Through the Valley of the Kwai
Through the Valley of the Kwai (also published under the titles Miracle on the River Kwai and To End All Wars[1]) is the autobiography of Scottish captain Ernest Gordon, and recounts the experiences of faith and hope of the men held in a Japanese prisoner of war labour camp, building the Burma Railway during World War II.
Dusty Miller
Dusty Miller was a British prisoner of war (POW) in Thailand conscripted to work on the Burma Railway during the last three and a half years of World War II. His life and death is attested to in Gordon's book. Miller was a gardener from Newcastle and a Methodist. Like Gordon, he was in the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, but was drafted into the Military Police or "Red Caps". He became known to Ernest Gordon during a period early on in their three and a half year incarceration under the Japanese. Gordon was seriously ill, and was attended to by Miller and "Dinty" Moore, a Roman Catholic POW. In their care, Gordon unexpectedly recovered. Through the examples of Miller and Moore, the recovery of Gordon, and the self-sacrificing examples of numerous others, both faith and hope were restored to many soldiers in the death camps.
In popular culture
The book was adapted into a film in 2001 under the title To End All Wars.
See also
- The Bridge over the River Kwai - a novel with a similar theme
- Night (book) by Elie Wiesel
- "Silence", the acclaimed historical novel by Shusaku Endo dealing with the history of Christianity in Japan.
References
- Ernest Gordon, a RemarkableMman of Forgiveness and Endurance; pauladams.org; accessed April 1, 2019
- Gordon, Ernest. Miracle on the River Kwai. Collins Fount Paperbacks, 1977, p. 173