A VETERAN travelled 6,000 miles to meet the men he faced across the battlefield almost 70 years ago.

Roy Welland, 93, of Colchester, flew to Japan after being invited to meet some of the country’s veterans of the conflict in Burma, where he and they fought during the Second World War.

It is thought he could be one of the few British veteran of Burma to meet soldiers of the opposing side.

Mr Welland said: “I had no idea what to expect.

“I honestly never thought I would meet up with these people.”

Mr Welland was at a meeting of the Burma Star Association in York last year when he was approached by the daughter of a Japanese veteran of the Burma Conflict – Akiko McDonald.

She asked him if he would like tomeet her father and, after Mr Welland agreed, she arranged the trip to his Tokyo nursing home.

Mr Welland said: “I met him and shook hands with him.

“There was a bit of movement from his lips like a grimace or smile. I couldn’t get much out of him, but I don’t think he was very well.

“It was important for me.

There was no difference between us.”

Mr Welland met more veterans the following day with a translator.

He said: “One was a bit tearful and without word of a lie, he shook my hand and the tears rolled down his face.

“I asked what he was crying about and he said the first man he ever shot was a British soldier.

“I told him not to worry about that because we shot a good few Japanese. It was tit-for-tat.

“The second was a sergeant major and he was a bit more together. He held my hand in his and put his armaround me.”

Mr Welland visited shrines to the Japanese people who died during the Second World War and also made a trip to the Commonwealth War Cemetery to pay their respects to Allied troops.

Mr Welland was sent to Burma as part of the invasion after the Japanese had conquered it in 1942.

In 1943, at the battle for Arakan, Mr Welland first encountered what it was like to fight Japanese troops in the sweltering heat.

His battalion also fought at the infamous battle of Kohima.

Their heavily outnumbered comrades had been locked in a deadly siege for ten days and were in desperate need of help.

For about 17 days they stuck it out before they finally pushed the Japanese back.

Along with the follow-up battle at Imphal, it has been named as Britain’s greatest battle.

Mr Welland added: “It has been 70 years. As far as I’m concerned, this is closure. If I can make a few more friends in Japan and go back then that would be nice.”