The heroism and suffering of the troops in the so-called forgotten World War II Far East campaign is being remembered in Tavistock.

This is the eightieth anniversary of the end of the war against Japan - marked as VJ Day across country and with a service and parade at Tavistock War Memorial. The conflicts included Burma and Malaya and Singapore and were infamous for the inhumane treatment of prisoners of war (PoW) in work concentration camps, vividly portrayed in the film Bridge Over the River Kwai. The war was ended by the dropping of the first atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki 80 years ago, forcing the surrender of Japan.

To mark the achievements of the rapidly dwindling band of largely Army servicemen, their memories are being collated for a special project by the charity Tavistock Area Support Services (TASS) called Life Stories.

A presentation of these VJ Day stories was held at TASS HQ on Tuesday (September 9), including a film of Burma taken by the late Roy Layzell, who was an RAF camera operator during the WW2 in the Far East, and had shared his LifeStory with us.

Simon Thompson talked about his father Richard, and unrelated brothers Kenneth and Francis Wilkes - former residents of Dolvin Road, who were all in Malaya at the time of the Japanese invasion in December 1941.

Simon’s father served with the East Surrey Regiment and ended up an ill-treated prisoner of war. Richard’s mother was sent notifications of his PoW status, firstly in a work camp, then in hospital, in Imperial Japanese Army notifications.

Simon said: “Factually, if it was not for the nuclear bombs ending the war with Japan, I would not be here today. The bombs ended the suffering of so many of our servicemen and it seems likely my dad wouldn’t have survived a Japanese pow work camp, he worked on the infamous Bridge over the River Kwai after being captured in 1942, but his mum didn’t find out until ten months later. He was transferred to a prison hospital when he became seriously ill with kidney stones and was in severe pain and undernourished, as they all were. It was then an event more anxious wait for his parents.”

Simon said his father, known as Dick, did not talk about his ordeal as a PoW and what he knows came from his mother. Despite his experiences, Dick continued his Army career after release and and continued to see strife, this time in the Middle East

He sailed to the then Palestine on the infamous Windrush ship. After a stint in Libya, Dick retuned to Malaya with the force tasked to deal with the nationalist ‘Emergency’ of the early 1950s.

Unfortunately, Dick, who was promoted to major, was held back by the unfair service rule that PoW time spent did not count on a service record, and therefore, penalised those who would otherwise be promoted.

Simon said: “This added to the injustice and cruelty inflicted by the Japanese.”

Mr and Mrs W.A. Wilkes, of Old Exeter Road, had four sons in the armed forces. Private Kenneth was killed in action in 1942 in the Far East and Cpl Francis was a Japanese PoW in 1943.