Book Review - From Hell To Eternity by Peter Firkins

Many moons ago, when I lived in the Mt, Bruce Ruxton, who was the Victorian RSL President at the time, gave a speech about Allied prisoners of war at Sandakan in North Borneo (at the time) and their forced death marches to Ranau. To hear that nearly 2500 Allied soldiers were later forced on marches [approx 455 began the marches] and only six survived was an amazing story. I gained an understanding of why Bruce Ruxton hated the Japanese so much although people of my generation did not have this hatred.

At the Save The Children Book Fair at UWA last weekend I noticed a book in the War/Military section. On the back it said "DEATH MARCH... WITH ONLY SIX SURVIVORS". I knew that I had to get this book and I knew what the story would be about. My copy is 25 years old but still in good nick. It took less than a week to finish.

From Hell To Eternity by Peter Firkins

The Japanese transferred many Allied POWs from Singapore to Sandakan. For three and a half years they forced them to build an aerodrome, starved, bashed and tortured them and failed to treat them according to the Geneva Convention (although the Third Geneva Convention is most appropriate), of which Japan was not a signatory. To the Japanese allowing yourself to become a prisoner was shameful and they therefore felt that prisoners could be mistreated in any manner.

When the Allies, Americans mainly, were looking to land in the area of Sandakan the Japanese forced the POWs to march to Ranau whereupon most of them malnourished men perished due to starvation or were murdered by the Japanese guards. There are some horrendous tales of maltreatment which I'd rather not go into. Some of the men weighed less than five stones (38kg) having been 10-12 stones in their prime. One of the six survivors, warrant officer Bill Sticpewich, maintained records of the war crimes committed and was instrumental in the Japanese being punished for their crimes in 1946.

An amazing story of survival most of the story revolves around the time spent as POWs as the marches themselves took between two and three weeks at the end of the war. It's still a harrowing read in places and not for the faint-hearted. Anybody wanting to read about the worst treatment of Allied soldiers (I'm sure that the German concentration camps were far worse and perhaps the Srebrenica massacre is the only comparable cruelty in living memory) should read this book. A hugely recommended read for those interested in real war experiences and not fiction. The language used is not taxing and just about the only terms requiring clarification were those relating to local Malay words.

Strange Lights In The Shopping Centre

Visited the shopping centre on my day off on Monday. And it was a rather strange sensation as there was a power cut at the time. To walk around the place with only backup lights or emergency lights on was weird. Took some photos as I just happened to have my camera handy. Look at the contrast.

Target - in the dark.

Target - in the light.

Stalss - in the dark.

Stalls - in the light.

Myer - in the dark.

Myer - in the light.

Food court - in the dark.

Food court - in the light.

Candlelit Dinner - But Without The Romance

On Sunday afternoon the weather forecast was for a thunderstorm to hit Perth's northern suburbs at around 8pm. They were expecting 20-25mm of rain and the storms could hang around until Tuesday morning. Surprise, surprise but there was no storm and no rain on Sunday night.

I took the umbrella to work on Monday though. Just in case. At 4pm, when I left from work, there was an eerie light outside. And the street lights were already on. The clouds were foaming and I was in half a mind to video them. Only minutes later and it started raining and reasonably hard too. As soon as I got on the bus it started hailing. The hail was only the size you normally see though. By the time I reached my stop it had ceased raining.

The Boy and I went to taekwondo training. It's a fifteen minute drive south of our house. All of the traffic lights from Carousel Shopping Centre down to the taekwondo centre were out. We parked the car and walked to the centre. It was still dry. Within 10 minutes, before our class started, the wind was blowing fiercely and the driving rain was incredible. You could barely see house lights only a few hundred metres away. I was very glad to be commencing my training and not leaving in that weather.

Minutes later I spoke with my instructor. My words were, "All of the lights are out from Carousel to," and blooomp!! All of the lights went out. I continued, "From Carousel to here!" He sent me to the back corner for being a jinx. The lights didn't come back on. They grabbed a couple of torches and we trained in torchlight. The instructor even mentioned that "It doesn't matter if you're not doing your exercise properly as I can't see you." It would have been interesting had we been able to do sparring in the dark. I guess the risk of injury was too great however.

No rain at the conclusion of training so it was a dry walk back to the car. As I was heading home in front of the council depot near our house I thought to myself, "I'm not driving my wife's relatively new car through that." The roadway was flooded whereas just an hour and a half previously it was dry.

Water is a bit deep on the roadway.

Would a temporary bridge be too much to ask?

Someone wants to go aquaplaning.

Miky had been battling a flood in the sewing room whilst we were away and there was no power. The sewing machine had been doused in water so it will be interesting to see if it has survived. Amazingly she still managed to cook a marvellous meal of bulgogi that was hot when served. We ate dinner by candlelight but it wasn't entirely romantic. Not that having the power on would have necessarily added to the romantic aspect but I think that it may have helped.

Complete lack of power meant that The Boy got out of having to do some homework. For a kid that is still apprehensive about the dark, which has a lot to do with a horrible video on YouTube that one of his classmates showed the class, he took it pretty well. We watched a few music videos on the laptop and had an early night.

Perth had 40mm of rain overnight and 23mm came within one 30 minute period. It was only a storm but you'd think that a cyclone had hit us. Apparently there is some A$100m worth of damage that's been suffered and somewhere between 75,000 and 150,000 homes lost power. Perth is not equipped for even a little storm.

Oh yeah, it took Western Power 25 hours to return power to us. Just enough time to almost defrost the freezer.

Branch-laden power lines.

Power lines seem to attract branches.

Fallen tree.

Is this a knock-down sale?

Pedestrians watch your step.

Watch your step alright.

If you want to see some of the real damage that I didn't experience then check out the following Websites.

Perth Now - Storm could rival 2005 deluge as one of the worst to hit the State

ninemsn - Freak storm dumps on Perth

ABC - Photos

Herald Sun - Thousands in the dark as storm batters Perth, Western Australia

ABC - Damage bill mounts as storm causes chaos