The Railway Man: A Pow's Searing Account of War, Brutality and Forgiveness [Hardcover]

Eric Lomax (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1995

Soon to be the basis of a major film for BBC-TV, the autobiography of a World War II British prisoner of war tells of his captivity and torture by Japanese soldiers, one of whom he meets fifty years later.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Eric Lomax, a British army soldier, was captured by the Japanese during the Singapore campaign of 1942. A railroad buff since a child, he took strange pleasure in his work as a POW on the Burma-Siam Railroad, which was later the subject of the film Bridge Over the River Kwai. When his captors discovered his detailed drawings of the railway, he was suspected as a spy and tortured for years. Fifty years later he discovered that the interpreter during his tortures was still alive. The two arranged a meeting and Lomax forgave him. Here is the exciting, moving and truthful account. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

Lomax, a British Army signals officer, was captured by the victorious Japanese during the Singapore campaign in 1942. Fascinated by railroads ever since his childhood in Edinburgh, he took what pleasure he could in the irony of his slave-labor assignment as a POW: the construction of the Burma-Siam Railroad, made famous later in the David Lean film Bridge over the River Kwai. When guards discovered his lovingly detailed map of the right-of-way, Lomax was turned over to the Japanese secret police as a suspected spy. In the subsequent torture sessions, the interpreter, a young man named Nagase Takeshi, played a prominent role in the effort to break him down. Half a century later, by what he calls "an incredible and precious coincidence," Lomax learned that Takeshi was still living. A meeting of reconciliation at the Kwai River, which Lomax at first suspected was a fraudulent publicity stunt, was arranged. His graceful and restrained account of how the two men eventually became "blood-brothers" after Lomax granted Takeshi full forgiveness is deeply moving.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 276 pages
• Publisher: W W Norton & Co Inc (September 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393039102
• ISBN-13: 978-0393039108
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #148,754 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #51 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Ethnic & National > Japanese

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The human side of war, October 17, 1996

By A Customer

This review is from: The Railway Man: A Pow's Searing Account of War, Brutality and Forgiveness (Hardcover)

In this work of Eric Lomax, one finds direct contrasts between
brutality and meekness, revenge and forgiveness. The author
was a signals officer in the Pacific Theater of the war and
was captured after the fall of Singapore. He was then sent to
the POW camps involved in the construction of the then Siam-
Burma railway (Remember the "Bridge Over the River Kwai"?).
There he had first-hand experience of the Japanese's brutal
treatment of POWs, himself included. He never forgot the face
of the Japanese interpreter accompanying the soldier who beat
him to a pulp. He narrates how he had to cope psychologically
with normal life after the war, how his wartime experiences
kept on haunting him. Coincidentally, he chances upon some
information regarding a Japanese trying to make reparations
for his wartime brutalities, and indeed confirms that this
was his former tormentor. After a lot of soul-searching, he
finally meets the Japanese in a war memorial beside the Kwai
River bridge, and the process of reconciliation and healing
begins. A very touching story of man's capacity to perhaps
not to forget, but yes, to forgive.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Special Book, April 28, 2003

By 

Stephan H. Small (Fairfield, IA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Railway Man: A Pow's Searing Account of War, Brutality and Forgiveness (Hardcover)

This is a book that will move you. Eric Lomax is a man of depth, intelligence and keen perception. His writing is vivid, his story one that you can't put down. I strongly urge anyone interested in what the POW experience is like, and anyone interested in a powerful story, to buy and read this book.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Deeply moving, October 12, 2006

By 

T. J. Martin "TJ Martin" (Saugus, MA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Railway Man: A Pow's Searing Account of War, Brutality and Forgiveness (Hardcover)

I read this book when it was first published about ten years ago and the moving experience has remained with me since I finished the final sentence. It is an incredibly vivid book that you will not be able to put down.

What Eric Lomax went through as a POW, and his eventual reconciliation with one of his torturers 50 years later displays a depth of humanity that is deeply moving.