Hellfire pass

Unstoppable but hellish read

Hellfire Pass
Cameron Forbes
Pan Macmillan Australia
480 pages, $45.00

Undoubtedly one of the best books I’ve ever read on the Thai Burma railway and the plight of prisoners of the Japanese during WW2.

Drawn on 50 first-person interviews conducted in Australia, Japan and South-East Asia, Forbes describes the plight of the 13,000 Allied prisoners of war and more than 90,000 conscripted Asian labourers that were killed while building the railway between 1942 and 1945.

The title Hellfire, is instantly recognisable to many as the place name synonymous with PoW pain and suffering at the hands of the Japanese, and as a place that will stand for all time as an epitaph to the thousands of unmarked graves that line an unused railway line that has been mostly reclaimed by the jungle.

Sure, there’s heaps of books on this, so does Hellfire expose anything new?

I suppose not, but in this 60th anniversary year since the end of WW2, it’s ever increasingly important that we remember our history and have these stories told and retold. Forbes has gathered first person accounts which are an unstopable read.

From the escape attempts of Sparrow Force captives, and surviving the sinking of HMAS Perth, to the vicious maltreatment of Australian nurses and Dutch civilian women, it’s hard to put it down.

But what I think makes this book stand out, is it adds something many other on this subject neglect.

The first few chapters give a brief outline of the racial tension and Australia’s relationship with the Japanese before, during and after WW1, and of the political and economic factors that influenced Japan in its decision to enter WW2.

Forbes has spent a great deal of time researching and writing Hellfire, and I think among the host of books released on the topick this year, this one’s the pick of the bunch.

– CPL Damian Shovell