Banzai, You Bastards

The story of the hell-mine of Kinkaseki ranks with the Bridge over the River Kwai as one of the most appalling episodes of the war in the Far East. Yet until now it has been known only to a few.

At Kinkaseki, on the island of Taiwan, Allied POWs were forced by the Japanese to slave underground, year after year, in conditions of extreme danger, subjected to savage floggings if weakness or illness prevented them from digging their required quota of copper ore. Starved, tortured, ravaged by dysentery, they died in hundreds.

Written by one of the men who survived, who has since fought ceaselessly for compensation, Banzai, You Bastards! describes with moving simplicity the indomitable spirit of men who refused to be beaten into submission. An important first-hand document of history, it publishes for the first time a copy of the secret order from the Japanese High Command to massacre all POWs and 'leave no traces'. This order, known only to a select, secret committee of prisoners, which included the author, hung over them for nearly a year before the A Bombs and until they were released by the US Marines, after the surrender of the Japanese in September 1945.

This book records one of the most terrible aspects of warfare. Its closing words "None of us should forget" have been choses for use on six War Memorials to date in Thailand, Singapore, New Zealand and Yeovilton, England.