TRUE STORY OF SWORN ENEMIES WHO BECAME FRIENDS! | THE RAILWAY MAN

uh trigger warning to people that in today's case there is going to be talk of uh torture this is a war case and I will also be telling a little story uh at the end of the video hey it's Mel hope you're doing well and if you're new to the channel welcome today we're going to be looking at the true story of the 2013 War film The Railway Man starring Jeremy Irvine Nicole Kidman and most importantly Colin f it was directed by Jonathan teplitzky apologies if I mispronounced any names it's a powerful film which focuses on the effects of war and PTSD this is a story about two men sworn enemies who became best friends there's a lot to cover so let's get into it the film is set in World War II it tells the story of British soldier Eric Sutherland LX who was sent to a pal prisoner of war camp where he is tortured by a Japanese officer named tekashi nagasi years later Eric learns that tekashi is still alive and his wife pushes him to confront his past the real Eric Lomax was born on the 30th of May 1919 in Edinburgh his parents were John and Elizabeth his dad worked as a civil service clerk the family lived in a house at 11 Bedford Terrace in PTO Bello Eric loved trains he was a train Enthusiast in 193 9 he joined the Royal corpse of signals before the war broke out he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in December 1940 and was one of thousands of soldiers who surrendered not by choice to the Japanese in Singapore in February 1942 the Japanese Enemy at the time forced prisoners to construct the infamous Burma Railway also known as the death Railway and a part of it still does exist Eric was one of 30,000 British prisoners who were set to work on the railway line and it took 12 months to build it was built along the river Quai and it connected uh Bangkok and muline the barbaric project of building the railway claimed the lives of 250,000 men if a person refused to work they were either beaten or shot like Eric clomax many of the prisoners were starved and tortured in order to build such a railway you would need an army and that's exactly what the Japanese did they used their massive Workforce to their advantage if a prisoner broke a piece of equipment like maybe a shovel or a piece of a Machinery or if they simply just didn't work quick enough they were hit with bamboo sticks various methods of torture were used on these prisoners they were treated like animals they were often thrown into cages left in their own mess like they urine they were starved not given much water and they would be left in these cages sometimes for days just sitting there being baked by the Sun during the day now moving on to tekashi nagasa Eric lomax's torturer he was a military interpreter who spoke English who was born on the 20th of February 1918 in Japan he worked for the kai at the construction of the Railway in Thailand he was involved in the interrogation and torture of many prisoners he watched the torture and toed the prisoners he would give the the green light for the torture to occur he also joined at the war at a very young age in February 1942 Eric surrendered to the Japanese and was taken to the PO camp where he met tekashi at the time he was an army officer and 19 years old he spent three and a half years of slave labor and torture he was repeatedly beaten and interrogated after his captures found a radio receiver that he made from spare parts Eric would be beaten patched up by doctors and then interrogated again this left permanent scars on his mind and his body specifically his back and wrists worst of all he was waterboarded this is like one of the worst forms of torture war is a horrific thing it really is and I've said it before and I'll say it again I just don't understand it why can't we just share things share land and just love each other and be kind I don't know for those of you that don't know water boarding is when a person is held down has a cloth put over their mouth and water poured on their face so they can't breathe you basically feel like you're drowning actor Jeremy Irvine who plays the young Eric Lomax in the film lost a lot of waight for the role and he admitted to also being waterboarded himself for seconds at a time over a duration of two days him and Colin F spoke to the real Eric LX to make the film as realistic as possible Eric went through hell like and for him he suffered a lifetime of trauma he endured different types of torture but despite all this he never gave up and he survived his courage and bravery had such an impact on Tashi he never forgot Eric World War II ended on the 2nd of September 1945 when Eric was released he returned to the UK for years Eric isolated himself and just didn't speak to his family about what he enjoed Eric's first wife was Agnes nicknamed Lan and he had two daughters named Linda and charm they married on the 20th of November 1945 just 3 weeks after Eric's release they got engaged the night before he left to the war during his capture Agnes waited for three and a half years got no word from Eric she had no idea whether he was alive or dead Agnes and Eric were together for 37 years in 1980 Eric met his second wife paty Wallace who was 43 years old and they Cadian lur they met on a train to Glasgow Eric sadly left aglas in 1981 Patty moved to the UK in 1982 and a year later her and Eric got married Patty died in 2012 a year before the film's release in 1995 Eric wrote a book book about his War experiences called The Railway Man and it was very successful 50 years after the war ended Eric met his torturer tekashi in 1993 Eric came face to face with tekashi and there meeting was recorded for a documentary tekashi immediately broke down crying he felt such shame and guilt over what he had done to Eric and Eric did forgive tekashi the two men shook hands and gave each other a h tekashi said quote we treated you and your countrymen very badly and I am so sorry end quote in the film there is one line that stands out to me and it's said by Colin F and it is at some point The Hating has to stop and that's exactly what Eric did like he moved on with his life him and tekashi became great friends they would go over to each other's houses to casima Eric's wife and they would read books together play chess they would even call each other on the phone and send each other letters they were pretty close for Tashi after the war ended he spent the rest of his life working towards forgiveness and Reconciliation he became an activist for post-war reconciliation and against Japanese military he also became a devout Buddhist priest he turned his life around and got married he died on the 21st of June 2011 Eric died shortly after after on the 8th of October 2012 he was 93 years old over the years bodies have been recovered from the Burma Railway and they've been given a proper burial during construction of the Railway um workers who were shot or just died from exhaustion were simply thrown all together in like a mass grave just pretty much thrown on top of each other treated like animals that's inhumane other victims sadly committed suicide later in life because they just couldn't deal with the trauma um Eric did get help for his PTSD and he lived the rest of his life in peace but he never forgot what happened to him I don't think you can ever forget something like that here's a little story that I was told by my dad so basically um there's this bar in suid I don't know if it's open anymore but I wasn't born yet either like none of my siblings like this is the early Gates of my parents relationship so they were just getting to know each other one day my mom and dad walk into this bar my dad turns around to my mom and says I want to introduce you to someone special he's a nice guy very old and he looks like he's had a rough life right before my mom was introduced his friends basically told my mom and dad like whatever you do don't don't mention the war don't mention the word rat either turns out that this man I don't even know his name he used to like let on to People by saying like hi champ how are you doing champ turns out that this man was also put into a cage with other soldiers and rats would like crawl over his body and bite him and that's why you could never mention the word rat because if you did he would do this like motion as if he was getting like rats off of him he was traumatized that's all for today that was the true story of the 2013 film The Railway Man as always thanks for watching take care bye

Channel: Hey It's Mel

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Id: GxiAndQpfLc

Length: 9min 56sec (596 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 05 2024