Launch of The Changi Book

Seventy years ago on 5 September 1945 the Japanese occupation of Singapore came to an end. After a harrowing three and a half years of captivity, thousands of Allied prisoners of war were finally free.

Among them was Australian soldier Sergeant C. David Griffin, who during his time in Changi had worked tirelessly to compile a collection of stories by fellow prisoners about life in the camp. It was hoped that these stories would form a book, to be published by the Australian War Memorial following the prisoners’ return home.

The collection was duly delivered to the Memorial, and was originally slated for publication following the 1945 service annuals. However, industrial action by printers and supply shortages limited Memorial publications, and the Changi volume was postponed until at least 1948. But the momentum had been lost, and the book never eventuated.

Seventy years on from the end of the Second World War, these original essays have been recovered and are presented here in the Memorial’s publication of The Changi book.

Written in the tradition of The Anzac book and the Second World War annuals comes this fascinating collection of accounts of life inside the notorious Changi prison camp. The Changi story is synonymous with suffering, hardship, and the Australian prisoner-of-war experience in the Second World War. It is also one of ingenuity, resourcefulness, and survival. Combining prisoners’ cartoons, paintings, photographs, and essays, The Changi book provides a unique view of life in the camp: medical innovation; machinery and tools made from spare parts and scrap; black markets; sports and gambling; entertainment; a library and university. Seventy years after its planned publication, material for The Changi book was rediscovered in the Australian War Memorial archives and appears here for the first time along with insights from the Memorial’s experts, providing unique historical insights into some of the stories and characters behind its rich Changi collection. The book is lavishly illustrated with more than 200 images, many of which have never before been published.

The Changi book will be launched by Dr Brendan Nelson, Director of the Australian War Memorial, at 12.30 pm on Wednesday 26 August in the BAE Systems Theatre.

The launch will include a talk by the author of the volume, Dr Lachlan Grant, who will share some of the unique stories behind the book.

Also featured at the launch will be a film specially produced for the occasion and featuring original footage – including some rare colour scenes – of the Changi camp taken in the days following liberation in 1945.

This is a free public event. All are welcome.

Bookings are essential – email public.programs@awm.gov.au.

Copies of The Changi Book will be available for purchase and author-signing at the event, and are also available from the Memorial Shop and all good bookstores.

For more information visit: https://www.awm.gov.au/events/launch-changi-book.

About the author:

DR LACHLAN GRANT is a historian in the Military History Section at the Australian War Memorial. He has a PhD in history from Monash University and has published widely on Australian experiences of the Second World War in Europe, Asia, and the Pacific, and on the prisoner-of-war experience. Lachlan’s first book, Australian soldiers in Asia–Pacific in World War II, was published in 2014, and he is co-editor of Beyond surrender: Australian prisoners of war in the twentieth century.