Burma

Burma: A Nation at the Crossroads by Benedict Rogers

October 2012, no. 345

Too often foreign affairs seem the realm of tedious diplomacy, impenetrable acronyms, and cynical realpolitik. So it comes as a relief to Western governments and voters if they can from time to time adopt a stance that places them on the side of the angels. Helping transform bad régimes into good, as in Burma, offers such an opportunity, and activist and author Benedict Rogers’ book is very much a tract for these times – explicitly informed, he tells us, by a moral framework.

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A River Kwai Story by Robin Rowland & The Men of the Line by Pattie Wright

by John Connor •

June 2008, no. 302

John Connor reviews 'A River Kwai Story: The Sonkrai Tribunal' by Robin Rowland and 'The Men of the Line: Stories of the Thai–Burma railway survivors' by Pattie Wright

These two books on the building of the Thai–Burma railway in World War II are very different in format and tone. Australian film-maker Patti Wright’s Men of the Line is an exquisitely designed collection of stories and images by Australian prisoners of war who were forced to build the railway for their Japanese captors. Wright describes her book as ‘a tribute to the ex-POWs who experienced the best and worst that human nature can offer and returned to tell the tale’. Canadian journalist Robin Rowland’s A River Kwai Story: The Sonkrai Tribunal is a solidly researched investigation that concentrates on F Force, the group of Australian and British prisoners that suffered the worst death rate on the railway, and the postwar war crimes trial that found seven Japanese soldiers guilty of the ‘inhumane treatment’ of these men. Rowland concludes that the Japanese did commit war crimes; she also exposes failures by Australian and British officers that increased the POWs’ suffering.

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‘PEN Joins ABR’ and ‘Aung Myint’

by Australian Book Review •

December 2003–January 2004, no. 257

Since the beginning of 2003, nine writers and journalists have been murdered worldwide, adding to International PEN’s list of 400 who have been killed over the last ten years. In the same period, 769 other writers and journalists have been imprisoned, tortured, attacked, threatened, harassed and deported, or have disappeared, gone into hiding or fled in fear of their lives – simply for practising their profession.

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