Reassessing the Japanese Prisoner of War Experience: The Changi Prisoner of War Camp in Singapore, 1942-45

This book explores the history of the Changi Prisoner of War camp at Singapore between the surrender in 1942 and the eventual liberation by British forces in September 1945. Changi was the largest camp maintained by the Japanese, and it was from here that most POWs began their journeys to that notorious example of mistreatment of POWs, the Burma-Thailand railway. Although Changi has generally been considered in similar terms as the railway, a site of brutality and Japanese indifference to their captors, this book demonstrates that life at the former British base was very different. For the thousands of British, Australian, Indian and Malay troops captured at Singapore in February 1942, captivity meant three long years of disease, neglect and starvation. Yet the POWs at Changi responded to captivity with courage and imagination, and through ingenuity and tremendous resilience created a vibrant prison camp community. In this history, the author discusses the forms of POW resistance to the Japanese, andexamines the ways in which they improved their material position at the camp.

R. P. W. Havers is currently Senior Lecturer in War Studies at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst.