Wielding a machete, Rod Beattie slashes at tangled undergrowth and soaring bamboo to expose vistas from one of World War II's iconic sagas. Out of the jungle appear remnants of a railway that cost the lives of more than 100,000 Allied prisoners and Asians enslaved by Japan's Imperial Army.

As the 70th anniversary of the war's end approaches and its veterans dwindle, the aging Australian still slogs along the 415-km "Death Railway." With his own money, he maps its vanishing course, uncovers POW relics and with his vast database helps bring closure to relatives of those who died building the railway.

Beattie, 67, admits to being a man obsessed.