ONE FOURTEENTH OF AN ELEPHANT - A memoir of life and death on the Burma - Thailand Railway

by Ian Denys Peek

In February 1942, Singapore fell to the Japanese and Denys Peek was among the tens of thousands of British and Commonwealth soldiers and citizens taken prisoner. Eight months later, he and countless other PoWs were packed into steel goods wagons and transported by rail to Siam - their destination the massive construction project that would become infamous as the Burma Thailand Railway. He would spend the next three years in over 15 different work and 'hospital' camps on the railway, stubbornly refusing to give up in a place where over 20,000 prisoners of war (an innumerable slave labourers) met their deaths. Written with clarity, passion and a remarkable eye for detail, Denys Peek's memoir recalls not just the hardships and horrors of the railway, the daily struggle for survival, but also the comradeship, spirit and humour of the men who worked on it.It stands as a haunting, evocative and deeply moving testimony to the suffering of those who lived and died there - a salutary reminder of man's potential for inhumanity to his fellow man.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Biography, War, World War II, Memoir, Biography Memoir

609 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

Reviews

[Paul Weiss · Rating 4 out of 5]

A paean to the indomitable nature of the human spirit!

But ONE FOURTEENTH OF AN ELEPHANT is also a blistering condemnation of man's brutality to his fellow man even in the context of a war that encompassed the globe. When Singapore fell to the Japanese in 1942, author Ian Denys Peek, alongside countless thousands of Commonwealth soldiers, was incarcerated and forced to work to the glory of the Japanese Empire by helping the Japanese army to construct the Burma-Thailand railway.

Peek's present tense narration is at once simple, straightforward, brutally honest, compelling, astonishing and utterly heartbreaking.

"We have absolutely no say in our lives. We live like animals kept for work and nobody cares if we live or die. Each man has to rely totally on his own personal resources, with the support of close friends when he needs it, to cope with conditions under which familiar things have all but disappeared, leaving him with almost nothing in a grinding struggle to survive not only physically, but to retain sanity and a sense of humour."

Sickness and starvation is the norm. Escape across 100 kilometres of Siam's mountains and jungle is, of course, impossible and this realization makes the plight of these men all the more deplorable. Peek himself barely survived the ravages of malaria and beri-beri, one disease the result of his harsh environment, the other an entirely preventable illness due to mal-nutrition.

ONE FOURTEENTH OF AN ELEPHANT is not an easy book to read but it is ultimately uplifting and unforgettable. Highly recommended.

Paul Weiss

[Chrissie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am glad I read this book. It is brutal reading. It is detailed, and I mean very detailed! But if you want to know about the 200.000 Asians and 60.000 Allied POWs who were forced by the Japanese to build this 415km railway between Bangkok, Thailand, and Rangoon, Burma, during WW2, this is the book to choose. 90.000 Asians were killed and 16.000 Allied POWs. This is what is often called the Death Railway.

It tells you everything, told by the author who survived. Every detail of the railways construction is there. The working conditions are worse than anything you could ever imagine. Every bit of this is detailed and true. At the same time there is comradeship and courage and bravery, shouldering brutality and cowardice.

First there is the barbarism of the Japanese. I want to emphasize that sentence, so it gets its very own paragraph.

As normally is the situation in POW camps, the officers of the captured army remain in control of their own men. There were plenty of officers who did nothing for their men. Let's just say, as always in real life, nothing is simple. To honestly portray all aspects of this event you must relate it in detail, and for that reason I do not see the abundant detail as a criticism of the book. It does make for hard reading. The author relates every detail, all his own experiences. The book moves forward chronologically. Each chapter states the name of the camp and the dates when Ian Denys Peek was there. There are clear maps. The author did not study other accounts or books in writing this. It is his account of what he went through from October 1942 to November 1945. His brother, Ron, was with him. Both had joined the Singapore Volunteers and had been taken POW when Singapore capitulated. His mother was in India. His father was in a Japanese internment camp in Singapore.

The book is written with detail and a lack of sentimentality. Here is what happened.

I can also recommend The Forgotten Highlander: My Incredible Story Of Survival During The War In The Far East. I have given both five stars. I do not recommend Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption....

[Billy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Someone could say that if you have seen The Bridge Over the River Kwai movie there is no need to read this book. That person would be wrong. This book covers in memoir form (I wonder how the author managed to keep a detailed journal going given all he faced as a POW) the story of British troops held prisoner after the fall of Singapore, their construction of part of the Burma RR, their struggles to eat, sleep, and just stay alive, their diseases, the neglect by their officers, and the random cruelty and occasional kindness of their captors and overlords.
It raises awful questions of whether the POWs were justified in helping their captors build a RR that would supply armies against their own troops, whether forgiveness for the cruelty is possible, and how can the soldiers talk about their experience when they get home.
There is much detail here, so much to the point one is tempted to think the author should have edited better and eliminated some of the repetition (more than 500 pages), but that would be wrong- the reader follows the differing degrees of work intensity, the variation in the weather (how they survived that is a mystery), bugs, tropical ulcers, dysentery, cholera, malaria. The reader needs to feel it all to begin to understand. Three years of these horrors...
The last part of the book, p. 502 on, brings all these weighty questions into focus. The book ends with a poem about forgiveness and I can understand why it is so hard.
I tried to look up the author and find out what happened to him between the end of WWII and when he published the book 60 years later but could not find anything. At the time of publication he was living in Australia. Now he would be about 95.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

My grandad told me to read this as he was one of the many men who built the railway. His regiment does cross paths with the man who wrote the book. Was a fascinating read as he would never talk of his time there but said the book was the closest thing he'd ever read to the truth.

[Lee Baker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such an insight into the lives of these POW’s. This book is made more meaningful for me because my late father-in-law Max said it was the closest book he had read to his experiences on the Burma railway. Excellent

[Sheree · Rating 5 out of 5]

"A memoir of life and death on the Burma - Thailand railway"

I found this memoir particularly meaningful. I have a great uncle who was a POW forced to work on the Burma railway, he had all his fingernails removed by the Japanese whilst a prisoner & I also visited the Bridge over River Kwai and memorial museum while in Thailand.
Told in the present tense, One Fourteenth of an Elephant is an evocative and deeply moving recount of the suffering and bravery of those who lived and died on the railway. The author and survivor Ian Denys Peek takes us through the courageous daily struggle for survival against inhumanity and brutality, degradation, misery and death.
The atrocities were horrific but this book was far from depressing. The story is told with passion, honesty and humour and only a small degree of repetitiveness. An enlightening 'MUST' read.

[Sue · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have a different edition - the one from 2003 with the picture of the railway and the starved POWs.
At first glance, I was horrified. I thought I may not like this book -actually it seemed to be a book no one would willingly pick up. The cover, depicting starved POWs, evokes a visceral reaction, one that might even deter you from delving into its pages. But, as the saying goes, don't judge a book by its cover.
This was until I met Ian, the author himself, who graciously handed me a copy of his work. Reluctantly, I began to read, expecting a harrowing tale that I'd struggle to get through. However, what I discovered within those pages was nothing short of remarkable.
Ian's storytelling prowess shines through every paragraph, captivating me from the very first page. Despite the grim subject matter, his prose is both evocative and poignant, drawing me into a world I never imagined I'd inhabit.
What struck me most about the story was its ability to stay with me long after I'd turned the final page. Even now, years later, I find myself recalling vivid episodes from the story, each memory as sharp and poignant as if I'd experienced it firsthand. Ian is a masterful storyteller and his story is as captivating as it is unforgettable, a testament to the resilience of the human spirit in the face of unimaginable adversity.

[Caryatid · Rating 4 out of 5]

Looking back to being buried in reading this book, two things come to mind. The sickening attitude of so many officers given preferential treatment by the enemy to the point of lounging around well fed while the soldiers died like flies.
The other is, I wonder at the lack of foraging in the forests for foods that might stave off malnutrition. Coming across a large colony of snakes, mostly pythons, no mention was made of eating them yet protein was hugely missing from their diets.
Otherwise a fascinating book.

[Nicola C · Rating 5 out of 5]

The title comes from the strength required equal to that of one elephant to lift wooden beams into place during the construction of the dreaded Burma railway 7 men each side = 1/14th.
An incredible memoir from a survivor under the Japanese occupation of Singapore and an also scathing account of the pompous military leadership of Singapore and the war effort in the far east.
Brutality and harshness under the Japanese occupation this isn't easy reading but an important book to read.

[Greg · Rating 5 out of 5]

An honestly brutal factual account of the Japanese invasion of Singapore during the WWII. The incarceration of its citizens, expatriates, service personal and the inhumane treatment of those forced into POW slavery for the purpose of constructing the Burma Thailand railway. It’s a hard reading openly exposing the harsh reality of war and man’s capability for compassion and cruelty.

[Colleen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I learned so much about something I knew very little about. There were descriptions so cruel and vivid, I had to skip some pages. How did so many survive and then continue with life after the war ended?
I did, however, find the book too long with several repetitions.

[Pam Milburn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting insight into building the Siam/Burma railway by internees. Cruelty of Japanese to pows was awful. Many died. Bit repetitive and harrowing but glad I read it.

[Gaynor Lovett]

Excellent book to learn about the atrocities inflicted on Japanese Prisoners of War in Thailand 1942-1945. Well written.

[Heidi Boniface · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not my usual genre but last book in the house during lockdown :) But I enjoyed this warts & all story

[Linda O'donovan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely brilliant -couldn’t put this book down -I was crying in places, such a revealing account of the POW in Burma and their immense courage and struggles to build the railway.

[Fiona Kay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating account of the building of the Burma to Thailand railway by Japanese POWs.Amazingly measured considering the cruelty the author suffered

[Cliff · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you

[John Murray · Rating 5 out of 5]

utterly brutal yet incredibly restrained.

[Annaflo · Rating 2 out of 5]

interesting but could have been half the length.

[Mark Green · Rating 4 out of 5]

Detailed, informative and interesting

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Occasionally elephants were used to move huge trees to be used as supports for railway bridges which the Japanese built over the Kwei Noi (known to us as the River Kwai). If the elephants refused to carry them because they were too big or too heavy, men were used instead. Fourteen men were needed to perform this task, hence tie title "One Fourteenth of an Elephant."

When Singapore fell to the Japanese in 1942, Denys Peek was a 20-year-old member of the Singapore Volunteers, an army of the British military. In August 1945, he was a 24-year-old former POW.

The Singapore Volunteers and all other British (and Colonial) forces were surrendered to the Japanese and placed in POW camps in Siam. Very shortly after, they were transferred to camps along the Kwei Noi River to build the Burma-Thailand Railway on 715km of land that British engineers had earlier in the century refused to build on because of the enormous toll it would take in lives.

It's estimated approximately 22,000 Allied troops and over 110,000 Asiatic civilian forced laborers died in building the railroad.

Peek does a marvelous job of showing the cruelties that the Japanese displayed in getting the road done: rice given to the POWs had been swept off the floor in warehouses containing the lowest grade rice, medical treatment was virtually non-existent, clothing rotted in the moist climate and the men were reduced to wearing only hats and self-made fundoshis (Japanese underwear), rice and tea only as food, insufficient and unsanitary latrines, no proper tools to achieve the work they were ordered to do "speedo."

Having lived in Asia his entire life, except for 7 years in a British school, Peek understands the mentality of the Japanese and is able to differentiate between simple cultural differences (bowing as a sign of respect) and cultural heritage (Japanese disregard for anyone except the Japanese). So this memoir is different; it's a better look at the relationship between the Japanese and their captives.

Peek does not shy from showing specific incidents of the bleakness of Japanese captivity. Once as they were shuttled among camps (they were sent to a different camp as manpower was required), they arrived at a camp to find 39 men who were healthy enough to join their work crew. Out of the original 1600 men assigned to the camp, 800 had already died of cholera and over 700 were dying. The Japanese furnished no medical treatment for them.

Near the end of the war, they were waiting for orders to move on when a train came into the station where they were. When the doors on the transport cars were opened, Japanese soldiers literally fell out onto the ground and didn't move. The smell was overwhelming and the POWs could only assume that the soldiers inside were dead. Their Japanese escorts turned away from these soldier while the POWs tried to do what they could - with no water, no food, nothing. Eventually they found out from the soldiers that they had been on this train for 3 weeks, basically ignored by their commanders, rarely feed or given water.

There are some hilarious moments as well. The POWs seemed to keep their sense of humor and used any opportunity they could to "show up" the Nips (as Peek labels them). None of the guards or commanders had any engineering understanding. Once the POWs were to build a tunnel underneath a huge boulder that needed to be moved out of the railroad bed. They obediently dug the hole, but they had angled it so that the dynamite put in to collapse the soil under it pointed directly across the river. When the time came to detonate, the explosion rained dirt and rocks on the Japanese commanders on the other side of the river. The boulder remained in place. Who us? We did exactly what you told us to do.

Peek does not have good things to say about the British officers either. Most of them never came to see the men or do anything to try to alleviate conditions. None of them (well, once) ever participated in a work force (unwittingly). All of them had decent uniforms and food.

Peek also talks about the worries. Will the Japanese simply slaughter us all if they find they are losing the war? Are our families (for those who had family in Singapore) safe or in internment camps and ill treated? On the way home: can I overcome this and ever be somewhat normal again? Will I be sterile from four years of malnutrition/starvation? And, worst of all, I helped build a railroad that helped the enemy pursue the war - will the British government see that as treason?

If you only read one memoir of the building of the railroad, make it this one.

[Deb Omnivorous Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

This incredible book is written by a WWII prisoner Denys, as a British resident of Singapore he was in the volunteer corp. there when Singapore surrendered to Japan. Denys and his brother then spend the rest of the war in Japanese POW camps, mostly work camps in Thailand, working on the infamous Burmese railway project that has fuelled movies such as Railway man and The Bridge Over the River Kwai.

I picked this book up as I was heading to Thailand, part of the visit was to include the province of Kanchanburi, with it’s war cemeteries and museums as well as a day excursion to the war memorial at Hellfire pass, which was put up in memory of all the people killed and tortured building the railway. The trip added a real dimension to the book; hours by bus and train to reach even the beginning of the railway, the first of the camps that the POWs had to walk on foot, time after time, with impossibly inadequate food, clothing, medical supplies or other necessities.

But onward to the book itself rather than the ambience; It is written in a clear, down to earth tone of voice. Denys makes it clear that it is his story, of his experiences and that he has made only basic efforts to coordinate with historically details and it is certainly good enough for someone who is no huge WWII Pacific buff. The story concentrates much more on the experiences of the author, his brother and their friends and the personalities of the other POWs and guards rather than on the war, of which Denys actually got to see and hear very little.

The details of the workcamps and the conditions they were subjected to are simply harrowing; as one reads one is amazed, time and again that anyone came out alive at all let alone with their sanity and sense of humour intact. Monsoons and mosquitoes with no protection... No medicines for the malaria and tropical ulcers and inevitable amputations.... Regular starvation despite massive physical exertions... Unbelievably long hours of work with no shoes and almost no tools in bamboo forests... Forced marches with no food or shelter along the way... Inhuman abuse by some of the guards and the inexcusable neglect by some of their own officers...

Reading this book, I think, must increase ones understanding of the post traumatic stress syndrome that many men suffered and still suffer. An experience like that, when you are barely out of your teens is bound to stay with you for the rest of your life. Moulding yourself to social expectations when you have spent years outside of all society in such a way would have to be very difficult and the results rather chancy. I also find it easier to understand the acute racism that some people display toward the Japanese, I don’t condone it, but I can see where they are coming from. A small sign in the war museum at Kanchanaburi in Thailand delicately points out that prisoner of war camp guards in world war two were hardly the best of society, and that an entire people should not be judges by the actions of these few. Valid, but the men who suffered and died from the torture inflicted there and the families they came back to may not be able to make the distinction. And, having read this book, one has to question the pre-war society that shaped those men, and hope that it has since changed for the better.

There are almost too many horrors to take in, and yet there were only a couple of times when I had to set this book down for a break before continuing on. The mitigating factor to the things you are reading is Denys, his indomitable spirit comes through all these things with an intact sense of humour and even where possible, a spirit of fun! The clarity of the writing allows the reader to share in a small way the experiences of these men with even the worst horrors told in a matter of fact voice, that allows the reader to walk away from the book saddened and horrified, yet still engaged and, in the end with an overall positive reading experience. Considering the subject matter, that is a feat almost as impressive as the building of the railway!

[Connie Howell · Rating 5 out of 5]

An incredibly moving memoir by the author detailing his experiences during World War 2 as a POW and the construction of the Burma-Thailand railway. During his three years in various work camps we are told of the appalling conditions,the sicknesses and near starvation of the prisoners and the complete disregard of the Japanese for them.
I found the immense courage and resilience of the author and his fellow prisoners which included his brother, to be awe inspiring at the sheer magnitude of the suffering and yet how the body has an enormous capacity to survive and recover especially if the mind set is one of survival.
Even though the POWs went though extremes they still retained some sense of humour and self dignity which I find most admirable given the circumstances and I am humbled by their sacrifices.

[Tony · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an amazing book to experience. The descriptive writing made you feel every bruise and injustice that was served out to these men. That any of them survived is a real testament to the human spirit. It read in parts like a novel but really it is a historic tribute. I felt so happy that the author and his brother both made it out alive. I would love to know how they then went on to "survive" the rest of their lives.

[Rebecca Guest · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was interesting to learn about this piece of World War 2 history - I was unaware there were so many non-Thai prisoners of war held in Thailand by the Japanese. A horrifying and moving account, although I think it could have been half the length without compromising the quality of the story.

[Angela · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tragically sad, 'One Fourteenth of an Elephant' was raw and descriptive of life for a POW working on the Burma railway. The length itself could have been shortened whilst still maintaining the effect, but its shock and emotional brutality make this a valuable memoir.

[Kathryn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. I found it incredibly absorbing and I often felt as though I was in the place that Denys was describing. I highly recommend this for anyone who has an interest in WWII history, particularly Pacific history.

[Adam · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a rare gem. A first-hand account of life on the Thai-Burma railway. It is thoughtful, reflective, and brutally honest. I was quite affected by the authors repeated wrestling with God's apparent indifference in the face of such staggering brutality and suffering. Enthralling.

[F · Rating 5 out of 5]

An amazingly moving account from a survivor of the Thai-Burma railway during WWII. Having visited the area and Hellfire Pass, it really brought home to me the suffering and incredible endurance of these POWs in such horrific conditions.

[Marielle · Rating 4 out of 5]

A heartrending narrative of one man's life as a prisoner of war working on the Thailand-Burma railroad during WWII. Though the author and his comrades suffer immense discomfort and ill-treatment, I found the enduring optimism and resilience of the author extremely encouraging!