Book Launch - Half a Banana - The Diary of a Gurkha Officer Imprisoned by the Japanese by Peter Kemmis Betty

The diary of a Gurkha officer imprisoned by the Japanese during World War Two. Amidst starvation, disease and brutality, the creation and tending of vegetable gardens became a vital lifeline, a testament to the resilience of the human spirit.

‘Half A Banana’ tells the unusual wartime story of Peter Kemmis Betty and Alec Ogilvie, childhood friends who as Gurkha officers found themselves captured by the Japanese in 1942 and marched to Changi prisoner-of-war camp in Singapore. Two of the few who remained for the whole of their captivity in Singapore, they helped to manage the gardens that produced food for thousands of fellow Allied prisoners.

During these years Peter Kemmis Betty kept a diary of life at Changi, where with no sense of an ending the prisoners did everything possible to maintain morale, developing a deep loyalty to each other. Their enterprising spirit was epitomised not just by the hard work on the gardens but by the many efforts prisoners made to lead a ‘normal’ life. Despite the toughness of their lives Peter harboured no bitterness towards the Japanese.

Published for the eightieth anniversary of VJ Day, the diary paints one of the most complete pictures of what life was like in Changi from 1942 to 1945.

Profits from this book are being donated to the Pahar Trust Nepal, a charity set up by two Gurkha engineers to support schools in the foothills of the Himalayas.