brief respite he gets when sent to Changi Prison for hospitalization.
Through perseverance and ingenuity, Lomax survives this ordeal and finds ways to alleviate his and his fellow prisoner’s suffering a little bit. They are assigned to the most horrific prison in the region on Outram Road. When he does not give the answers they want to hear, he is tortured.Įventually, he and the others are transferred back to Singapore to serve their sentences for subversive activity. Later on, Lomax is singled out for repeated questioning about his role, the role of the others and a map he made of the area. Lomax and several others including Thew are taken from Kanchanaburi to a location near Ban Pong for a violent examination, beatings and detainment. No one knows how the Japanese got wind of their radio, or if they found it on a random search.
Fellow POW Lance Thew operates it under his blanket while other POWs stand guard near the hut. They built the small 9” by 4” receiver to hear news about the war from Allied broadcasts. Their life is hard but it turns deadly when a small primitive radio receiver is found in their possession. He and some fellow officers are charged with keeping the support vehicles operational. Lomax escapes the hard physical labor of building the railway. In reality, POWs had very little to eat for the duration of their captivity.
#The railway man eric lomax movie
The POWs are the workforce to build the railway giving their very lives for it.Īs an aside, Lomax comments that the movie “Bridge on the River Kwai,” set in the same area where he was a POW, is unrealistic in so many ways including how well fed the prisoners appear. After a short stay at Changi Prison in Singapore, thousands of POWs, including Lomax, are conveyed up the Malaysian peninsula to the prison camps set up along the projected Burma Railway. Lomax recalls lining a route along the main roads in Singapore with 50,000 other POWs standing two-men deep while trucks carrying cameramen filmed the spectacle for propaganda to show Japanese back home. The middle third of the book recounts this time period. The bulk of his active duty was spent as a POW in Burma. He arrives there shortly before the surrender of Singapore in February 1942. He finds he loves the freedom as well as the pursuit of the hobby.Īs he grows to manhood, he chooses to join the war effort through the Royal Corps of Signals becoming a Royal Signals officer second lieutenant, assigned to Singapore with the 5th Field Regiment, Royal Artillery of the British Army. This new pastime also frees the young boy from close parental scrutiny. He rides his bicycle to view trains as they pass by in nearby villages.
The only child of strict, inflexible parents, Lomax pursues his newly formed interest with vigor. Stations, rails, obscure tracks and locomotives, freight yards and paintings of trains all hold his attention no matter where they are found. Actually he is attracted to most anything that is railway connected. The book begins with a look back at the early years of Lomax’s life with an emphasis on his train infatuation. The story is Lomax’s seizure by the Japanese in 1942 and how he copes, what he endures as a prisoner of war and in later years, and finally how he reconciles his experiences. Still, Railway Man: A POW’s Searing Account of War, Brutality and Forgiveness, is not a good title for this book because his love of trains is only the backdrop for the story and not the story itself. Enduring a lonely childhood, trains capture his imagination in a way radio and other machines close to hand do not. As a 13-year-old he discovers steam locomotives and remains fascinated with them his entire life. Scotsman Eric Lomax loves trains and railways with ardent passion.
Railway Man: A POW's Searing Account of War, Brutality and Forgiveness tells of Lomax's seizure by the Japanese in 1942 and how he copes as a prisoner of war and in later years. Railway Man: A POW's Searing Account of War, Brutality and Forgiveness
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