When many of us talk about World War II, we often forget the “World” part of the name, confining our focus to the major Allied and Axis powers and the big battles in the European and Pacific theatres. However, the truth is that almost every country on the planet was involved to some degree, and their stories demand to be told too.
The documentary Forgotten Heroes does just that for the people of Singapore, using four case studies to showcase the varied roles that Singaporeans played in the war. It’s a fascinating piece; in Australia, we’re used to stories of Britons, Americans, and Australians marching off to fight in the jungles of South East Asia or the islands of the Pacific, but rarely do we consider that servicemen from the British Empire’s colonies might be deployed anywhere the crown saw a need. Singapore, a British keystone city in the region, fell to the Japanese on February 15, 1942, resulting in the largest surrender of British military personnel in history. It also sent saw a flood of refugees flee the city, with many enlisting elsewhere to take up the fight.
One such man was aircraft technician Jimmy Chew, who was serving in the Royal Air Force when the Japanese took Singapore. Managing to get onto one of the last ships steaming out of the harbour as the city fell, he intended to keep fighting, only this time with the Royal Australian Air Force. Sadly for Chew he was captured shortly thereafter, spending the rest of the war in a brutal POW camp in Java, Indonesia.
100-year-old Captain Ho Weng Toh is one of the four men whose story are told in 'Forgotten Heroes' Source: MCN International
Sailor Lee Kim Hock left Singapore much earlier. Working as a coolie or day labourer in Singapore harbour before the war, he saw ships coming and going from all corners of the world and, deciding a life of travel beat a life unloading cargo, found a berth on a merchant ship. He saw the world, but after the advent of the war he mostly saw the icy waters of the North Atlantic, serving on the merchant convoys running the U-boats gauntlet between the continent and the United Kingdom. Hock’s account of walking the decks at night and seeing the flotsam from ships torpedoed by the German wolfpacks, including the occasional waterlogged body, are genuinely chilling.
Slightly to the south we find Tan Kay Hai, the only Chinese pilot to fight in the D-Day invasion of June 6, 1944. At 26 and married with two children, Hai was a lot older than the usual recruits at the start of the war. Nonetheless, he quickly developed a reputation as a daredevil stickman, racking up an impressive record. He was engaged in a dogfight with eight German fighter planes when he was shot down and captured, only to escape from a transport train towards the tail end of the war.
Tan Kay Hai's granddaughter Li Er Hanson and great grandson Trey Hanson, tracing the past in 'Forgtten Heroes'. Source: MCN International
All these stories come from interviews with descendants and academics and are told with archival footage and animated sequences filling in the gaps. But Forgotten Heroes saves is best for last: an on-camera interview with the hundred-year-old Captain Ho Weng Toh, one of the last of the legendary Flying Tigers.
The First American Volunteer Group of the Republic of China Air Force, to give them their full and illustrious title, were a group of international pilots who flew against the Japanese out of Free China in 1941-42. Toh, who fled Hong Kong after witnessing atrocities there, made a torturous overland journey to volunteer and found himself a gunner on a B-25 bomber. Toh’s recollections of his exploits are the clear highlight here, and it is something to see the still spry former pilot tell his tales.
Captain Ho Weng Toh with son Fred Ho. Source: MCN International
And therein lies the value in something like Forgotten Heroes; while names, dates and big battles stay in the historical record, smaller stories like these are all too easily lost, and with them the human angle on earth-shattering events like World War II. For that reason alone, Forgotten Heroes is essential viewing for history buffs, and a useful corrective to the usual Anglocentric World War II narrative.
Forgotten Heroes premiered 5.30pm Saturday 1 January on SBS. It is now streaming at SBS On Demand:
