Their paths first cross in the river town of Sacramento. When discrimination exists, countervailing bonds are often formed, and so it goes with Jack McNutt and Woo Jing. More than that, this is a tale about two men – one Irish-American, one Chinese – strangers by birth, language and culture, and the unlikely brotherhood they form while struggling to survive in a country that needs them more than it wants them.
Thus begins the tale of The Year of the Iron Horse, a historical saga set against the backdrop of the American Old West, with its boom towns, gold mines, waves of immigrants, and the building of the Transcontinental Railroad, an achievement that would transform U.S.
Woo Jing tells old Uncle Ah there is but one solution – they must sail away to that land called Gold Mountain (California), and carry its riches back to the family. Armed rebels are on a killing spree, and a sustained drought has left millions of his countrymen dead or starving. In Nanjing, China, 26-year-old peasant Woo Jing also ponders his fate. He has a brother there, too, so who knows? He has no roots and few prospects for a future, only a vague dream – to go out West, where the rivers run deep with gold nuggets. From the ashes of a battlefield walks Union soldier Jack McNutt, 25, Irish born, American raised. It was later adapted into a film, The Railway Man (2013), directed by Jonathan Teplitzky, and starring Colin Firth and Jeremy Irvine, (as Lomax Old/Young), Nicole Kidman (as Patti), Hiroyuki Sanada, and Stellan Skarsgård.It’s 1865 and America’s deadliest conflict, the Civil War, has just ended. The book was made into a BBC television drama Prisoners in Time (1995), starring John Hurt as Lomax. Lomax is able to forgive him, and both men find the experience extremely moving. Lomax eventually goes back to Thailand to visit the area of the camps where he was a prisoner and meets his interrogator. Lomax discovers that the man has spent his life trying to make amends for his actions during the war by speaking out against militarism. He eventually makes contact with one of his Japanese interrogators after the war, and receives counseling to control his urge to hunt him down and attack him. He eventually seeks treatment at the urging of his second wife. He and the others are found guilty of anti-Japanese activity and are sent to a harsher prison, where they are starved nearly to death.Įric is psychologically damaged by his treatment and, after the war, suffers from severe psychological problems and is only able to discuss his experiences as a POW with other former POWs. Later, when guards discover Lomax has drawn a detailed map of the Siam-Burma railroad, which the prisoners are being forced to help build, he endures intense questioning and torture, including being waterboarded. Lomax and several other prisoners are severely beaten, and two of them die from their injuries. The prisoners in the camp where Lomax is being held build a secret radio receiver, which is discovered by the prison authorities. At first, the Japanese are unable to efficiently control the large number of Allied prisoners captured when Singapore falls, but eventually the prisoners are dispersed into smaller camps. Growing up before World War II, Lomax is fascinated by railways and spends his holidays trying to spot rare locomotives near his home in Edinburgh, Scotland.ĭuring the war, Lomax serves as a signals officer and is captured when the Japanese conquer Singapore. The book won the NCR Book Award and the PEN/Ackerley Prize for autobiography. The Railway Man is an autobiographical book by Eric Lomax about his experiences as a prisoner of war during World War II and being forced to help build the Thai– Burma Railway for the Japanese military.
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