By Lieutenant Colonel R. G. Wells

Transcript of a recording by Lieutenant Colonel R G Wells, on the construction of radio equipment whilst in a Japanese Prisoner of War camp after the fall of Singapore.

It was about the beginning of 1942 when I was a prisoner of war of the Japanese, when I was ordered to go on a working party which eventually finished up in the Sankakan in British North Borneo. Two thousand odd of us were in this work party and it wasn’t long before we noticed the absence of information as to the international situation, what was happening in the outside world, and the whole camp had a real craving to get news by whatever means. Escape parties were being organised, but none of these were very successful. The next thing people turned to was a means of getting some radio news, and this is where the building of a radio set became an urgent requirement.

Cory Doctorow via Boing Boing