The Sportsmen of Changi

In this moving account, the diaries of prisoners and other historical evidence are provided to exemplify the positive and humanizing force of sports amidst hellish POW camp condition. Whether Australian prisoners-of-war played Aussie-rules football at the infamous Changi Prison or tennis on the Burmese side of the Burma-Thailand Railway, the idea of engaging in recreational sports—sometimes with their captors—in Japanese POW camps contradicts the popular notion of the horror and suffering associated with WWII. Answering questions such as Were sports the one link to normalcy? Did playing prove that the men were still tough despite defeat? and What did sports mean to these soldiers?, this record demonstrates how morale was boosted in the most dire of times.