Touching meeting for Japanese, British ‘Death Railway’ veterans

LONDON: A Japanese engineer on the notorious World War II ‘Death Railway’ and a British soldier forced to build the line clasped each other’s hands tightly Monday as they met in reconciliation.

Mikio Kinoshita, 94, and former prisoner of war (PoW) Harold Atcherley, 96, whose Japanese captors made him work as a slave labourer on the track between Burma — modern-day Myanmar — and Thailand, sat quietly on a sofa together as they reflected on their shared experiences.

The two did not cross paths in the 1940s and despite only being able to converse through a translator, the warm rapport between the elderly men, both slowed by age but razorsharp in mind, was evident at a reception in the Army and Navy gentleman’s club in London.

As the 70th anniversary of the Japanese surrender ending World War II approaches in August, the two men hoped their rare meeting would encourage understanding between those affected by the ‘Death Railway’ — and foster remembrance of the suffering of those who worked and died building the line.

“This evening marks the reconciliation between Mikio Kinoshita and myself. It is 73 years ago since he and I worked on the construction of the Burma-Siam Railway,” said Atcherley, who was then a young army captain.

Citing his former enemy’s empathy, he said it was wrong to judge people for the group they happened to belong to rather than their character. — AFP

Millions of smokers may have undiagnosed lung disease

MIAMI: More than half of current and former smokers who can pass basic lung function tests may suffer from lung diseases that have gone undiagnosed, researchers said Monday.

The study in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Internal Medicine included nearly 9,000 people, aged 45-80, who had smoked at least a pack of cigarettes a day for 10 years.

About half of those in the study “were considered disease-free based on their lung-function tests,” said the JAMA article.

But when researchers looked at other criteria, including respiratory symptoms, CT scans, medications use and quality of life issues, they found that “55 per cent of the ‘disease-free’ study participants had some form of respiratory related impairment.” Many were in the early stages of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD, which is the third-leading killer in the US. — AFP