Surviving The Sword. Prisoners Of The Japanese 1942-45

Cover Type: Hardcover
Book Condition: Very Good
Jacket Condition: Very Good
Publisher: Time Warner
Publisher Place: Usa
Publisher Year: 2005
Edition: First Edition

Description: 495 pages. Book and Jacket are both in Very good condition throughout.

Publishers Description: Many of the prisoners held by the Japanese during the Second World War were so scarred by their experiences that afterwards they could not discuss them even with their families. They believed that their brutal treatment was, literally, incomprehensible. But some prisoners were determined that posterity should know how they were starved and beaten, marched almost to death or transported on hellships, used as slave labour - most notoriously on the Burma-Thailand railway - and how thousands died from tropical diseases. They risked torture or execution to keep secret diaries and make drawings that they hid wherever they could, sometimes burying them in the graves of lost comrades. The diaries tell of inhumanity and degradation, but there are also inspirational stories of courage, comradeship and compassion. When men have unwillingly plumbed the depths of human misery, said one prisoner, the artist Ronald Searle, they form a silent understanding of what solidarity, friendship and kindness to others can mean. The diaries and interviews with surviving prisoners drawn on in SURVIVING THE SWORD will tell a new generation about that solidarity, friendship and kindness.

ISBN: 9780316861427