Roland de Bruyne is an elderly Malaysian Aucklander and a survivor of the infamous Changi Prison during the Japanese occupation of Singapore during WW2. Last year his children discovered letters and photos taken during his internment on a camera smuggled into the prison. Lynda Chanwai-Earle is in Auckland to meet Roland, now 91, to hear his incredible story of survival.

'Help is on the way' - pamphlets distributed after Allies liberated Singapore in 1945

"Weeds can't be killed, they can survive anything!" - Jean de Bruyne, daughter of Roland de Bruyne, Changi/Sime Road Internment Camp Survivor.

The dining table is littered with Roland de Bruyne's memorabilia. The objects are imbued with grave meaning; faded love letters to his sweetheart Low Swan Tin on crumpled Australian Red Cross paper, albums of sepia photographs, British Army pamphlets, a fragment of rusted bomber shrapnel wrapped in tissue.

When Singapore fell to the Japanese on 15 February 1942, the British had prayed that relief forces might arrive, but it wasn't meant to be.

During the Fall of Singapore that year the Imperial Japanese Army detained around 3000 civilians in Changi Prison, built to house only 600. The British Army Barracks nearby became a prisoner of war camp, housing around 50,000 allied British and Australian troops. Changi Prison and the nearby Prisoner of War (POW) camp were rife with sickness and death. 73 years later and a world away in Auckland, one survivor tells me his story.

Roland de Bruyne is Eurasian, 91 years old this year, born in 1924 in Penang, Malaysia. He was imprisoned by the Japanese Military, along with his entire family and 3000 other civilians in Changi/Sime Road Internment Camp in Singapore during the Second World War simply because they were Eurasian.

They were stripped of clothing and belongings, starved and forced into hard labor. The tiny black and white photos that Roland shows me were taken by him on a camera smuggled into the prison. In one photo, almost naked, Roland's friend is a skeletal figure in a loin-cloth. This was all the clothing they were allowed.

Miraculously Roland's whole family, all except one, survived. Roland's little brother Jimmy died from dysentery at the age of five during the war. Jean notes that perhaps a small mercy that little Jimmy died before the family were interned in Changi. "It's one of the ravages of war."

Roland's daughter Jean de Bruyne states proudly that "You can't kill weeds." Jean tells me her father is remarkably healthy for a 91 year old, let alone a survivor of Changi. If the prison ordeal couldn't kill him then almost nothing would. The tenacity to live runs strong within the de Bruyne family…

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details