RIP Eric Lomax, River Kwai prisoner who forgave his torturer, and recorded his experience in "Railway Man"

RIP Eric Lomax, River Kwai prisoner who forgave his torturer, and recorded his experience in "Railway Man"

Oct 11 2012

Eric Lomax, a former British soldier who was tortured by the Japanese while he was a prisoner during World War II and half a century later forgave one of his tormentors - an experience he recounted in a memoir, The Railway Man (1996) - died on Monday in Berwick-upon-Tweed, England. He was 93.

Mr Lomax met the man who tortured him, including multiple water-boardings and breaking of bones, in 1993. Mr Lomax wrote of the meeting: "I had come with no sympathy for this man, and yet Nagase, through his complete humility, turned this around. In the days that followed we spent a lot of time together, talking and laughing.... We promised to keep in touch and have remained friends ever since."

A film based on The Railway Man, starring Colin Firth and Nicole Kidman, is scheduled to be released in 2013.

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