A WWII veteran who survived the horrors of a Japanese prison camp tomorrow celebrates his 90th birthday by opening a card - sent by a former guard 'tormentor'.

Brave John Baxter, from Trowbridge, was starved, beaten and abused during a harrowing three year stint in prisoner of war and hard labour camps.

Skeletal John was given just a 50/50 chance of survival due to massive weight loss caused by the brutal regime and a host of tropical diseases including malaria, dysentry and dipheria.

But he had forged a unique bond with camp guard Hyato Hirano, who unlike many of the Japanese wardens, treated the prisoners with a degree of compassion.

The pair kept in touch after being reunited years later and Baxter now celebrates the unlikely bond in his e-book 'Diary of a Japanese POW'.

Cpl John Baxter spent two years held captive in Java before being transferred to a hard labour camp in Kyushu, Japan, where he spent a back-breaking year working in a coal mine.

It was there he encountered Hyato Hirano - an ex-serviceman employed to enforce strict working conditions of hard labour.

But the compassionate Hyato risked being beaten by Japanese guards by offering allies food and water in searing temperatures of up to 120 degrees fahrenheit.

Despite enduring one of the most brutal regimes of WW2, John harbours no resentment to his former captors and his since become pen pals with Hyato.

The men were reunited in 1995 after John and his son, also John, flew to Japan.

John travelled to celebrate the 50th anniversary of VJ day and sought out Hyato on the island of Kyushu - where he has lived since VJ day 50 years earlier.

The pair have since struck up an unlikely relationship and have reflected on their very different perspective of life on the island through a series of letters and cards.

Tomorrow John will reflect as he cherishes the birthday card from Hyato, now 91, with the message: "Many happy returns.

"I am currently spending my days in and out of hospital, but I am well otherwise.

I wish you the best of health."

Remarkably, unlike many of his fellow inmates, John harbours no ill-feeling to the Japanese men who made his life a 'living hell' for more than three years.

Speaking yesterday, the stoical grandfather-of-two said: "I have absolutely no resentment to the Japanese of today at all.

"In fact, I think they are a good indication of everything human nature should be. They are respectful, polite and always willing to stop and talk to you.

"I was not as badly treated as some in my camp. There are those who finished the war with hideous deformities and mental issues they will never resolve.

"For me, I have moved on. There's absolutely no point in dwelling on the past. You have to move on and understand we were living in very different times.

"There are men who I know still hate all the Japanese and won't so much as discuss them, let alone travel to meet them."

John was a 22 year-old apprentice plumber when he was drafted into the REME in 1941.

He was part of a 3,000-strong party who were rounded up by Japanese officers as they stopped on Java to help refugees escape Singapore after the Japanese took control.

Then an acting corporal with the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME), John was held in a disease infested camp in Java for two years.

He was later transferred to the island of Kyushu, Japan, where he spent a gruelling year carrying out back-breaking labour in a coal mine.

Fortunately, he avoided the now infamous Burma railway, also known as the death railway, where 16,000 allied POW's perished.

John remained incarcerated until VJ Day, when he was repatriated via Nagasaki where he witnessed the after effects of the atom bomb, as bodies littered the streets.

Reflecting on his life as a POW, John says he never expected to reach retirement and was left so emaciated after his release in 1945 that he was given a 50/50 chance of survival.

He added: "To make 90 is incredible for me and I genuinely never thought I'd see the day.

"After the war I was told I'd be lucky to make a few months because of the after effects of malaria, dysentery, diphtheria and a host of other tropical diseases.

"It means a lot to be handed a birthday card from Hyato for my 90th and it's a very emotional time."

John married Lillian in Cambs in 1948 and moved to Trowbridge where he worked as a plumber and bought up three children together.

Lillian died after losing her fight with cancer in 1982, aged 62, and John has since remained in the family home.

Yesterday, he released an e-book which charts his incredible story from conscription to eventual freedom four years later.

In 2005, John marched down Whitehall to lay a wreath of white orchids at the Cenotaph to celebrate the 60th anniversary of VJ Day.

He followed a line of dignitaries, led by the Prince of Wales and John Prescott, the Deputy Prime Minister, at the memorial service focusing on those who fought there.

In the book, entitled The Diary of a Japanese POW, he tells of the ongoing struggle to sabotage vehicles to prevent the Japanese using them.

Other highlights include fly catching sessions instigated by the Japanese to combat the plagues of the insects with the reward of five cigarettes for 50 catches.

John also reflects how he became an expert at hiding miniaturised radios inside drinking bottles and how he survived malaria and dysentery with one quinine tablet a day smuggled into the camp.

Some of his more brutal memories include being taken to a military hospital where, one by one, his room mates disappeared each night in makeshift coffins until he was the sole survivor.

John also recalls how a local man was tied to a fence with barbed wire for three days, where he was left to suffer a slow and painful death after offering food to one of the prison camp inmates.

The Diary of a Japanese POW can be downloaded for £9.95 from www.forgottentitles.com.