BBC Documentaries

Burma, My Father And The Forgotten Army (2013x137)

: 07, 2013

Apart from a few fragmentary stories, Griff Rhys Jones' father never talked about his war. Yet as a medical officer to a West African division he travelled 15000 miles from Wales, to Ghana and the jungles of Burma. He and his men were part of an army of a million raised in Africa and Asia to fight the Japanese. To understand their story Griff travels first to Ghana and then accompanied by 90-year-old veteran Joshua he goes to jungles of Burma. It is known as the forgotten war but Griff discovers how it transformed these West Africans from children of the empire into masters of their own destiny.