James Kerr - Marvellous doctors

Transcript

Doctor or doctors, depending on the size of the camp. And they had a tremendous responsibility, and they were men above men, the doctors on the Burma-Thailand railway. Absolutely. The Japanese would say how many men for working party, so they'd round the fit men up and they'd be 5 or 10 men short. So they'd pull all the men out of the hospital tent. If you could stand, you were fit enough to go to work.

And the doctor would fight them, trying to keep the sick men off the line. So that went on every day for the doctors. So it was a constant battle. Of course, with no life-saving drugs or even drugs to treat minor complaints, honestly, they did a marvelous job, the doctors. Marvelous job. Men above men. So it was a constant battle each morning, trying to keep their sick men in camp.