Two working men, Konyu River Camp; verso: Study for 'Two working men'

Two emaciated figures, one with stick, the other with swag, trudging along a road. Verso: Inverted pencil sketch for the two emaciated men. Daily roll calls were used by the Japanese to select the prisoners who would work each day. Despite their emaciated and sick condition very few were deemed by the Japanese to be unfit to work. Those who were too ill to walk to the construction sites had their meagre food rations reduced and were denied the small pay given by the Japanese. This drawing has a special place for Chalker among his prisoner of war works as it only narrowly survived. A Korean guard once caught Chalker hiding his sketches and forced him to tear them up. He was then beaten for two days, after which Chalker found that this drawing had survived undetected in a pile of rags.