The Changi Book

In the tradition of The Anzac Book comes this fascinating collection of accounts of life in the notorious Changi prison camp. No other place is more closely associated with the Australian prisoner-of-war experience of the Second World War than Changi. With 15,000 Australian soldiers captured at the fall of Singapore, the camp has become synonymous with suffering and hardship. But the Changi story was also one of ingenuity, resourcefulness and survival. Containing essays, cartoons, paintings, and photographs created by prisoners of war, The Changi Book provides a unique view of the camp: life-saving medical innovation, machinery and tools created from spare parts and scrap, black-market dealings, sport and gambling, theatre productions, and the creation of a library and university. Originally slated for publication in 1945, the material for The Changi Book was recently unearthed in the Australian War Memorial archives. It appears here for the first time along with insights from the Memorial’s experts and an introduction from historian Lachlan Grant.

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 by NewSouth in 2014. He is also a Visiting Fellow at the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre at the Australian National University