5 comments about The Naked Island.

1. The author went through some really horrific situations but at the same time can describe the strength of the human spirit. The author also has a great sense of humor. I think books like this are rare these days in our politically correct world. Well worth the read.



2. The Naked Island

   The autobiography of a young australian soldier who spent long years in captivity as prisoner of war of the Japanese.
   The first part is the description of the military life in Malaya before the attack of the Japanese with many ironical notes on that tedious life from the point of view of a soldier.
   The second part is the description of the useless fight of the Australian and British troops against the overwhelming enemy and then the attempt to escape the capture.
   Then the third, and most interesting part, is the description of the life during three long years of captivity in the different prisons where the writer was imprisoned and in the jungle camps where all prisoners were forced to work without food, facing malaria, beri beri and death for starvation.
   A book I would really recommend.
   Are you looking for another absolutely interesting book about a similar experience?
   Read the famous "Behind bamboo" by Rohan Rivett




3. One of my first introductions to Australian and Far East reading of WW11, thoroughly enjoyable, could not put it down until it was finished. Would recommend this book to all generations. Has given me the taste to find out more about the Far East and familiarise myself with further Australian literature. Thought only John Pilger could write riveting literature, I was wrong!



4. This is an unforgettable book: informative, educational, poignant and often delightfully humorous. It is a tribute to the British and Australian Forces used as slave labour in the construction of the Burma/Siamese Railway and their ability to live with dignity, compassion and decency under the most deplorable conditions imaginable. This book leaves an indelible impression on the reader and should be required reading for each successive generation.



5. it is amazing that with all the hardship that these guys went thru, human nature can still make the best of an awful situation.

No comments about Reflections: Memoirs of Japanese American Women in Minnesota.

2 comments about Tell Macarthur to Wait.

1. I read this book this past week and I was drawn to finish it. It was not a high polish, perfectly worded book, but that it what I loved about it. It was written by a regular person about genuine and regular people. The book made me cry and feel shame about the way I have lived my life. When you read about grown men marching who have no shoes, I guess it really does not matter if I have Nikes or a regular store brand.I believe it has changed my life in some ways. He spoke of men being beaten until they begged for death, which was the only mercy they saw in their whole existence inside the prison camp- I cried again. It was a beautifully written book and I believe all people should read this.It talks of fear and love and mercy and bravery and laughter too. I highly recommend this book. If we do not remind ourselves of what we have and why we have it and remember the sacrifices that braver people than I have made- perhaps history will be doomed to repeat itself. I was told not long ago that the Doctor Hibbs passed away a few weeks ago, he was an honorable man. In my deepest heart, I salute him and am proud to have read this book.-



2. This book is a great way to learn about the horrors that American men went through in the Philippines during World War II. It is truely remarkable that a person could live through what the author lived through, and after the war was over, come back to the states and lead a very productive life. The book would be great for anyone interested in WW2 or anyone who wants to appreciate more what our servicemen and women did for our country.

No comments about Kano Eitoku (Japanese Arts Library).

5 comments about Long Way Back to the River Kwai: Memories of World War II.

1. Loet Velmans fled Holland with his parents in a small boat during the Nazi invasion. They escaped Hitler's persecution of the Jews only to undergo three and a half years of brutal treatment by the Japanese. On reaching England the family decided to continue to the Dutch East Indies, where the parents could find work, and Loet could finish high school. After graduation Loet was drafted into the Dutch Army. On Holland's surrender in Java, he became a prisoner of war. After nine months confinement on Java, Loet was sent to Singapore, where he was confined at Changi. Loet dabbled in the black market, and even opened a 'restaurant' called the Flying Dutchman. In May 1943 he left Changi with 'H' Force, bound for the Burma Railway. After reaching Bangpong Thailand by train, Loet and his group had to march 86 miles to Spring Camp. Loet felled trees, built a section of the access road, removed boulders from the railbed with a hammer and chisel, and lost many friends. After being felled by malaria and dysentery Loet was admitted to the camp 'hospital'. Upon recovery he was assigned to duties as a medical orderly. In discussions with his fellow prisoners Loet formed the opinion that their brutal Japanese guards were representative of Japan as a whole. What the prisoners could not fathom was "...how an entire nation could get its kicks from beating and torturing its prisoners." Upon the completion of their section of the railroad the men from Spring Camp were sent to Kanchanaburi. After a month or two there Loet returned to Singapore. After several months at Syme Road Camp Loet returned to Changi. There he shared a cell in Changi Jail with Rabbi Nussbaum,(a Dutch Army Chaplain) and another Dutch POW. Following liberation Loet spent 5 months in Singapore working on a Dutch newspaper, The Oranje, which was printed on the Straits Times press. In February 1946 Loet returned to Holland where he attended Amsterdam University. There he met his wife, Edith. Edith has written Edith's Story, an account of her life as a hidden Jew in Nazi occupied Holland. In the 1950's the Velmans emmigrated to America, where Loet went to work for the public relations firm Hill and Knowlton. From the beginning Loet was heavily involved in Hill and Knowlton's far east business, and frequently found himself traveling to Japan. It is unclear whether Loet ever informed his hosts that he had spent the war as 'a guest of the Emperor.' What is clear is that the Japanese produced a "visceral reaction" in Loet. He felt that: "...the entire Japanese nation had overlooked, papered over, trivialized or forgotten the atrocities committed in the name of its Emperor." During a business trip to Tokyo in the mid seventies Loet spent a night on the town with some Japanese business executives. At a bar in the Ginza district his hosts joined the other patrons in belting out a Japanese song between rounds. After repeated inquiries one of the businessmen finally revealed to Loet that the song was a patriotic military march from World War Two that soldiers sang to raise morale. Loet quickly found himself stone cold sober. Loet reports that in his dealings with the Japanese he "...never lost my compulsion to keep a wary eye on them." He believes that westerners and Japanese still find each other incomprehensible, but has hopes that perhaps his grandchildren's generation might bridge the gap. Readers seeking to learn more about what happened to their relatives on the Burma Railway or in Changi should be advised that Loet uses only the first names of his friends who died in captivity.



2. My grandfather was a POW in Burma and came back with stories that make you shudder and I bought this book to see if there was more I could learn. Although there is preamble on how Velmans escaped from the Netherlands and then moved to Indonesia and his life after the war, the account of treatment by the Japanese and working on the Burma railroad is quite insightful. There is not much on what happened to the Japanese after the war (war crimes) and Velmans does not really give you his opinion of the treatment he received. However, as a personal account, it is an interesting book.



3. The inspiration for the classic book and film "Bridge Over The River Kwai", Long Way Back To The River Kwai: Memories Of World War II is the painfully honest true story of one man's gut-wrenching and nearly fatal three and a half year tenure as a slave laborer for the Japanese army during World War II. A prisoner of war. An insert of black-and-white photographs illustrate this testimony, which presents the unvarnished truth about inhumane, brutal, and ultimately deadly torments the POWs suffered during the course of the war. Long Way Back To The River Kwai also tells of the war's end, the author's rescue and slow recovery from near-death, and his gradual readjustment. The final section tells of the author's business dealings in modern-day Japan, his reflections and friendships, and his observance of the Japanese "cultural amnesia" concerning the war and the atrocities it committed during that era. Highly recommended reading and an impressive contribution to the growing library of World War II combatant memoirs.



4. The inspiration for the classic book and film "Bridge Over The River Kwai", Long Way Back To The River Kwai: Memories Of World War II is the painfully honest true story of one man's gut-wrenching and nearly fatal three and a half year tenure as a slave laborer for the Japanese army during World War II. A prisoner of war. An insert of black-and-white photographs illustrate this testimony, which presents the unvarnished truth about inhumane, brutal, and ultimately deadly torments the POWs suffered during the course of the war. Long Way Back To The River Kwai also tells of the war's end, the author's rescue and slow recovery from near-death, and his gradual readjustment. The final section tells of the author's business dealings in modern-day Japan, his reflections and friendships, and his observance of the Japanese "cultural amnesia" concerning the war and the atrocities it committed during that era. Highly recommended reading and an impressive contribution to the growing library of World War II combatant memoirs.



5. The author gives a stirring and very readable story as told from the eyes of a Dutch soldier captured by the Japanese during the invasion of Java in 1942. Velman gives a very interesting story of his backgound as a Jew in prewar Holland and his families escape from the Nazis only to fall into the hands of the Japanes later.

   Most of his time as a POW was spent helping to build the Thai-Burma railroad. During this period, hundreds of thousands of Aliied prisoners and native slave labors died due to disease, famine, loss of spirit, and, of course, the direct mistreatment of them by the Japanese. All this for a railraod that was barely used and is now overgrown and torn up.

   It is a compelling book and the author is still trying to come to terms with the Japanse to this day.

   I also highly recommend Ernest Gordon's "Beneath the Valley of the Kwai". This book was written much earlier but tells the story from the British point of view. It is now available under the title "To End All Wars".

1 comments about Biographical Dictionary of Japanese History.

1. The dictionary is very worth the trouble if you are studying Japanese history for any period up to the 1970s. It offers little in the way of critical analysis or commentary, but is reasonably thorough in covering all major figures and giving the essential outlines of lives and careers. For a while it was availble in digital format. This is easier to search and access than a large book, and one rarely wants to curl up with a massive dictionary of this sort in any event. Unfortunately, the CD seems no longer to be distributed.
   
   Will O'Neil

No comments about Kokoro (Large Print Edition): Japanese Inner Life Hints.

No comments about From Foe to Friend: One Man's Experience in Japanese/American Trade.

No comments about Japanese Business Pioneers.

2 comments about The Iron Gates of Santo Tomas: The Firsthand Account of an American Couple Interned by the Japanese in Manila, 1942-1945.

1. Having recently learned that my uncle was a member of the 1st Cavalry, 5th Regiment and part of the "Flying Column" which liberated Santo Tomas in Feb 45, I was fascinated by Mrs. Van Sickle's eyewitness account of her time in the camp, and of her retelling of the evening of liberation. Her storytelling STYLE isn't particular gripping, but her STORY itself IS gripping and she tells it with an honest, informative approach.



2. Emily Van Sickle has written a wonderful memoir of her struggle during World War II to survive internment by the Japanese in the Philippines. Interned in Santo Tomas University with her husband, Emily chronicles the daily boredom, increasing starvation, and then the unbridled excitement of liberation by U.S. troops.

   Anyone interested in first-person wartime stories should read this book. It adds a new dimension to World War II stories of internment--this is unlike the experiences of European Jews and of Japanese-Americans, but still gives the reader pause to wonder at the atrocities of war.