This is 100% correct! Wake up Japan. The only British survivor of the brutal Japanese POW camp featuring in Angelina Jolies new blockbuster has revealed his own ordeal at the hands of the sadistic guard who crucifies his victims. In the movie, which was released on Boxing Day, Officer Matsuhiro Watanabe relentlessly tortures the one-time Olympic hero Zamperini by making him hold a railway sleeper over his head for 37 minutes. The film has enraged Japanese nationalists who have denounced it as a fabrication with no credibility and called for Jolie to be banned from the country. But Tom Henling Wade knows the incident is true because he was there - as Zamperinis barracks commander - and told MailOnline of his own utterly brutal experiences in the notorious Omori camp. The 94-year-old told MailOnline: Watanabe treated us with terrible brutality and most of the time with no respect at all. He was a psychopath. Practically nothing the prisoners said coming out of that camp was a fabrication. Recalling one incident in which he was attacked with a 4ft kendo sword, made of tightly bound bamboo, Wade said: He whirled it above his head with both arms outstretched and cracked it down on the top of my head. Then he swung it like a baseball bat against the left side of my head and then the right. He just went on and on – the Japanese never know when to stop. Scroll down for video Wade recalls a man who took pride in his sadism and would become so carried away with his attacks that saliva would bubble around his mouth. He said: The first time I was slapped by Watanabe was for insufficient water in my barracks fire buckets. The second and third times were for telling a lie. He added: We decided we had to have a name for him. I wanted to call him The Snake but an American said we should call him The Bird and that stuck. It was anodyne and could be heard but not acted upon because it was not offensive. The film is based on Zamperinis biography of the same name, which charts the transformation of a teenage tearaway to an Olympic athlete and eventually a US air force captain in the Pacific War. The book, which was written after extensive interviews with Wade, details how Zamperini, who only died earlier this year, survived 47 days on a raft in the Pacific and then Watanabes brutality. But British POW Tom Henling Wade has also catalogued the cruelties meted out by Watanabe, who was known as The Bird among inmates, in a book of his own called Prisoner of The Japanese. Then a 21-year-old intelligence officer with the Loyal Regiment (North Lancs), Wade, who was captured at the Fall of Singapore, first encountered Watanabe in September 1943 at Omori, on an island in Tokyo Bay. As an officer and barracks commander Wade recalls that he was particularly vulnerable to being singled out for punishment by Watanabe if any of his men transgressed Japanese orders. It was an apparent lie by Wade over the enforcement of yet another petty rule regarding POWs boots that saw Watanabe subject him to a sustained beating and threats of instant death. Wade said: He cracked a stunning first into my mouth. I staggered back and sat on the laps of two men sitting watching. As I rose he landed two more punches left and right on my head. I was too dizzy to think, my face was burning and I felt a bruise on the back of my head when I bounced against a pillar. I watched the next blow all the way from his right trouser pocket. I could see his fist swing up to the side of my jaw and I was rocked back. The stunned Wade was ordered to Watanabes room where the Japanese NCO reached for his 4ft kendo sword, made of tightly bound bamboo. Wade said: He whirled it above his head with both arms outstretched and craked it down on the top of my head. Then he swung it like a baseball bat against the left side of my head and then the right. He just went on and on – the Japanese never know when to stop. He must have hit me about 36 times with all his strength. Read more: dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2880676/I-tortured-sadistic-prison-camp-guard-Angelina-Jolie-blockbuster-British-victim-Bird-reveals-Japanese-psychopath-crucified-soldiers-got-excited-saliva-bubbled-round-mouth.html#ixzz3NUimUJWs Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
Posted on: Wed, 31 Dec 2014 16:44:55 +0000