Takashi Nagase

Takashi Nagase (永瀬 隆) was an Imperial Japanese Army officer and interpreter. He was born in 1918 in Kurashiki, Okayama, Japan. He was one of the officers in charge of the construction of the "Death Railway" which ran between Thailand and Burma and included the famous bridge over the River Kwai, and is known for the use of forced labor of Allied prisoners of war, though the majority of the labor (and resultant deaths) was incurred by romusha, or local civilians pressed into labor.

Nagase is also noted for his reconciliation with former British Army officer Eric Lomax, whom he interrogated and tortured at a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp in 1942. Lomax then went on to mention his reconciliation with Nagase in his autobiography, The Railway Man. The book chronicled his experience before, during, and after World War II. It won the 1996 NCR Book Award and the J. R. Ackerley Prize for Autobiography.

Nagase also wrote a book on his own experiences during and after the war entitled Crosses and Tigers, and financed a Buddhist temple at the bridge to atone for his actions during the war. The meeting between the two men was filmed as a documentary Enemy, My Friend? (1995), directed by Mike Finlason.

After the end of World War II, Takashi Nagase became a devout Buddhist priest and tried to atone for the Japanese army's treatment of prisoners of war. Takashi has made more than 100 missions of atonement to the River Kwai in Thailand.

He died in 2011.

In films
Nagase will be portrayed by Japanese actor Hiroyuki Sanada in the upcoming film The Railway Man, based on Lomax's autobiography. The film also stars Colin Firth and Nicole Kidman.

He was previously portrayed by Yugo Saso in the 2001 film, To End All Wars.