David Russell is heading back to Japan with his family

David Russell, 84, will travel to a mine in Ikuno in March, where he hopes to be reunited with a Japanese miner who cared for him when he was injured.

The Holywood man will make the trip thanks to �2,100 from the Big Lottery Fund's Heroes Return programme.

He is one of seven Northern Ireland veterans receiving such grants.

A round of grants announced on Thursday, totalling �6,155, is allowing veterans, wives and carers to make pilgrimages to WW2 battlefields across the world.

Mr Russell served as an air gunner and wireless operator in the RAF during the war.

He was captured in Java and sent to Japan where he worked in horrendous conditions in a copper mine for three and a half years.

This miner who was my boss was the only one to show me kindness. David Russell

He said: "I was captured while trying to get to Australia in a lifeboat with seven other men. We capsized near the coast of Bali and were handed over to the Japanese.

"All the time they promised to kill us - it was a pretty horrible experience. Physical punishment was the order of the day.

"The worst thing was the hunger - we were all starving and looked like scarecrows. But our camp was the most civilised society I have ever lived in because all rank and class had disappeared.

"We supported and looked out for each other and we never stopped hoping."

Mr Russell is returning to Japan with his daughter and granddaughter and hopes to be re-united with one man - a miner who helped him when he lost the end of his finger.

"This miner, who was my boss, was the only one to show me kindness. He sent me back to camp and did my work until I was better.

"At the end of the war the Americans dropped parcels of food and clothing in the camp.

'Great sacrifices'

"I made up a box for the man and his family because they were starving and took it to his shack before I left on the train. He wasn't there so I left it with his wife and children.

"But as the train pulled away he came running up the platform with tears streaming down his face shouting 'thank you'. That was the last time I saw him."

Breidge Gadd, one of the Big Lottery Fund's Northern Ireland Board Members, said the Heroes Return scheme had been very popular in the province.

"It recognises the great sacrifices made by veterans and we believe it is important that those who served in the war and their surviving spouses should be able to make a visit to places of great significance to them," she said.