Clare Makepeace

The Thai-Burma railway was built by prisoners of war in appalling conditions. The dead were treated with a dignity denied to the living.

In the POW camps of the Second World War, soldiers found release – from the conditions and from the all-male company – in female impersonation.

The suffering of prisoners of war at the hands of the Japanese during the Second World War has coloured the British view of the conflict in the Far East. Clare Makepeace highlights a little known aspect of the captives’ story: their quest for compensation.