Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know.

My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds.

As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable experts and genuinely engaging voices.

What you may not know is that the BBC makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars,

poltergeist, cricket, and conspiracy theories and that's just a few examples.

If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, find your next podcast over at BBC Sounds.

Hello and thanks for downloading the Witness Podcast from the BBC World Service with me Claire Bowes. Today's story was brought to my attention by a witness

fan, Dr Claire Make Piece, she's a war historian at Birkbeck which is part of the

University of London. She thought we

should mark 75 years since the opening of the Thai-Burmer Railway. So far, so

ordinary. No, this was a notorious project during the Second World War and it became

known as the Death Railway. Thousands of Allied soldiers and even more Asians were captured by the Japanese and forced to build a rail link through sheer rock and jungle from Thailand to Burma.

Tough conditions and even tougher treatment meant many died of starvation, tropical illnesses and

brutality at the hands of their Japanese captors.

I've been speaking to 98 year old Cyril Doi, a former British POW, about his experience.

It was a primitive life. We left civilization and became into another world.

Cyril Doi was just 21 when he was captured by the Japanese and taken to the jungle.

He was stripped of his uniform and all of his belongings

and was given just a loin cloth to wear.

The different little things that we take for granted today.

Toothbrush, a flannel, a towel, a plate, hot water, and that never existed.

We had nothing like that whatsoever. That was all taken away from us.

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