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00:00Princess Pia has a big place in my imagination because my grandmother was here the day one of
00:18the ships came in at the end of World War Two. She was a nurse and the ship she told me about
00:24was carrying survivors of Japanese prisoner of war camps. Many were so frail that she and her
00:32fellow nurse Betsy could carry them off the ship themselves. She'd tell me that as soon as the
00:38ambulance doors were closed her and Betsy would just fall apart hug each other because she said
00:45Rachel they were still just skin and bones. With my grandmother's first-hand account
00:54and famous drawings created by prisoners of war I had an idea of the horror and brutality suffered
01:02by our POWs. But there's something hidden here amongst the nation's war machines that reveals a
01:12side of the story I could never have imagined. Oh wow. It's one of resistance, creativity, love.
01:23Were they risking death? Oh yeah, of course. And the art of survival.
01:32I'm Rachel Griffiths and I believe that when it comes to understanding war,
01:37art is our secret weapon. So in this series, I'm putting this theory to the test. One war and one
01:47artwork at a time. Because while journalists tell us what happened. They left in scenes but are now part
01:56of television's history. It's our performance. When the song was released it was banned. Yeah.
02:01Filmmakers. Peter, we have a privilege. Writers. The narrow road to the deep north. Artists. I was the
02:10only one not carrying a weapon. And musicians. If it's too risky to say, sing it. Who help us make sense of
02:20it? Holy. This is incredible. Art's not just there to be pretty and admired. Art is the magnifying glass
02:31and the mirror. This was a pub rock song that changed our lives. That's what art can do. This is when the war is over.
02:41If you've ever been to Thailand, chances are you were lured by white beaches and manicured resorts. But 80
02:57years ago on this spot, well, it was far from a tropical paradise. In fact, this place earned the nickname
03:04Hellfire Pass. This railroad cutting was largely done by hand with the forced labour of Australian
03:16prisoners of war during World War II. It's part of the notorious Burma-Thailand railway. The Australian
03:25prisoners here were just some of the 22,000 captured in the Pacific in 1942 by Japanese forces intent on
03:33expanding their empire. For the next three and a half years, these POWs were put to work on projects that
03:42furthered Japanese domination. All over Asia and the Pacific, more than 8,000 Australians died. And we
03:56think of places like this as close to hell as we could possibly imagine when we think of the Australian
04:03POW experience. But it's not the only story. Oh, wow. I feel like I'm in the warehouse at the end of
04:24Raiders of the Lost Ark. And amongst all this incredible stuff, we have this extraordinary night. Oh, wow.
04:35Oh, wow. Oh, my gosh.
04:47Isn't that beautiful?
04:52Hasn't been tuned for a while. For quite a long time. Yeah.
04:57Award-winning writer and actor Neil Piggott is an expert on a little-known aspect of Australia's
05:03military history that puts theatre folk like us in the frame. So, two old actors who are war nerds.
05:11Can you read what this says?
05:15This piano belongs to the history of World War II. It's a piano from Changi Camp.
05:24Changi, Singapore. It was here that Japanese troops interned thousands of Allied soldiers in 1942.
05:33I speak to you all under the shadow of a heavy and far-reaching military defeat. Singapore had fallen.
05:44It was a shocking military blow.
05:48Japanese forces immediately turned Singapore's British Army barracks at Changi into a massive prison holding 15,000 Australians.
06:02How did they get a piano?
06:05They left holes in the wire so they could go out and scrounge for food and whatever.
06:10Well, a guy was out scrounging one night. He comes across the piano and he thinks,
06:14Oh, geez, that'd be handy.
06:16Came back. Twelve of them went through the wire, two kilometres, carried it back into the camp.
06:23Were they risking death to get this piano? Oh, yeah, of course. Of course they were.
06:28Any time anyone went through the wire, they were risking death.
06:31But the notes of this piano soon began to ring out through Salarang,
06:39the Australians' quarters in Changi.
06:42The Japanese very rarely went into Salarang.
06:44I mean, in Salarang there were 15,000 Australians.
06:47So there was some sort of, wouldn't call it safety, but at least some sort of sense of security.
06:53And they didn't believe they were going to be there for that long.
06:55And so they actually then started to write songs about Changi.
06:59Waiting for something to happen might even drive you insane.
07:09So we'd all be happier, feel a lot snappier if something would happen again.
07:17The interesting thing is that waiting for something to happen and then something did happen.
07:21Did happen.
07:23Within months, POWs were being selected to leave Changi.
07:28They were told they were going to a place where there was more food.
07:32It was going to be like a holiday. We're going to build hospitals there.
07:34It was all going to be lovely.
07:36But it couldn't have been further from the truth.
07:423,000 Australians were now forced to build a 420-kilometre railway.
07:49Today, passenger trains still use this part of the track built by prisoners of war.
07:57And riding these rails feels even more haunting with this book in my hand.
08:04Richard Flanagan's The Narrow Road to the Deep North.
08:08They began to clear the jungle for the line.
08:11And break the rock for the line.
08:14And move the dirt for the line.
08:17Honouring his father's experience on the railway,
08:22Flanagan's 2013 novel introduced a new generation of readers to the POW story.
08:29It scooped a pool of literary prizes.
08:33And that winner of this year's Mound Booker Prize for Fiction is The Narrow Road to the Deep North.
08:41A priceless addition to modern literature.
08:44It's been published in 42 countries and been adapted into a confronting television drama.
08:51Lauded for its unflinching depiction of the railway's horrors.
08:58But what this book also does, which is so powerful,
09:03is it puts the artist in the war.
09:08In this hell.
09:10This passage is about a character who risks his life to bear witness through simple drawings.
09:17He turned the page to a penning sketch of an Australian being beaten by two guards.
09:22To a watercolour of the Ulster Ward.
09:25To a pencil drawing of a skeletal man labouring, breaking rock on the cutting.
09:30His novel might be a work of fiction, but Flanagan could have been describing these drawings and sketches.
09:40Smuggled out by prisoners, determined to show the world what had happened to them.
09:45The pictures would survive and the world would know.
09:56Really?
09:57Memory is the true justice, sir.
10:02Or the creator of new horrors.
10:06It's unimaginable, isn't it, that even here in the gates of hell itself,
10:17some were determined to bear witness.
10:20The art of captivity is an act of defiance.
10:25Defiance of death and our inhumanity.
10:30It says, we are human and we are here.
10:39It's said that there's a corpse for every sleeper on this railway.
10:53And those Australians lucky enough to survive, returned to Changi as different men.
11:01Unbelievably decimated.
11:03Blackjack Galligan, who was the Australian commander, when his men came back from the railway,
11:09and he first saw them, he just broke down and wept.
11:14And said, what have you done to my men?
11:16That's one of the only times that the piano stopped.
11:21For those few nights that the whole camp was...
11:24In shock.
11:29The whole situation clearly becomes more serious.
11:36And around the piano, something extraordinary was taking place.
11:41They started to go, OK, well, we perhaps need to start creating new work
11:46that actually has some reflection on what's going on in here.
11:50And that's when we start to see original works being produced.
11:56Original plays, pantomimes, original material.
12:00That is a product of what's going on.
12:03But as time went on, the importance of it became more around morale
12:06and actually giving people hope.
12:09Together, these soldier-performing artists
12:13helped their audience imagine a future of freedom,
12:17giving over 240 concerts as the Changi Concert Party.
12:26And their beloved piano was the centrepiece of them all.
12:30So this piano was a corralling of voices to share this common experience.
12:39It was for laughter.
12:41All those things.
12:42It must have also played some laments and more mournful tunes,
12:46or did they try to keep it very upbeat?
12:48Oh, no, there were sad songs amongst the stuff that they wrote.
12:58They've taken my old pal away.
13:03As the war continued, prisoners at Changi lived with the ever-present threat
13:08of transportation to labour camps.
13:13Now everything seems to have changed
13:19Like the sunshine that turns into rain
13:25We were together in trouble
13:29In fun, a good double
13:33But they've taken my old pal away
13:38It's like a love song, like to speak of male friendship like that.
13:42Yeah, I mean, these guys, for them the war was a battle to keep each other going.
13:49And I think that that's when the concert party really starts to
13:53not just be a form of entertainment, but to be a form of social good.
14:02It's wonderful, so wonderful to think of a happy day
14:07When we can say
14:09We're back in circulation again
14:14Created this sense of a hole amongst them
14:19We forget that this is what art can do
14:23This story of the creativity of Changi
14:26Why did this land for you?
14:28Because you spent a long time with...
14:31Over 30 years, which is quite remarkable
14:34Although I haven't pursued it over 30 years
14:36In a funny way, it's kind of pursued me
14:38Back when Neil was cast in a play about POWs in the 90s
14:43A man in the audience changed his life
14:47Slim de Grey, singer, actor and stand-up comic
14:50Has won three Mo Awards in his illustrious career
14:54Slim told the young Neil
14:56That he'd honed his craft on the stage at Changi
14:59As one of the concert party's only songwriters
15:02I don't know, we hit it off and we went to the pub together
15:06And I said, where can I get an album of the songs
15:08And Slim said, you know, we've never done that
15:11Wow
15:12So I actually funded the album myself
15:14This fella, actor Neil Piggott
15:16Was captivated by the story
15:18And sank everything he owned
15:20In an attempt to rediscover the old Changi songs
15:23To make Australia know
15:24I understood that there was a very big story to tell here
15:29A very complex story of survival
15:32And I understood that the songs were central to that story
15:38We said goodbye to Alexander
15:40So Neil and Slim toured the country
15:43With their newly minted album of the concert party songs
15:48You've got swing-a-roo
15:54Hey!
15:56How come your captors and your jailers, the Japanese
15:59Allowed you to get away with it?
16:01There were thousands and thousands and thousands of us
16:04In the prison camp
16:05And about 50 or 60 of them guarding us
16:08And I think they must have thought
16:10Well, while they're laughing and they're happy
16:12They won't be plotting to get out and do us over
16:16Against the background of what we perceived to be
16:19Perhaps the most ugly experience
16:22That Australians have ever encountered
16:24In their modern history
16:25There was this profound expression of humanity
16:28And the nightly lullaby
16:30Although risque and a little vulgar
16:32Was, at the end of every bitter day
16:34Highly functional
16:36And nothing would please the old gentleman more
16:40Than to hear them go together
16:44We made fun out of tragedy
16:47Rather than step back, we stepped into it
16:50But the backlash was brutal
16:53We were attacked for trivialising the POW experience
16:56In Neil Biggott's hands
16:57The Changi experience has turned into a marketing exercise
17:00There's the Changi calendar
17:02The official Changi souvenir songbook
17:05Postcards
17:07A children's book written for the children of Changi
17:09A poster
17:10Even a CD
17:12The idea that music could have been a part of the POW experience
17:18Was just not acceptable
17:20But if Neil copped flack for the album
17:26Slim copped it worse in his final role
17:30When he played a character
17:35Looking back on his performing days in Changi
17:38Although many aspects of the series
17:43Bore a striking resemblance to the concert party
17:46And Slim's own life
17:48It just didn't ring true for some viewers
17:54It just smacks of inauthenticity to me
17:57There's no horror
17:58Where's the horror
17:59The trauma
18:00Of these individuals
18:01Who are suffering
18:02This is the most fun
18:04I have ever had in my life
18:05I want to do it again
18:07The ABC series has come in for criticism
18:09For getting details wrong
18:11And downplaying the true horror
18:13This word Changi emerged as this hell hole
18:28And I think what that did over subsequent generations
18:32And for probably until relatively recently
18:35It meant that we had a very kind of narrow view
18:38Of the POW experience
18:41Perhaps some stories require more time
18:45Before we're ready to hear them
18:47Dearly loved son
19:02God
19:08It's just an overwhelming number
19:10And I think if my son died up there
19:14My husband died up there
19:17And it was in the years after
19:21I don't know that I'd want to hear about
19:24The humour and songs of those that survived
19:27I think it would be too painful
19:39And of course if I'd been in my grandmother's shoes
19:42Seeing the condition of the POWs who'd survived
19:46I might discredit the idea of Changi as a place of music
19:50And laughter too
19:53When Changi was finally liberated in 1945
19:56The concert party wanted their beloved piano
19:59To come home with them
20:00When that request was denied
20:02The men refused to board the ship
20:04Finally it was loaded and lashed to the deck
20:08But while Changi itself might have been liberated
20:11There was another group of Australian POWs in Sumatra
20:16And they were still awaiting their fate
20:18And just like the men in Changi
20:21They also turned to art and music in captivity
20:28When 65 Australian nurses attempted to flee the fall of Singapore in 1942
20:34Only 24 would survive the bombing of their ship
20:38And subsequent imprisonment in Sumatra
20:41Nurse Betty Jeffrey made it home
20:46When I was old enough to understand and learn
20:49Her story was so incredible
20:51I was really keen to keep sharing that story
20:55Emily Malone's great aunt Betty made an incredible donation
20:59To the Australian War Memorial before she died
21:02So these are the diaries, sketches and objects
21:06That Aunty Bette brought home
21:08There must be some unbelievably important things in here
21:12Can we open them?
21:14Just like the artists of the railway
21:17Betty risked torture and death to draw
21:20Your enemy, the Japanese guards
21:23Look down on you from watchtowers
21:25At each corner of the camp
21:27They have withheld medical supplies
21:29Adequate food rations
21:31And all external communication
21:34Malnutrition, dysentery, malaria
21:37And beriberi are taking their toll
21:40People have started to die
21:42To me this is just such an act of resistance
21:49Betty weighed just 30 kilos when she was finally freed
21:54Her recovery was long
21:56But she set about turning her diaries into a memoir
22:00White Coolies
22:01The story of those Australian Army nursing sisters
22:04Taken prisoner by the Japanese
22:06It was a sensation
22:08Serialised in newspapers
22:10And on radio
22:11Over 52 episodes
22:13This is the truth
22:14About women who fought in the last war
22:16Yes, I mean fought
22:18For they did fight
22:19The nurse's suffering
22:21Was the focus of these adaptations
22:23Take your filthy hands off me
22:27Jenny
22:29Jenny, you alright?
22:31Decades later
22:33Film director Bruce Beresford
22:35Was inspired by a different part
22:38Of the women's experience
22:39His film Paradise Road
22:42With Cate Blanchett starring as Betty
22:44Unearthed an untold story of defiance
22:49They came up with an incredible idea
22:52To form a vocal orchestra
22:54So a choir of women who would use their voices
22:58As the instruments to create music
23:02Symphonies and sonatas
23:04Classical pieces
23:05And they would take what we know as a string quartet
23:09The first and second violins
23:11The viola and the cello
23:12And they would create these four parts
23:14Write them down on scraps of paper
23:16And then organise the women in the vocal orchestra
23:19To rehearse separately
23:21One of the film's most memorable scenes
23:24Is just as Betty told it to Emily
23:27The Japanese guards had noticed this large gathering
23:30And started to run towards the group of women
23:33Shouting, yelling, waving rifles and bayonets
23:37But as soon as the vocal orchestra started singing
24:00The guards just stopped
24:07It's hard to think of a more potent example
24:11Of the power of art
24:19Just like the concert party
24:21The women in Sumatra created original work
24:24Including something they called the captive's hymn
24:28It was sung every Sunday
24:31At church services in camp
24:33Do you have that?
24:34We do
24:35Can we have a listen?
24:36Yes
24:39Father, in our divinity
24:46We would look our friend to thee
24:53As thy suffering
24:56No rebirth
24:58Cleanse by suffering, no rebirth
25:04Cleanse by suffering, no rebirth
25:08And see thy kingdom come on us
25:12To come up with that
25:15In the squalor of a prison camp
25:17I just can't
25:18I just can't
25:19I know
25:20And just sing it every Sunday
25:23Sorry, I need tissue
25:26I'm sorry
25:28Step away from the precious documents
25:30I can't be near the documents
25:33Betty felt that what the women had achieved
25:37Was so special
25:38That it should never be forgotten
25:40One of the things that she said to me
25:43Was actually our last conversation
25:46Before she passed away
25:47And in that conversation
25:49She said how proud she was
25:51And she said to me
25:52Please keep telling our story
26:00Remembering the art of the brutal captivity
26:02Takes nothing away from the unimaginable suffering
26:06And tragedy of our POWs
26:09But it heralds the important role that art played
26:13In our wartime experience
26:15And the hope of humanity that it offers
26:18Perhaps it even throws up
26:20A new kind of war hero
26:22One without weapons
26:24Just imagination
26:27Next time
26:43I don't want to be humble
26:45I don't want to sit down
26:46I just went as hard as I could possibly go
26:48The art of resistance
26:50I'm still here
26:51We're still resisting
26:53That exposes the wars fought
26:55Right here on Australian soil
26:58Even in the middle of the Australian wars
27:00People kept making art
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