In Ernest Gordon’s true account of life in a World War II
Japanese prison camp, Through the Valley of the Kwai, there is a story that
never fails to move me. It is about a man who through giving it all away
literally transformed a whole camp of soldiers. The man’s name was Angus
McGillivray. Angus was a Scottish prisoner in one of the camps filled with
Americans, Australians, and Britons who had helped build the infamous Bridge
over the River Kwai. The camp had become an ugly situation. A dog-eat-dog mentality
had set in. Allies would literally steal from each other and cheat each other;
men would sleep on their packs and yet have them stolen from under their heads.
Survival was everything. The law of the jungle prevailed...until the news of
Angus McGillivray’s death spread throughout the camp. Rumors spread in the wake
of his death. No one could believe big Angus had succumbed. He was strong, one
of those whom they had expected to be the last to die. Actually, it wasn’t the
fact of his death that shocked the men, but the reason he died. Finally they
pieced together the true story. The Argylls (Scottish soldiers) took their
buddy system very seriously. Their buddy was called their “mucker,” and these
Argylls believed that is was literally up to each of them to make sure their
“mucker” survived. Angus’s mucker, though, was dying, and everyone had given up
on him, everyone, of course, but Angus. He had made up his mind that his friend
would not die. Someone had stolen his mucker’s blanket. So Angus gave him his own,
telling his mucker that he had “just come across an extra one.” Likewise, every
mealtime, Angus would get his rations and take them to his friend, stand over
him and force him to eat them, again stating that he was able to get “extra
food.” Angus was going to do anything and everything to see that his buddy got
what he needed to recover. But as Angus’s mucker began to recover, Angus
collapsed, slumped over, and died. The doctors discovered that he had died of
starvation complicated by exhaustion. He had been giving of his own food and
shelter. He had given everything he had -- even his very life. The
ramifications of his acts of love and unselfishness had a startling impact on
the compound. “Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life
for his friends” (John 15:12). As word circulated of the reason for Angus
McGillivray’s death, the feel of the camp began to change. Suddenly, men began
to focus on their mates, their friends, and humanity of living beyond survival,
of giving oneself away. They began to pool their talents -- one was a violin
maker, another an orchestra leader, another a cabinet maker, another a
professor. Soon the camp had an orchestra full of homemade instruments and a
church called the “Church Without Walls” that was so powerful, so compelling,
that even the Japanese guards attended. The men began a university, a hospital,
and a library system. The place was transformed; an all but smothered love
revived, all because one man named Angus gave all he had for his friend. For
many of those men this turnaround meant survival. What happened is an awesome
illustration of the potential unleashed when one person actually gives it all
away.
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