Surviving the Railway: Memories of Far East Prisoners of War Exhibition
The Royal Norfolk Regimental Museum has staged an exhibition to mark the 80th anniversary of VJ Day – Surviving the Railway: Memories of Far East Prisoners of War, which was opened by HRH The Duke of Gloucester in March 2025.
The exhibition commemorates the 4th, 5th and 6th Battalions of the Royal Norfolk Regiment, who fought in the Battle of Singapore alongside fellow East Anglian Territorials, as part of the ill-fated 18th Division. Following surrender on the 15th February 1942, these men were taken prisoner by the Japanese and forced into gruelling and perilous labour, most famously on the Thai-Burma Railway. In total, 2,468 men from the Norfolks were interned by the Japanese, only 1,828 returned.
One of these survivors, 4th Battalion Lieutenant John Coast, wrote the first published account of life as a Far East Prisoner of War, “Railroad of Death”, in 1946. He returned to the sites of his captivity over 20 years later to produce a documentary for the BBC, excerpts of which will be shown in the exhibition, together with some of the scarce surviving objects and documents saved from captivity.
The exhibition is at King’s Lynn Town Hall, from the 22nd March until the 21st September. Admission costs £3.95 per adult, £2.95 per concession. The museum is open 7 days a week, 10am – 16:30pm.
