“Punished By Both Sides”
Score: 4/5

The Forgotten Highlander: My Incredible Story of Survival During the War in the Far East

Alistair Urquhart

£18.99

This autobiography tells the story of a boy from Scotland during World War 2 who was:

• Conscripted into the Gordon Highlanders,
• Shipped off to Singapore,
• Captured by the Japanese,
• Sent to work on the Death Railway and the bridge over River Kwai,
• Packed on a prisoner ‘hellship’ to Japan,
• Torpedoed by an American submarine in shark-infested waters,
• Recaptured by the Japanese,
• Sent to a different POW camp…,
• …in Nagasaki where he was nuked.

Eventful! But the truth of the matter is that those startling events are really just the backdrop to a well told story of the life of a soldier. I don’t feel bad about mentioning any of those events – I don’t think they’re spoilers because they were all featured in the book’s launch publicity and they’re the main reason I bought the book. I’m paranoid about spoilers, but knowing all of those future events while reading the book didn’t detract from it one iota.

The story is an engaging one of a boy growing into a man when events seem to conspire against him. His own side seems to have been responsible for much of what was done to him, but he comes across as quite stoic about all of it, even when he felt he was cheated out of some discharge benefits. He could not be said to have had an easy time of it, but he bore it all well and there’s little bitterness in the book, and what bitterness there is is restricted to the Japanese treatment of prisoners. He may have a point in saying that Japan as a country still hasn’t come to terms with what was done in its name, the way that Germany has.

A fascinating glimpse of times I hope we never see again.