Author(s): Rohan Rivett

MILITARY HISTORY

Foreword by Sir Edward 'Weary' Dunlop. Described by Weary Dunlop as 'the classic account of prisoner-of-war life', Behind Bamboo is Rohan Rivett's story of his time as a POW during the Second World War, and particularly his experiences on the notorious Burma railway. Rivett, a journalist in Singapore when it fell to the Japanese in 1942, escaped south - across the treacherous Bangka Strait - to Indonesia. But freedom was short-lived; soon Rivett was just one of thousands of Japanese POWs struggling for existence. The struggle was to last for more than three years. Brutal in its honesty and haunting in its realism, Behind Bamboo is a compelling testament to the Australians' will to survive and their unassailable spirit in the face of the most callous inhumanity.