Sketch by Jack Chalker

THE RISING SUN ON MY BACK

A Personal Account of War

1939 - 1945

by

L/Bdr (Art) E.S. BENFORD R.A.

Army No. 856255

Served during the Malay Campaign with 11th Indian Division, 350th Battery, 137th (TA) Field Regiment R.A. This book is an autobiography of Ernest S. Benford’s life during World War II, 1939 - 1945, in which he was a prisoner of the Japanese Imperial Army. The postscript also gives a brief resume of his life after returning home and shows how being a prisoner of war of the Japanese for 3 ½ years affected him, particularly in later years.

Sadly, he did not live to see his autobiography printed. He died on the 14th June, 1984, after suffering a heart attack three months earlier.

Your death lies in my heart;

The wound of it will come

together, the bruises fade.

The hurt will never go,

but I will touch your

memory gently, so it will

not disappear.

DEDICATION

I dedicate my story to those who were and are not now, and to Dad who was always concerned for my safety and fearful for my life, yet tragically lost his own in Kanchanaburi Hospital?

Camp, on 24^th April, 1994

 Introduction

 Training

 Sailing

 Malaya

 Singapore

 Changi

 Rest Camps

 Speedo

 Kuala Lumpur

 Kachidaki Maru

 Kibibi Maru

 Fukuoka

 Nagasaki

 Postscript

I was crucified in Tarsau

and again close by Hintoc -

I was whipped along the River Valley Road;

I was driven pierced and bleeding,

With a million maggots feeding

on the body that I carried for my load.

Yet my heart was still unbroken

and my hopes were still unquenched,

‘til I love my cross to blighty thro’ a crowd.

Soldiers stabbed me on that road.

But at home, I dropped my load

When politicians broke my legs and made

my shroud.

At Westminster my poor body,

Wrapped in linen of fine words,

was perfumed with their sweetly-scented lies,

and they laid me in the tomb,

of their golden-mirrored room,

with the other lads who had refused to die.

Bill Duncan.  Died 1968.

Far Eastern Heroes would like to thank Arthur Lane for allowing this book to be printed on these pages

Please email arthurlane.nesanews@ntlworld.com for the availability of this book

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and their story will live on.