Serge Ou, director of a powerful WWII documentary film Under a Bamboo Sky, joins 8CCC's Kate Lyons-Dawson to delve into the unexpected direction surrender affected soldiers in the Asian conflicts, where mateship became a necessity for survival and humanity was never the same again. The conditions and events the POWs experienced have been brought to life in the testimonies and remarkable footage, coloured and digitally manipulated, years in the making. You can check it out for yourself this Sunday 19 April 3.30pm at Alice Springs Cinema.British-led forces surrendered to the Japanese in Singapore in Feb 1942, but what do we know of the Australian POWs? That they were sent to Japan coal mines or worked on the wharves alongside Japanese civilians, encountered the Allies’ bombing raids and the two atomic bombs? Who learned that in school? There were 15 000 initial Australian POWs, with another 7 000 joining later from Java, Timor and other actions, and only two thirds returned home. Hear 63 voices captured 50 years after the war reflect on that important time in our history.
