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THE RISING SUN ON MY BACK
A Personal Account of War
1939 - 1945
by
L/Bdr (Art) E.S. BENFORD R.A.
Army No. 856255
Served during the Malay Campaign with 11th Indian Division, 350th Battery, 137th (TA) Field Regiment R.A. This book is an autobiography of Ernest S. Benford’s life during World War II, 1939 - 1945, in which he was a prisoner of the Japanese Imperial Army. The postscript also gives a brief resume of his life after returning home and shows how being a prisoner of war of the Japanese for 3 ½ years affected him, particularly in later years.
Sadly, he did not live to see his autobiography printed. He died on the 14th June, 1984, after suffering a heart attack three months earlier.
Your death lies in my heart;
The wound of it will come
together, the bruises fade.
The hurt will never go,
but I will touch your
memory gently, so it will
not disappear.
DEDICATION
I dedicate my story to those who were and are not now, and to Dad who was always concerned for my safety and fearful for my life, yet tragically lost his own in Kanchanaburi Hospital Camp, on 24th April, 1944
 Introduction
Training
Sailing
Malaya
Singapore
Changi
Rest Camps
Speedo
Kuala Lumpur
Kachidaki Maru
Kibibi Maru
Fukuoka
Nagasaki
Postscript
I was crucified in Tarsau
and again close by Hintoc -
I was whipped along the River Valley Road;
I was driven pierced and bleeding,
With a million maggots feeding
on the body that I carried for my load.
Yet my heart was still unbroken
and my hopes were still unquenched,
‘til I love my cross to blighty thro’ a crowd.
Soldiers stabbed me on that road.
But at home, I dropped my load
When politicians broke my legs and made
my shroud.
At Westminster my poor body,
Wrapped in linen of fine words,
was perfumed with their sweetly-scented lies,
and they laid me in the tomb,
of their golden-mirrored room,
with the other lads who had refused to die.
Bill Duncan. Died 1968.
Far Eastern Heroes would like to thank Arthur Lane for allowing this book to be printed on these pages
Please email arthurlane.nesanews@ntlworld.com for the availability of this book
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