When The War Is Over Season 1 Episode 4
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Five Minute Recap brings you quick 5-minute summaries of the latest news, movies, tech, and trends. Stay informed and entertained in minutes with clear, engaging recap perfect for busy people who want to learn fast and keep up with the world.
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00:11Princess Pierre 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 II. She was a nurse and the ship she told
00:24me about
00:25was 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
00:39ambulance 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
01:39art is our secret weapon. So in this series I'm putting this theory to the test one war
01:46and one artwork at a time. Because while journalists tell us what happened. They left in scenes that are now
01:56part of television's history. It's our performance. When the song was released it was banned. Yeah.
02:03Filmmakers. Peter Weir for quickly.
02:07Writers. The narrow road to the deep north. Artists. I was the only one not carrying a weapon. And musicians.
02:14If it's too risky to say, sing it.
02:18Who help us make sense of it. Holy shit. This is incredible.
02:26Art's not just there to be pretty and admired. Art is the magnifying glass and the mirror. This was a
02:32pub rock song that changed our lives. That's what art can do.
02:36Art's not just there to be pretty. This is when the war is over.
02:47If you've ever been to Thailand, chances are you were lured by white beaches and manicured resorts.
02:56But 80 years ago on this spot, well, it was far from a tropical paradise. In fact, this place earned
03:04the nickname Hellfire Pass.
03:10This railroad cutting was largely done by hand with the forced labour of Australian prisoners of war during World War
03:18II.
03:19It's part of the notorious Burma-Thailand Railway.
03:24The Australian prisoners here were just some of the 22,000 captured in the Pacific in 1942
03:31by Japanese forces intent on expanding their empire.
03:37For the next three and a half years, these POWs were put to work on projects that furthered Japanese domination.
03:48All over Asia and the Pacific, more than 8,000 Australians died.
03:56And we think of places like this as close to hell as we could possibly imagine
04:01when we think of the Australian POW experience.
04:05But it's not the only story.
04:19Oh, wow.
04:22I feel like I'm in the warehouse at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark.
04:26And amongst all this incredible stuff,
04:32we have this extraordinary item.
04:35Oh, wow.
04:43Oh, my God.
04:47Isn't that beautiful?
04:52Ooh.
04:54Hasn't been tuned for a while.
04:55For quite a long time.
04:57Yeah.
04:57Award-winning writer and actor Neil Piggott
05:00is an expert on a little-known aspect of Australia's military history
05:04that puts theatre folk like us in the frame.
05:08So, two old actors who are war nerds.
05:12Can you read what this says?
05:16This piano belongs to the history of World War II.
05:19It's a piano from Changi Camp.
05:24Changi, Singapore.
05:25It 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.
05:41Singapore has fallen.
05:43It was a shocking military blow.
05:48Japanese forces immediately turned Singapore's British Army barracks at Changi
05:53into a massive prison holding 15,000 Australians.
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.
06:13He comes across the piano and he thinks, oh, jeez, that'd be handy.
06:16He came back, 12 of them went through the wire, two kilometres, carried it back into the camp.
06:24Were they risking death to get this piano?
06:26Oh, yeah, of course, of course they were.
06:28Of course they were.
06:28Any time anyone went through the wire, they were risking death.
06:34But the notes of this piano soon began to ring out through Salarang, the Australians' quarters in Changi.
06:41The Japanese very rarely went into Salarang.
06:45I mean, in Salarang there were 15,000 Australians.
06:48So there was some sort of, I 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.
06:56And so they actually then started to write songs about Changi.
07:17The interesting thing is that waiting for something to happen and then something did happen.
07:23Within months, POWs were being selected to leave Changi.
07:29They were told they were going to a place where there was more food.
07:32It was going to be like a holiday.
07:33We're going to build hospitals there.
07:35It was all going to be lovely.
07:39But it couldn't have been further from the truth.
07:433,000 Australians were now forced to build a 420-kilometre railway.
07:53Today, passenger trains still use this part of the track built by prisoners of war.
07:59And riding these rails feels even more haunting with this book in my hand.
08:05Richard 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.
08:18Honouring his father's experience on the railway, Flanagan's 2013 novel introduced a new generation
08:26of readers to the POW story.
08:30It scooped a pool of literary prizes.
08:34And that winner of this year's Man 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.
08:59But what this book also does, which is so powerful, is it puts the artist in the war, in this
09:09hell.
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.
09:33His 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.
09:51The pictures would survive, and the world would know.
09:56Really?
09:56Memory is the true justice, sir.
10:02Or the creator of new horrors.
10:11It's unimaginable, isn't it, that even here in the gates of hell itself, some were determined to bear witness.
10:20The art of captivity is an act of defiance.
10:25Defiance of death, defiance of death, and our inhumanity.
10:30It says, we are human, and we are here.
10:38It's said that there's a corpse for every sleeper on this railway.
10:52And 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,
11:08and he first saw them, he just broke down and wept, and said, what have you done to my men?
11:16That's one of the only times that the piano stopped, for those few nights that the whole camp was...
11:24In shock.
11:28The whole situation clearly becomes more serious.
11:36And around the piano, something extraordinary was taking place.
11:42They started to go, okay, well, we perhaps need to start creating new work that actually has some reflection on
11:48what's going on in here.
11:49And that's when we start to see original works being produced, original 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 and actually giving people hope.
12:09Together, these soldier-performing artists helped their audience imagine a future of freedom,
12:18giving over 240 concerts as the Changi Concert Party.
12:25And 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.
12:42It must have also played some laments and more mournful tunes, or 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 of transportation to labour camps.
13:14Now everything seems to have changed
13:18Like the sunshine that turns into rain
13:25We were together in trouble
13:28In fun, a good double
13:32But they've taken my old pal away
13:38It's like a love song, like to speak of male friendship like that.
13:42I 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 not just be a form of entertainment,
13:56but to be a form of social good.
14:02It's wonderful
14:03So wonderful
14:05To think of a happy day
14:07When
14:08We can say
14:10We're back in circulation again
14:13Created this sense of a hole amongst them
14:18We forget that this is what art is doing
14:22This story of the creativity of Changi
14:26Why did this land for you?
14:28Because you spent a long time with...
14:30Over 30 years
14:32Which 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
14:53Slim 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
15:04I don't know, we hit it off and we went to the pub together
15:07And I said, where can I get an album of the songs?
15:09And Slim said, you know, we've never done that
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
15:30A very complex story of survival
15:32And I understood that the songs were central to that story
15:40So Neil and Slim toured the country
15:44With their newly minted album of the concert party songs
15:55How come your captors and your jailers, the Japanese, allowed you to get away with it?
16:01There were thousands and thousands and thousands of us in 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 perceive to be
16:19Perhaps the most ugly experience
16:22That Australians have ever encountered in their modern history
16:25There was this profound expression of humanity
16:28And the nightly lullaby, although risque and a little vulgar
16:32Was, at the end of every bitter day, highly functional
16:35And nothing would please the old gentleman more
16:40Than to hear them go
16:42Together
16:44We made fun out of tragedy
16:47Rather than step back, we stepped into it
16:50But the backlash was brutal
16:52We were attacked for trivialising the POW experience
16:56In Neil Biggott's hands, the Changi experience has turned into a marketing exercise
17:00There's the Changi calendar
17:02The official Changi souvenir songbook
17:06Postcards
17:07A children's book written for the children of Changi
17:10A poster
17:11Even a CD
17:12The idea that music could have been a part of the POW experience
17:18Was just not acceptable
17:23But if Neil copped flack for the album
17:26Slim copped it worse in his final role
17:33When he played a character looking back on his performing days in Changi
17:41Although many aspects of the series bore a striking resemblance to the concert party
17:47And Slim's own life
17:52It just didn't ring true for some viewers
17:55It just smacks of inauthenticity to me
17:57There's no horror
17:58Where's the horror, the trauma of these individuals who are suffering
18:03This is the most fun I have ever had in my life
18:06I want to do it again
18:07The ABC series has come in for criticism
18:10For getting details wrong
18:12And downplaying the true horror
18:23This word Changi emerged as this hellhole
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 of the POW experience
18:42Perhaps some stories require more time
18:46Before we're ready to hear them
18:59Dearly loved son
19:03God
19:08I mean it's just an overwhelming number
19:10And I think if my son died up there
19:14Or my husband died up there
19:17And it was in the years after
19:21I don't know that I'd want to hear about the humour and songs of those that survived
19:29I think it'd 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 and laughter too
19:53When Changi was finally liberated in 1945
19:56The concert party wanted their beloved piano to come home with them
20:00When that request was denied
20:02The men refused to board the ship
20:05Finally it was loaded and lashed to the deck
20:09But while Changi itself might have been liberated
20:12There was another group of Australian POWs in Sumatra
20:16And they were still awaiting their fate
20:19And just like the men in Changi
20:21They also turned to art and music in captivity
20:27When 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
20:43Nurse 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?
21:15Just like the artists of the railway
21:17Betty risked torture and death to draw
21:20Your enemy, the Japanese guards
21:23Looked down on you from watchtowers at each corner of the camp
21:27They have withheld medical supplies
21:29Adequate food rations
21:31And all external communication
21:35Malnutrition, dysentery, malaria
21:37And beriberi are taking their toll
21:40People have started to die
21:44To me this is just such an act of resistance
21:50Betty 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
22:02The 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 over 52 episodes
22:13This is the truth about women who fought in the last war
22:16Yes, I mean fought
22:18For they did fight
22:19The nurses' suffering was the focus of these adaptations
22:23Take your filthy hands off me
22:29Jenny
22:30Jenny, you alright?
22:33Decades later
22:34Film director Bruce Beresford
22:36Was inspired by a different part of 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
22:55So a choir of women who would use their voices as the instruments to create music
23:02Symphonies and sonatas, classical pieces
23:05And they would take what we know as a string quartet
23:09The first and second violins, the viola and the cello
23:13And they would create these four parts, write them down on scraps of paper
23:17And then organise the women in the vocal orchestra to rehearse separately
23:22One of the film's most memorable scenes is just as Betty told it to Emily
23:27The Japanese guards had noticed this large gathering
23:31And started to run towards the group of women
23:34Shouting, yelling, waving rifles and bayonets
23:56But as soon as the vocal orchestra started singing
24:01The guards just stopped
24:08It's hard to think of a more potent example of the power of art
24:18Just 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 at church services in camp
24:33Do you have that?
24:35We do
24:35Do you have a listen?
24:36Yes
24:40Father in our divinity
24:46We would look our friend to thee
24:53Cleanse by suffering, no rebirth
25:08And see thy kingdom come on us
25:13To come up with that
25:15In the squalor of a prison camp
25:17I just can't
25:21And just sing it every Sunday
25:25Sorry, I need tissue
25:28I'm sorry
25:29Step away from the precious documents
25:31I can't be near the documents
25:35Betty felt that what the women had achieved
25:37Was so special
25:38That it should never be forgotten
25:42One of the things that she said to me
25:44Was actually our last conversation
25:46Before she passed away
25:48And in that conversation
25:49She said how proud she was
25:51And she said to me
25:53Please keep telling our story
26:00Remembering the art of the brutal captivity
26:03Takes nothing away from the unimaginable suffering
26:06And tragedy of our POWs
26:09But it heralds the important role
26:12That art played in 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
26:26Just imagination
26:42Next 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
26:52We're still resisting
26:53That exposes the wars fought
26:55Right here
26:56On Australian soil
26:58Even in the middle
26:59Of the Australian wars
27:00People kept making art
27:02You're doing art
27:04You're doing art
27:04I neverèg Rabbitง1
27:04I believe
27:05mind And your
27:09face Thatatives
27:09You're
27:10doing art Thatuan
27:10It's
27:10the point You're
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