Nagasaki

The Forgotten Prisoners

One of the most astonishing untold stories of the Second World War.

At 11.02am on 9 August 1945, America dropped the most powerful atomic bomb yet developed on the Japanese port of Nagasaki. The most European city in the world was flattened to the ground ‘as if it had been swept aside by a broom.’ More than 70,000 Japanese were killed. As the bomb dropped, hundreds of British, Australian, American, and Dutch prisoners were working as forced labourers close to the weapon’s detonation point. This is their hidden history.

The men had already endured an extraordinary lottery of life and death. They had lived through nearly four years of malnutrition, disease, and brutality.

In one of the greatest survival stories of the Second World War, the book traces the remarkable experiences of the prisoners back to the bloody battles in the Malayan jungle before the dramatic fall of Fortress Singapore, the mighty symbol of the British Empire, and then the surrender in Java.

Their lives grew evermore perilous when thousands were shipped off the build the infamous Thai-Burma railway, including the Bridge on the River Kwai. If that was not harsh enough, many were transported to Nagasaki and elsewhere in Japan in what were called hellships. These ancient, hugely overcrowded vessels were regularly sunk by Allied submarines, leaving thousands of survivors adrift in the ocean for days. Then, some still had to endure their final supreme test, the world’s second atomic bomb.

Despite the horrors they faced, this is a story of resilience, comradeship, and hope. Using unpublished and rarely seen notes, interviews, and memoirs, this unique book weaves together a powerful chorus of voices to paint a vivid picture of endurance and survival against terrifying odds..