Eric Lomax

Eric Lomax Eric Sutherland Lomax (30 May 1919 – 8 October 2012) was a Scottish railway enthusiast and British Army officer who was a prisoner of war of the Japanese from 1942 to 1945. His autobiography, ‘’The Railway Man (book) The Railway Man’’ (1995), won the 1996 Ackerley Prize. Quotes The Railway Man (1995) Some things that humans make transcend their function; instruments can be magical. That explosive, rhythmic sound we call Puffing Billy (locomotive) puffing says more to us about getting under way, about departure, than a Petrol engine#Ignition petrol-driven snarl can ever do; perhaps it has something close to the beat of our pulse. Even if we were using up and heating the earth too much, and no-one knew that at the time, it would have been worth making an exception for steam engines. They were beautiful machines; the most beautiful machines produced in the Industrial Revolution industrial revolution. The Railway Man: A POW's Searing Account of War, Brutality and Forgiveness Movie Tie-in Editions W. W. Norton & Company 2014 9780393350661 https://books.google.com/books?id=AFAsAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA24 24 (288 pages; 1st edition 1995) Coal burnt in a furnace surrounded by water created steam; steam confined in a cylinder pushed a piston, and linked to wheels by rods that turned the straight thrust of the piston into rotatory motion, the Steam engine engine moved and worked. The idea that hordes of people and commodities could be carried at such shockingly powerful speeds by a sort of articulated kettle, in which the water could never be allowed to fall below the top of the furnace or there would be an explosion, seemed amazing to me. What made it all so different from today's electric railways, which run at set speeds, was the need to be aware at every moment of the perilous balance of fire and water, which also gave the possibility of going a little faster if the engineman was good, or of disaster if he was incompetent. p. 25 Takashi Nagase Nagase visited Thailand many times after that, and did charitable work for the surviving Asian labourers, many of whom were unable to return home to India or Peninsular Malaysia Malaya after the war and dragged out miserable lives in villages near the railway; and he opened a temple of peace on the Burma Railway#Bridge 277: Bridge on the River Khwae River Kwae Bridge, and spoke out against militarism.It all seemed admirable, but I read about these things with a surprising sense of detachment. I had expected to feel some more powerful emotion, but apart from the eerie feeling of being present at my own torture as an onlooker I felt empty. And I wondered at his feeling that he had been forgiven. God may have forgiven him, but I had not; mere human forgiveness is another matter. p. 262 Sometime the hating has to stop. concluding sentence of ‘’The Railway Man’’ Quotes about Eric Lomax Watch The Railway Man (film) The Railway Man, which goes on general release in the new year, and you'll leave the cinema feeling you know all about the complicated, scarred individual at its centre: Eric Lomax, who was Eric Lomax#Military service tortured by the Japanese during the second world war and eventually rescued from his torment through the love of his wife Eric Lomax#Personal life Patti.But there are three names you won't hear during the film: those of Nan, Eric's first wife, and Linda and Charmaine, his daughters. The four of them were a family for 37 years yet they are completely missing from the film, which stars Colin Firth, Jeremy Irvine and Nicole Kidman. Joanna Moorhead, The Railway Man's forgotten family: 'We were victims of torture too' — Eric Lomax's book, The Railway Man, about his experience as a Japanese prisoner of war has inspired a major new film. But his first family were written out of the story by Lomax himself. Joanna Moorhead talks to his daughter, Charmaine The Guardian 28 December 2013 https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2013/dec/28/railway-mans-forgotten-family Mr. Lomax, who was born in Scotland, was 19 when he joined the Royal Corps of Signals in 1939. He was one of thousands of British soldiers who surrendered to the Japanese in Fall of Singapore Singapore in 1942. Many were relocated to Thailand and forced to build the Burma Railway, also known as the Death Railway. ...Mr. Lomax was repeatedly beaten and interrogated after his captors found a radio receiver he had made from spare parts. Multiple bones were broken and water was poured into his nose and mouth. One of his constant torturers stood out: Takashi Nagase Nagase Takashi, an interpreter. ...... He learned that after the war Mr. Nagase had become an interpreter for the Allies and helped locate thousands of graves and mass burial sites along the Burma Railway. William Yardley, https://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/10/books/eric-lomax-river-kwai-prisoner-who-forgave-dies-at-93.html Eric Lomax, World War II Prisoner Who Forgave, Dies at 93 October 9, 2012 The New York Times External links Category:1919 births Category:2012 deaths Category:Autobiographers from Scotland Category:People from Edinburgh Category:People of World War II