With
constant conflicts and wars all around us, I remembered reading The
Missing Years (ISBN 9-7818-770-5877-6, Rosenberg Publishing, 2009)
written by Chiang Mai expat Stu Lloyd. A timeless book of times I wish we
could forget, but cannot. This book details the experiences of Captain
Pilkington, a POW in WWII from Changi prison in Singapore to Hellfire Pass
in Thailand. His period as a POW was four years - the “missing years” which
author Stu Lloyd has meticulously researched and documented to produce this
book.
The book begins on February 14, 1942 with the memoirs of
Captain Pilkington who was in the Alexandra Military Hospital in Singapore,
recuperating from having been shot in the shoulder. He writes that he was
living in a world of fever and pain, but little did he know, as he wrote in
his diary, that worse, much worse, was to come.
What stands out from reading this book, is that no matter
the privations and cruelty, the POWs still managed to put on a brave face.
As well as cholera and dysentery, the POWs also suffered with beri-beri,
lice, scabies and bed bugs, tropical ulcers, diphtheria and malaria. “No
more gallant action was fought in the war than that of our desperately sick
men, against death. Day after day they willed themselves to live, knowing
their chances were almost non-existent.”
Captain Pilkington was an avid book-keeper as he has the
prices of all items noted, right down to the final cent. It also was
interesting that the POWs were actually paid a “wage” and from that had to
buy their own food. I must admit, I had never thought of their existence in
that way. However, they were very skilled at growing crops wherever they
were stationed.
I have never been a war buff. My father was also a POW,
but I do not hold grudges. It is the Geneva Convention that has me
flummoxed. The “It is OK to kill someone today, but because of some
circumstances, not tomorrow,” concept, is a situation that cannot morally be
defended.
The final chapter is emotionally heart-rending, and it
should be taken slowly, there is so much emotion between the lines.
Writing and researching this book was obviously a
watershed for author Stu Lloyd who admitted at the end of it all, “…after
years of vacillating ambiguity - I am now firmly, undeniably, resolutely
anti-war.” He went further, writing, “Every gravestone is not just a
casualty or statistic: it is someone’s son or daughter, someone’s flesh and
blood, a bundle of hopes and dreams cruelly and prematurely dashed.”
This book will also make you look at yourself and your
own attitudes. It should be made compulsory reading for all teenagers, of
all nationalities and religious persuasions. We are all capable of
atrocities, but surely we can keep that side of our characters under
control? However, when I read about Iraq and Afghanistan I have to say we
cannot. This grieves me.
Stu Lloyd’s book records a major milestone in the history
of WW II. Asia Books is handling distribution, so it may also appear in
Bookazine.
