The History Podcast: The Second Map

Episode 1 – Bonnie Laddie

Original Air Date: August 22, 2025
Host: Kavita Puri (BBC Radio 4)

Episode Overview

This episode launches "The Second Map," a new series exploring Britain’s lesser-known campaign against Japan during World War II. Marking the 80th anniversary of VJ Day, the series examines how the war in Asia unfolded, why it’s been overshadowed in British memory, and its profound consequences for families across Britain and the former Empire. Through voices of veterans, civilians, and their descendants, host Kavita Puri uncovers stories of heroism, shock, disillusion, humiliation, and legacy—including the fall of Singapore and its reverberations from a London living room to the jungles of Burma.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Two Maps and a Schoolboy’s Perspective (01:01–03:15)

• Peter Knight’s living room in wartime London: As a teenager in December 1941, Peter adds a new map of Asia-Pacific next to his ongoing map of Europe, tracking the expanding scope of World War II.
• The Pearl Harbor attack and the rapid succession of Japanese strikes on British colonies—especially Singapore and Malaya—mark a new, alarming front in the war, personally visualized on his wall maps.

Quote:
“We've got one side to dress. So it was this map of Northern Europe…One day in December 1941, when I was 14, I put up a second map on the right hand side of the dresser.”
—Peter Knight, (01:21–01:44)

• Peter and his family’s disbelief that the Empire could be so quickly threatened:
  “The Japanese have been and invaded part of the British Empire. This can't be happening.” (02:29)

2. The "Forgotten Army" and Overlooked Histories (03:30–06:01)

• Kavita Puri addresses the enduring British focus on the Nazi front and explores why the Asian war remains so obscure in national memory, despite being fought by almost a million British and colonial troops.
• She notes the sense of secrecy or even shame for families with relatives who served or suffered on the Asian front.

Quote:
“When I tell people I'm making a series about it, they nearly all say the same thing. Wasn't that the American War? They didn’t really know why we were fighting Japan.”
—Kavita Puri, (03:30–03:46)

• Lucy Noakes emphasizes the importance of this history for understanding Britain’s identity today:
  “We owe it to the people who fought and often died on the Asian front to remember them as much as everybody else.” (05:39–06:01)

3. Hidden Stories: Civilian Testimony from Singapore (06:42–12:55)

• Margie Caldecott reveals her mother Sheila Brown’s archived cassette recordings, unbroadcast until now—giving voice to British civilian experiences in pre-war, then besieged, Singapore.
• Sheila’s life as the daughter of a colonial family: privilege, tennis courts, colonial luxury (“We were terribly spoiled.”, 09:58)
• The sudden “shattering” of that world: Japanese air raids just two hours after Pearl Harbor.

Quote:
“Well, here we go. I'm Sheila. I was born in 23rd of March 1916 in Singapore.”
—Sheila Brown, (09:35)

• The city’s transformation from “charmed existence” to chaos and fear, as the Japanese assault closes in.

4. The Fall of Singapore: Defeat, Chaos, and Humiliation (12:55–21:27)

• British arrogance and racial misconceptions: British troops drastically underestimated Japanese soldiers (“very poorly equipped, can’t see at night, wear rubber plimsoles…” — miscalculations that proved disastrous, 13:58)
• The rapid advance: Japanese troops used bicycles and moved swiftly through the jungle, outflanking British and Commonwealth forces.
• Emotional descriptions of chaos, retreat, and the iconic crossing over the causeway as Scottish troops played “Highland Laddie” before blowing up the bridge (15:47–16:36).
• Morris Naylor recounts confusion and panic: “The whole army seemed to be in disarray.” (17:22)
• Sheila Brown’s perilous civilian escape—her ship bombed, days at sea, then capture by Japanese forces.

Quote:
“If I still smell [crude oil] it all comes back again.” —Sheila Brown on the trauma of the bombing and sea ordeal (19:35)

• British surrender:
  On February 15, 1942, Singapore falls—over 130,000 Allied troops become prisoners of war; women, children, and civilians are interned or killed. Churchill calls it the “worst defeat in British military history." (21:27–21:46)

• For many Britons, the shock is deeply personal and hard to process:
  “We couldn’t believe our ears.” (23:45)

5. Empire, Race, and Complicated Alliances (24:39–31:47)

• The series reframes the Asian campaign as a struggle between empires—Britain and Japan—rather than a simple fight against fascism.

• Dr. Diya Gupta (City St George’s University of London) reflects:
  “…It reveals what the war really was, which is a battle against different types of imperialisms.” (26:34)

• Yavar Abbas’s dilemma:
  As an Indian nationalist who joined the British Indian Army, he wrestles with fighting for an empire he hopes to see dismantled, against a new imperial aggressor. “When the push comes to shove, these Brits, they're not going to defend my country. I was very angry at what happened in Singapore.” (28:31) “I didn’t want Hitler to win. ...I had to choose and hope that if I joined the army after the end of the war, as they had been promising, I’d get independence.” (29:22–29:38)

• The irony and tensions for colonial subjects fighting for imperial freedom they lack themselves.

6. The Fall of Burma and Refugee Crisis (31:47–37:09)

• Burma (today Myanmar) is the next British colony to fall; retreat across treacherous terrain begins.

• Marginalization in evacuation:
  Dr. Diya Gupta underlines that British refugees were privileged with transport and safety, while thousands of Indian and Burmese civilians had to walk for months under dire conditions.
  “If you were an Indian expatriate…you might find that you had to walk across very dangerous terrain…” (35:14)

• The scale:
  “At that point in 1942, this was the largest human refugee crisis in history.” —Dr. Diya Gupta, (34:55)

• These humiliations expose the empire’s frailty and hasten the postwar drive for independence across Asia.

7. Memory, Shame, and Intergenerational Conversation (37:31–41:40)

• Why is this history less remembered?
  Professor Lucy Noakes:
  “There is a good part of [the war] story which is about Britain standing firm and standing against fascism…That is a really good and a really seductive story.” (38:23–38:59)

• In contrast, the Asian front is messier: “a far more complex story to tell…and harder for it to really gain a purchase in our shared contemporary memory.” (39:05)

• Personal silence and shame:
  Tony Knight explains how his father-in-law, despite being sent to fight, went straight into captivity and spoke little of the experience due to trauma, shame, and stigma for being a POW.

Quote:
“He had nightmares, yes, when he first returned, and I don’t think they ever went away and nor indeed did the malaria that he caught.”
—Tony Knight, (40:43)

• Peter Knight reflects:
  “We've felt ashamed…that so many of our men had been captured, but at the same time we had to sympathise with them.” (41:25)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the overlooked Asian campaign:
  “This is not and cannot be a definitive account…but what the testimonies in this series reveal are surprising, unexpected, disturbing and moving. It’s the other story of the Second World War, One that is still often overlooked.”
  —Kavita Puri, (05:17–05:39)

• On colonial hierarchy in evacuation:
  “There was very much a racialized view of evacuation from Burma…if you were doing the land route, you might be given a mode of transport like an elephant. On the other hand…[Indian] you might find that you had to walk across very dangerous terrain…”
  —Dr. Diya Gupta, (35:14)

• On shame and memory:
  “It was extremely normal that people that came home from Japanese war camps just didn't want to talk. Took a lot of persuasion to get them back into the idea that they could hold a conversation about it.”
  —Peter Knight, (40:56)

Timestamps for Key Segments

• 01:01 – The living room with two maps: Peter Knight’s perspective
• 03:30 – Why is the Asian front the "forgotten war"?
• 07:54 – Hearing Sheila Brown’s 1980 cassettes—firsthand memories from Singapore
• 12:11 – Japanese bombing of Singapore begins
• 13:58 – British misconception and underestimation of Japanese forces
• 15:47 – Retreat over the causeway, Highland Laddie played by Scottish regiment
• 19:35 – Sheila Brown describes chaos, evacuation, and bombing at sea
• 21:27 – Churchill announces Singapore’s fall: "a British and imperial defeat"
• 26:34 – Dr. Diya Gupta: "a battle against different types of imperialisms"
• 29:22 – Yavar Abbas's reflections on fighting for imperial ‘freedom’
• 34:55 – Refugee crisis after the fall of Burma—the largest in history (at the time)
• 38:23 – Professor Lucy Noakes: The power of national myth and selective memory
• 41:25 – Peter Knight: Shame, sympathy, and the complexity of POW experience

Tone and Style

Echoing the podcast’s voice, the episode is empathetic, reflective, and personal, blending historical analysis with poignant oral histories. Stories are told with humility and honesty, often questioning national myths and inviting listeners to confront the discomforts and complexities of imperial legacy and war memory.

Conclusion & Looking Ahead

Episode 1 sets the stage for the rest of the series, putting personal testimony and neglected history at its center. Kavita Puri closes by teasing the next episode—featuring a British woman leading tribal groups in the jungles of India, pivotal to a turning point in the Asian campaign.

This summary covers the major themes, voices, and emotional core of Episode 1 – "Bonnie Laddie," providing both narrative flow and key timestamped details for listeners new to the story.