(13 Aug 1995) English/Nat
As veterans of the war in Asia prepare to commemorate the 50th anniversary of VJ day, many are still coming to terms with the horrors they endured.
But one former prisoner of war of the Japanese a slave labourer on the notorious "Death Railway" in Thailand has found peace and contentment in a most unusual way.
As Trevor Dakin gazes at the Bridge on the River Kwai, the memories come flooding back.
From 1942 to 1945 he and thousands of others prisoners of war were forced to build this bridge and railway under the harsh rule of the Japanese.
Disease, torture and executions took the lives of more than 13-thousand Allied prisoners enslaved to what became known as the 'Death Railway' .
Fifty years ago, almost blind from malnutrition, weighing only 90 pounds, 25 year old Trevor Dakin survived to hear what he calls the 'sweetest words of his life'.
SOUNDBITE:
'Our N.C.O, a Company sergeant Goodwin ran into the hut, tears streaming down his face, and said 'we're free boys, we're free!' We sat there numb we could not believe it. That I will always remember'
SUPERCAPTION: Trevor Dakin, P.O.W on 'Death Railway'
After the war Dakin moved to Canada but spent decades fighting his own personal war , trying to get over the hatred he felt towards the Japanese.
In an attempt to chase away the ghosts of the past he returned to Thailand eight years ago.
He has lived here ever since and claims to have found peace in the land that once caused him such pain
SOUNDBITE:
' I can assure you that after my years here I have seen the other side of it. I've laid that ghost to rest and recognized you cannot live until you die with that kind of hate in your heart. Its like a cancer. It destroys you. No, I value these years here because its done a considerable amount for me personally.
SUPERCAPTION: Trevor Dakin, P.O.W on 'Death Railway'
Today the tourists try to imagine the torture and the starvation that thousands in South East Asia suffered under Japanese occupation.
Not just Allied prisoners of war but over 100-thousand Asian slave labourers, buried where they fell, alongside the tracks they were forced to lay.
Trevor Dakin says the Japanese brutality left many wishing they had died in the fighting once the true awfulness of their plight dawned on them
SOUNDBITE:
I'd like to tell the whole free world that you can never appreciate freedom until you have lost it. I can assure you that if we had foresight of the three and a half years we spent I think we would rather have gone down in battle.
SUPERCAPTION: Trevor Dakin, P.O.W on 'Death Railway'
On Tuesday (August 15th) several Japanese war veterans will visit this Allied cemetery in Kanchanaburi to personally apologize.
Trevor Dakin will be there to welcome them having put the past behind him.
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