And today we're taking you back over 70 years to World War II and the fall of Singapore. Up until then it had been the centre of British power in Southeast Asia. Monica Whitlock has been speaking to one of the tens of thousands of Commonwealth soldiers taken captive by the Japanese and put to work in prison camps across the region.
It's February, 1942, Singapore. The unthinkable is happening. Japanese soldiers are advancing rapidly on the port that Allied Forces call their fortress in the east and bastion of the British Empire itself.
"Stronghold, naval base, strategic centre, Singapore is above all one of the ramparts of that freedom for which the British Empire stands. The importance of Singapore as a naval base can scarcely be exaggerated. So armed at all points, Malaya awaits whatever destiny may have in store for them."
"When we got there, it was pouring with a rain and it was very overcast as we sailed near Singapore. And although there're 90 planes, Japanese planes above us, they couldn't spot us because of these heavy clouds."
