Ex-PoW’s harrowing story of losing 19 mates in a day on wartime death railway
THE harrowing story of a former Prisoner of War includes the horrific death of 19 of his mates in one day.
James “Jim” Banton served in the RAF during the Second World War and was captured on the Japanese island of Java.
Then, in his 20s, he was shipped to Singapore to work on the docks, then the Sumatra railway – and now some of his dreadful experiences have been laid bare in a new book.
Its author, Mr Banton’s son, Keith, 65, said: “It was a very tough period in his life.
As a PoW he’d have to survive on barely any food and weak tea. He’d have to work 16 hours a day on the Sumatra Railway for seven days a week and saw death every day. He’d have to wear makeshift clothes made out of rice sacks and suffered from several conditions due to the heat.
“The book also mentions when 19 soldiers died in one day from malnutrition and even when my dad arrived back to his home he weighed just over 6st.
“My dad was determined to come home and would make sure he kept his head down and did what was expected of him.
“Anyone who answered back to the Japanese would get a severe beating and he made sure he didn’t have to experience that.
“The book also mentions how my dad didn’t get to see my older brother David until he was four as he was born while my dad was in Java.
“The book has only been released two weeks and it’s still early days but I do feel once people know what the story is about they will begin to understand the purpose of the book.
It really helps to understand the struggles that PoWs go through and how their services for our country should not be forgotten.”
Also included in the book – Death and Deprivation on the Forgotten Sumatra Railway, published by Pen and Sword Books – are Jim’s time growing up in Horninglow, working at the brewery and then volunteering to join the RAF.
He was born in Burton in 1920 and lived there all his life, with his wife
Dorothy and four children before he died in 2003, aged 82.
Keith said: “It was my idea to turn my dad’s memoirs into a book. I read through it while he was alive as I wanted to get to know more about his life, and especially that period in his life when he was a Prisoner of War. My dad starting writing the book in 1988 and whenever we would ask him about the struggles he faced in Java, he would not like to talk about it.”