The 15 Feb 1942 surrender resulted in the imprisoning of over 45,000 allied prisoners of war, including approximately 15,000 Australian PoWs.

Due to the large number of PoWs and interned civilian prisoners, there was a need to maintain morale and mitigate boredom.

[3] Although an integrated whole, the library and the "Changi University" course work will be dealt with separately below due to the different operations.

Colonel 'Black' Jack Galleghan persuaded the Japanese commandant that it would be easier manage to PoWs with his limited number of guards and poor perimeter facing if books we provided to keep them occupied.

The library was called the AIF Education Centre and it was manned by about 8 dedicated men who slept with the stacks of books.

These librarians included Alick Downer, a later politician and Australian High Commissioner in London, David Griffin, who became Lord Mayor of Sydney in 1972, and Tony Newsom.

[4] The education unit initially had 2 typewriters, and additional books, paper, writing material scavenged by the men who went out on working parties in and around Singapore for the Japanese.

The book, was typed up by Bruce Blakey, illustrated by Leslie Greener and bound within 48 hours in the AIF Education Unit.

Art classes were led by Murray Griffin who also painted many scenes around Changi PoW Camp.

A number of note books and diaries were buried in tins cans or otherwise hidden for later recovery after the Japanese surrender.

While the library continued until the Japanese surrender, courses at the "Changi University" were no longer held due to lack of people.

Some men who started at "Changi University" were shipped to work camps at Kuching in Sarawak where there was a similar education program.

The following tabular timeline shows the rapid reduction in men able to take part in education, sport or entertainment activities at Changi.

Lieutenant Hugh Wearing left school at 15 during the depression to do labouring work to put food on the table at home.

PoWs in Hong Kong obtained benefits of a similar but smaller program initiated by the senior education officer Major W. de B.

Major Charles Boxer, the British intelligence chief in Hong Kong before the war lectured at an academic level on the early Portuguese and Dutch maritime empires in which he was the world expert.

There were courses in several languages including: There were also lectures on, eastern philosophy, art appreciation, yacht building, and weather forecasting.