This is a book that is not taught in schools. It is certainly not used or read in Japanese schools.
The book tells of the experiences of a Scottish man during WWII. This man appears to be the unluckiest man of the war. Now it certainly could be argued that he at least lived through the war it is hard to say if it was worth it.
Alistair who is the author as well as the subject of the book tells his story of what happened to him in the war.
1. First he was sent to Singapore. The British "plan" to defend Singapore was laughable at best. The British so full of themselves and the arrogance gave little credibility to the Japanese and believed themselves to be so superior than the defense plan was a joke, and most of those in charge, were unfit to be in the military. This has been documented in hundreds of books. So Singapore falls, and any white man especially in a military uniform is rounded up or killed, doesn't matter if they are in the military, are a doctor performing surgery or a man on the street. The "lucky ones" are kept in or near Singapore in prison camps. The unlucky ones- of which the author in one- are loaded like cord wood in train cars and taken to the jungle. The Japanese have decided they need a rail route from the tip of Malaya to Bangkok, and while the British realized the human toll of such an endeavor would be crippling the Japanese now had thousands of slave laborers to make it happen. I won't go into the horrific details of what these men were subjected to, again it is documented here as well as in many other books and scholarly writings, but it is appalling.
After working to build the railroad for a long period of time he is then shipped over to work on the bridge over the river Kwai. The movie depiction of this little endeavor is as accurate as most things Hollywood does, which is to say pure fiction. Here like with the railroad the men are starved, beaten, tortured, and worked until they die. Except a few who like Alistair are near death and shipped off to a camp to "get better"
2. Now that the author is sent in the hold of a ship along with 1000's of other men to be slave labor for anything else the Japanese can dream up. These were known as hell shops and the beatings, torture, and starvation continue. The Japanese though never agreed with, much less adhered to any of the Geneva convention protocols so these ships that are filled with prisoners, are not marked with red crosses and therefore are targets of the U.S. And it's allies. The ship Alistair is on is targeted and sunk. He escapes and spends 5 days drifting in the South China Sea, until he is picked up by a Japanese fishing boat and brought to mainland Japan. Here he is, "made healthy" and sent to work at a prison camp which also supply's slave labor to a coal mine.
It is now 1945.
3. The prison camp is in Nagasaki. One overcast day in August as Alistair is outside he hears a huge explosion and is knocked off his feet by a warm wind. A week later the war is over, and Alistair is driven through what remains of part of Nagasaki and all of the radioactive dust, to a ship to begin his long journey home.
Why the Japanese have never been held accountable, never been forced to recognize and apologize, never been forced to pay for what they did to every country and it military personnel and especially its citizens is an appalling travesty. If you research these acts of barbarism and the blind ambition the Japanese military had for the region not to mention their wish to never surrender, it is impossible to argue that dropping two atomic bombs on them was wrong. The Japanese deserved what they got and got off extremely easy.
Alistair closes the book by detailing the appalling treatment he and so many others received by the British government upon their return home, and what his life was like going forward, especially the permanent damage done to his physical self, and his mental self.
Shockingly he has lived into his 90's.
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- Reviewed in the United States on November 3, 2016
