Director: Gary Lennon
Producer: Bob Jackson
Feature-Length Documentary

A Doctor’s Sword (documentary) tells the remarkable story of Aidan MacCarthy, a doctor from Castletownbere West Cork, who, at 28, joined the RAF in London as the 2nd World war began. Soon after he found himself evacuated from Dunkirk and in May 1941 received the George’s Cross for rescuing the crew of a burning RAF plane which had crashed into a bomb dump on landing. He volunteered for service in Asia as Singapore fell to the Japanese, was captured in Java and survived almost 4 years of brutal captivity enduring starvation, malnutrition, forced labour, beatings and torture as a prisoner of war.

Aidan MacCarthy was a POW at the camp attached to the Mitsubishi Steel and Iron works in Nagasaki when the atomic bomb was dropped on the city at 11:02am on August 9th 1945. This was the beginning of the end of his captivity and he later returned home with a Samurai sword which was given to him as a gift by the POW camp commander at the end of the war.

The documentary tells Dr Aidan MacCarthy’s incredible story of resilience and bravery, and his daughter Nicola’s journey to find the family of the Japanese officer who gave their ancestral sword to her father.

It was a true privilege to work on this film. After speaking with producer Bob Jackson, it was clear that both Bob and director Gary Lennon had been working on this project for a considerable amount of time and their passion for the story was undeniable. We provided additional sound design and mixing for this documentary and we are extremely pleased with the outcome. We look forward to seeing the film broadcast soon.