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Title: Prisoners of the Japanese : Pows of World War Ii in the Pacific by Gavin Daws ISBN: 0-688-14370-9 Publisher: Quill Pub. Date: 16 January, 1996 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.77 (26 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Thoughtful analysis of Japan's treatment of POW's
Comment: The author, Gavan Daws, never served in the Second World War, but obviously took to writing this book as a labor of love and appreciation for what the Allied prisoners of war (American, British and Dutch) went through during nearly four years of captivity. His undertaking is an incredible hair-raising account of what the circumstances were behind the prisoners' incarceration, ill-treatment, and in too few cases, repatriation.
For those whose view of prisoners of Imperial Japan mirrors what they have seen in historically inaccurate movies like "The Bridge on the River Kwai," this book will shock them to the core. In truth, the Japanese camp commanders and guards were brutal and unmerciful. Some Allied soldiers, sailors and airmen were likely to take their own lives, if they had only known what being held captive by the Japanese would mean. The numerous stories of starvation, forced labor, bloody executions and unending barbarity will force sobriety on anyone who thinks that "River Kwai..." is the way it really was.
The book centers on a number of real-life captives who probably only grudingly spilled their guts to Daws, if only to get the truth out. For instance, the odyssey of American serviceman, Frank Fujita, who is partly Japanese in ethnicity, was really intriguing. Daws recounts that when Fujita was brought by barge to Japan after being so long a prisoner in the Phillipine Islands, a guard noticed (at a roll call for forced factory labor) that he had an American captive with a Japanese surname! At this, Mr. Fujita was cajoled by the Japanese military into trying to denounce his country; bravely, Fujita fought off all attempts at this farce.
Daws goes into gross detail, sparing the reader nothing regarding the dispiriting treatment of Allied POW's. He often explains that those who survived did so by using guile and trading food, cigarettes, and other items to help them over the long haul. Sadly, thousands of POW's died under the stress of prison-camp labor, tropical diseases, beatings and starvation. Not highly recommended for the most queasy among us.
The lessons are difficult to swallow, but Daws didn't write this book to gloss over what really happened in the Pacific theater...he wrote it to educate the spoiled brats who don't know what it took preserve this nation's freedom and honor. Indeed, I am sadder, but more importantly wiser, thanks to Daws' excellent work.
Maps of the Pacific theater are available for those topographically challenged, as well as a copious amount of notes in the back of the book. At 441 pages of text and notes, the account is a real page-turner. An excellent book for those interested in World War II-era human interest records.
Rating: 5
Summary: horrifying but engrossing account of WWII POW experiences
Comment: You have probably never read a book like "Prisoners of the Japanese" because there probably has never BEEN a book like it. It's not a first-hand account, and often it reads like a novel rather than a history because Daws' style is very vivid and he tells his story with a very effective immediacy which makes it seem as if the events were taking place today instead of half a century ago, and it includes many of the personal stories of the POW's, American, British, Australian, and Dutch (from what is now Indonesia), who were held in Japanese prison camps, mostly outside of Japan, from 1941 to 1945. Whatever you may know about World War II and about Japanese atrocities, you still have much to learn if you haven't read "Prisoners." This book will take you month by month and even day by day through the hell of the camps and the appalling lives these poor men led until their liberation after V-J day. Starvation, beatings, terrible jungle diseases for which the Japanese refused to provide medical treatment, bone-wracking fatigue, ghastly tortures, and often outright murder were the daily lot of these men who suffered for Allied military blunders and lack of preparation. Not many of them are alive today, but I think we owe it to ourselves to learn about their terrible experiences and to honor them in at least this way. Shame on the U.S. government and military for keeping these stories hush-hush for over fifty years!
Rating: 5
Summary: Excellent and brutual overview of POWs in Pacific War
Comment: I think most of the reviews written before have said enough about how well this book bring out the brutual nature of the Japanese captivity. I believed that Gavin Daw did an excellent job in this book and it probably a must read account for everyone.
To most Allied POWs, their treatment at the hands of the Japanese must be shocking, unthinkable and utterly humilating. It was also quite deadly as well. The book revealed all this very nicely and with shocking details. Its not for the weak of heart here. These men were taken prisoners by an troops who don't believed in surrendering as long as their nation was at war, thus these Allied POWs were often looked upon as cowards, unsoldier-like or subhuman insects by their captors. And they were treated as such. Looking back on Japanese own military history, their many civil wars they fought against each other, I would considered it as a near mircle that they took prisoners at all!!!! I think what really hurt the POWs was that the Pacific War was a racist war, where both sides have basically reduced each other to a subhuman level and thus, the Allied POWs were treated as such. Such as Henry Wirz, infamous commandant of Andersonville, no longer look at his Union prisoners as human beings, Japanese captors did the same and result was a horrifying sense of holocaust of the Allied POWs during the Pacific War.
A great book overall, a book that will preserved the horror of war for the men who experienced it and for folks like me to learned from it. Man inhumanity to man, whether bayoneting a helpless, straving POW or firebombing a grade school from high above, there are no rules in war!!!!
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Title: Belly of the Beast: A POW's Inspiring True Story of Faith, Courage, and Survival Aboard the Infamous WWII Japanese Hellship, the Oryoku Maru by Judith Pearson ISBN: 0451204441 Publisher: New American Library Pub. Date: 10 October, 2001 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: My Hitch in Hell: The Bataan Death March by Lester I. Tenney, James B. Stockdale ISBN: 1574882988 Publisher: Brasseys, Inc. Pub. Date: September, 2000 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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Title: Hidden Horrors: Japanese War Crimes in World War II (Transitions--Asia and Asian America) by Yuki Tanaka, Toshiyuki Tanaka, Yukiko Tanaka ISBN: 0813327180 Publisher: Westview Press Pub. Date: January, 1998 List Price(USD): $24.00 |
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Title: Death March: The Survivors of Bataan by Donald Knox ISBN: 0156027844 Publisher: Harvest Books Pub. Date: December, 2002 List Price(USD): $18.00 |
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Title: Unit 731 Testimony by Hal Gold ISBN: 4900737399 Publisher: Charles E Tuttle Co Pub. Date: March, 1996 List Price(USD): $9.95 |
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