LOUIS Rowe never forgot the newly liberated prisoners-of-war he travelled with back from Burma, at the end of the Second World War.

"He saw men split a single bean in two to share, and raffle the juice from a tin of sardines," says his wife, Maria. "These men had been through horrific experiences in Japanese prison camps; starved, beaten and tortured. Fifty per cent were killed and the other 50per cent were traumatised.

"Louis met some of the survivors on the long journey home. They hadn't even been told the war had ended."

While Louis managed to escape capture at the hands of the Japanese Army, he spent years fighting in the searing jungle heat in Burma.

"They were the forgotten army," says Maria. "Louis was a modest man and didn't talk much about Burma, he tried not to dwell on his experiences.

"But it's important that people remember those men who, like him, were still on active service in the Far East after the war in Europe ended. A lot of young people won't even know about the war in Asia and Africa. We hear about VE Day but not so much about VJ Day."

Louis died in 2005, 60 years after VJ Day. This Saturday marks the 70th anniversary of the historic day, four months after the conflict ended in Europe, on which Japan surrendered, following the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The war in the Far East started in December, 1941. As the Japanese Army advanced into Burma, defending British and Indian troops were forced into a brutal 1,000-mile retreat. For the men fighting the Burma Campaign, conditions were harsh. Not only were the Allies forced to adapt to a hostile, tropical climate, they were poorly equipped and many ended up fighting by hand when ammunition ran out.

They faced a lethal enemy, experts in jungle warfare, but when it came to weapons, ammunition and equipment, priority was given to Allied forces closer to home. Most of the equipment that reached the Far East was for forces defending Malaya and Singapore, leaving troops in Burma the last to receive supplies.

As well as the threat of the enemy closing in, the men had to cope with the climate and diseases such as malaria and beriberi, which spread quickly and claimed many lives.

"Louis was 18 when he arrived in Burma and was told he'd be there for the duration of the war," says Maria, leafing through old photographs in her Harden home. "The heat was difficult to adjust to. Louis had acne, and standing on guard in the jungle in the sweltering heat, wearing full kit with a pack on and a steel helmet, meant the acne worsened and never had chance to heal and festered like abscesses. When he came home he had marks all over his face and back which never went away. He was a good swimmer but never went to public swimming baths because he was so conscious of his skin. He never forgot the kindness of the Salvation Army in Burma, they were the only ones who tried to help."

Adds Marie: "It wasn't just what Louis went through at the time in Burma - it had a lasting effect throughout his life, physically and mentally.

"He was a signaller and had to break into Japanese lines by trying to crack their codes. The headphones damaged his hearing. He remembered being in the jungle with the Japanese coming up from behind the lines; shouting out English names they'd picked up from prisoners of war. He couldn't move an eyelid or he'd have been shot.

"The Japanese poisoned the water, so the men were given a third of a cup with chlorine in a day. Louis called it 'green stuff'."

Louis, who served with the Royal Signals, fought in the Battle of Imphal, which took place around the capital of Manipur, north east India, from March to July 1944. Japanese armies attempted to destroy the Allied forces and invade India, but were driven back into Burma with heavy losses. Together with the Battle of Kohima, the battle was the turning point of the Burma Campaign.

When the war ended the Commonwealth War Graves Commission set up cemeteries in Imphal and Kohima commemorating the British and Indian soldiers who died there. A Burma Star Association epitaph at Kohima reads: 'When you go home, tell them of us and say for your tomorrow we gave our today'.

Three years ago the Bradford branch of the Burma Star Association, the organisation for ex-servicemen who fought in Burma, laid up its standard at City Hall, having wound up due to ageing members no longer able to attend meetings.

Louis was awarded the Burma Star and attended a reunion of old comrades in London. "He met the best friends of his life in the Army," says Maria.

"He had a close friend called Ginger Rich, he was heartbroken when he died after the war. He was only in his thirties. Some men who survived the war died when they returned, from diseases they'd picked up in Burma."

After the war Louis returned to work in engineering at Bradford Dyers Association, where he met Maria. "I was a few years younger, he called me a snotty-nosed kid," she smiles. The couple married in 1952 and had three sons.

"The men who served in Burma were all given bush hats, but our boss said Louis would 'probably give his to the first kid he met on the street' on his return because he wasn't the kind of man to flaunt it. And he did just that - he gave his hat to a neighbour's child.

"Louis didn't tell our sons about Burma until they were adults. When they learned about his work intercepting Japanese lines they said: 'Why didn't you tell us before?' They couldn't understand how he'd kept it secret, so many years later."