Bob Christie spent years in a Japanese Prisoner of War camp as one of the labour gangs which built the Thai-Burma railway. Reg Mahoney was a POW in Changi.

Bob Christie and his fellow prisoners were subjected to starvation diets, beatings, 20 hour working days and tropical diseases. Along with helping each other, Bob attributes his survival to mates, a positive attitude and simply not giving up, even when he was ravaged with cholera.

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Reg Mahoney had been in Changi and various camps in Thailand. During that time he kept a diary, writing on any scrap of paper he could get hold of.

He buried the diary to avoid detection and almost certain death if detected by the Japanese guards. He dug up the diaries and took them with him each time they moved camp.

When the war ended he was at No 5 Camp, Nacom Nai. One of his first actions was to write a long letter to his brother Jim describing his feelings at the end of the war.

EXTRACT OF LETTER TO BROTHER JIM

"...Have had 28 letters or cards from you, Mum, Dad, Jean, Babs and Fred. Thank you all for the brightest spots in 3 years. And three snaps were never worth more to anyone. We are sweating now for more mail, papers and evidence of a white man's world.

"Our cry once was "If only we were free" but this waiting is harder to bear than we expected. The novelty of working freely with no coolie work under our barbaric hosts is beginning to wear off and who can blame the boys for getting on the Thai whisky, kin to metho? Have no inclination for it myself.

"When the Yank paratroop medical orderly drew his chow last night, he cried: "God, you guys been living on this?" "Ho, that's 100 per cent better than we've been living on for 3 years." "That's just shit," he said, throwing out the rice and stew, thick with meat, veg. and beans. He walked to his kit and opened a tin of bully and biscuit. God knows what he'd have said about our Jungle "pap" or melon water..."

REG MAHONEY