NAGASAKI – THE FORGOTTEN PRISONERS. ONE OF THE MOST ASTONISHING UNTOLD SURVIVAL STORIES OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR. JOHN WILLIS IN CONVERSATION WITH SAVILIAN PATRICK KIDD.

At 11.02 a.m. on 9 August 1945, America dropped the most powerful atomic bomb yet developed on the Japanese port of Nagasaki. The most European city in Japan was flattened to the ground ‘as if it had been swept aside by a broom’. More than 70,000 Japanese were killed. As the bomb dropped, hundreds of British, Australian, American, and Dutch prisoners of war were working as forced labourers close to the weapon’s detonation point. This is their hidden history.

The men had already endured an extraordinary lottery of life and death. They had lived through nearly four years of malnutrition, disease and brutality.

In one of the greatest survival stories of the Second World War, the book traces the remarkable experiences of the prisoners back to the bloody battles in the Malayan jungle, before the dramatic fall of Fortress Singapore, the mighty symbol of the British Empire, and then surrender in Java.

Their lives grew evermore perilous when thousands were shipped off to build the infamous Thai-Burma Railway, including the Bridge on the River Kwai. If that was not harsh enough, many were transported to Nagasaki and elsewhere in Japan in what were called hellships. These ancient, hugely overcrowded vessels were regularly sunk by Allied submarines, leaving thousands of survivors adrift in the ocean for days. Then, some still had to endure their final supreme test, the world’s second atomic bomb.

Despite the horrors they faced, this is a story of resilience, comradeship and hope. Using unpublished and rarely seen notes, interviews and memoirs, this unique book weaves together a powerful chorus of voices to paint a vivid picture of endurance and survival against terrifying odds.

John Willis is one of Britain’s best-known television executives. He is a former director of programmes at Channel 4, and director of factual and learning at the BBC. In 2012 he was elected as chair of the British Academy of Film and Televison Arts(BAFTA).

He started his career as a documentary maker and won a string of major awards for his films, including Johnny Go Home, Alice-A Fight for Life, and Rampton-The Secret Hospital.

He is currently chair of governors at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and chairman of Mentorn Media, producers of Question Time for the BBC.

His previous books include Churchill’s Few(2020) and Secret Letters: A Battle of Britain Love Story(2020).He read History at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge.