Few Australian prisoners of the Japanese in World War II escaped from custody, but Penrod Dean was one of those few. A lieutenant in the Second AIF he was among the thousands captured at the fall of Singapore. Dean and a fellow serviceman escaped from Changi POW camp in 1942. Neither man knew it at the time, but their adventures and their tribulations were just beginning.
While on the run they succeeded in sabotaging the Japanese war effort, fell in with a Chinese Communist guerrilla group, and then moved on, alone in the jungles of Malaya. Eventually they were betrayed to their enemies, mercilessly tortured and sentenced to two years solitary confinement at the notorious Outram Road prison in Singapore.
Incredibly, Dean taught himself Japanese while in his tiny cell, and worked as a translator after his release back to Changi. He was one of ten Australians chosen to go to Japan and appear as a witness at the Major War Trials.
'Singapore Samurai' is an honest account of these remarkable experiences. While Dean does not shy away from the terrible cruelty that was part of POW life, his book also details small victories born of courage and perseverance and is, above all, a testament to the resilience of the spirit and the power of comradeship under the most trying conditions.
