The book, called John Mitchell Scott (1912-1945), A Sandakan POW’s Story, details the desperate circumstances Mr Kierath’s uncle faced before his death.

“I never knew my uncle, and John’s brother and seven sisters were so traumatised by the circumstances of his death that they would not, or could not, talk about him,” Mr Kierath said.

“I have written about a life I knew little of. As an historical event it needs to be recorded.”

John Scott was born in 1912 and grew up in a property near Narromine and died as a prisoner of war in 1945 in Sandakan, Borneo (part of Malaysia).

He enlisted into the army in 1940 and was deployed with the 2^nd/15^th Artillery Regiment to Singapore in Malaya in 1941.

“He became a prisoner of war in January 1942 and was sent to Sandakan in north-eastern Borneo,” Mr Kierath said.

Along with other Australian and British POWs he was forced to construct and maintain a military airfield for the Japanese.

“The POWs were treated appallingly by the Japanese and he died from his treatment along with 1787 Australian and 641 British POWs in 1945,” Mr Kierath said.

“John’s wartime contribution was part of the significant effort the Central West made towards the war.”

Mr Kierath said the stories and brutality from Sandakan were not known to the wider community, and his uncle’s death, and that of the other POWs, should be remembered.

“He [John Scott] was just going to be a name on a memorial, I wanted him to be a person,” Mr Kierath said of his reason for writing the book.

“I still get emotional thinking about it.”

The book was written for the Scott family and is not available for general sale.

“The book is accompanied by a song that was originally written and performed by POWs in Sandakan,” Mr Kierath.

Copies have been donated to Bathurst Library as well as Bathurst and Narromine RSL sub branches, the National Library and the Australian War Memorial in Canberra.