This book caught my eye amongst those delivered from publishers this month. I have a particular interest in the topic, as my best friend’s father was a FEPOW, and his experience in Singapore and after 1945 shaped her life and that of her brother. I have met and drunk with a few FEPOWs and read quite widely on the subject, from political, military and human aspects, and was interested to read more on this topic.
This is the story of Stan Moore, a despatch rider, his journey to Singapore, the desperate battle as the island fell to the Japanese and his life until repatriation in 1945. His fiancée Pat worked at Bletchley Park. It seems she was involved in the transmission of secret information about the Japanese treatment of prisoners back to the UK Government, an aspect of the war in the East that was new to me.
I find this an incredibly difficult book to review. On the one hand, there is the story of two young people torn apart for nearly four years, yet surviving that and the aftermath of those years to raise daughters and live happily after, albeit both having some mental health issues. There are painful descriptions of the atrocities and ‘business as usual’ behaviour committed by the Japanese Occupiers. And the heartrending description of Stan’s arrival home to his mother.
On the other hand, the book starts with a highly unnecessary but typically 21st Century warning that it ‘may contain upsetting material’. It then asks the reader to believe that two girls born in the early 1950s grew up completely unaware of what had happened to those who were prisoners of the Japanese in any theatre of the Second World War where they were involved. (Born in the late 1950s myself, I remember a one-legged neighbour of my Nan’s who had lost his leg through the actions of a Japanese Guard. The behaviour of the Japanese, the Prisoners turning their backs on the Japanese State Visit, the various apologies, and the laughable Millennium Compensation, have all featured in Mainstream News throughout the 20th Century. How could they have missed all that?). There are a number of military discrepancies, which could and should have been corrected by the Editor. A decent Editor could also have removed some very irritating tendencies to overlay 21st Century rewriting of history over 1940s values and standards. For instance, soldiers in transit stopped in India, and were apparently ‘horrified’ that Indian people slept in the streets ‘because of colonialism’.
I tagged a number of pages where what I read contradicted what I have read elsewhere and heard from those who were there and those who lived with FEPOWs as family and neighbours. I do understand that the two sisters have created this book from a tiny notebook kept by their father, some 1970s tape recordings he made where memory might have been unclear, and conversations with his very good friend from the time. There is an extensive bibliography which shows that someone has done a lot of work, it’s just that the book itself leaves one feeling that the man has been let down by the lack of attention to military, political and historical detail and the silly 21st Century baloney.
I am not going to award any stars for this book, but I would suggest that ‘The Forgotten Highlander’ by Alistair Urquhart is a better volume both for description of travel to Singapore, life there before the fall, during the occupation, and the Hell Ships. His coverage of the political aspects of the Japanese Surrender, the return home and the aftermath is also a more accurate reflection, as it is untainted by hindsight.
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This is the story of Stan Moore, a despatch rider, his journey to Singapore, the desperate battle as the island fell to the Japanese and his life until repatriation in 1945. His fiancée Pat worked at Bletchley Park. It seems she was involved in the transmission of secret information about the Japanese treatment of prisoners back to the UK Government, an aspect of the war in the East that was new to me.
I find this an incredibly difficult book to review. On the one hand, there is the story of two young people torn apart for nearly four years, yet surviving that and the aftermath of those years to raise daughters and live happily after, albeit both having some mental health issues. There are painful descriptions of the atrocities and ‘business as usual’ behaviour committed by the Japanese Occupiers. And the heartrending description of Stan’s arrival home to his mother.
On the other hand, the book starts with a highly unnecessary but typically 21st Century warning that it ‘may contain upsetting material’. It then asks the reader to believe that two girls born in the early 1950s grew up completely unaware of what had happened to those who were prisoners of the Japanese in any theatre of the Second World War where they were involved. (Born in the late 1950s myself, I remember a one-legged neighbour of my Nan’s who had lost his leg through the actions of a Japanese Guard. The behaviour of the Japanese, the Prisoners turning their backs on the Japanese State Visit, the various apologies, and the laughable Millennium Compensation, have all featured in Mainstream News throughout the 20th Century. How could they have missed all that?). There are a number of military discrepancies, which could and should have been corrected by the Editor. A decent Editor could also have removed some very irritating tendencies to overlay 21st Century rewriting of history over 1940s values and standards. For instance, soldiers in transit stopped in India, and were apparently ‘horrified’ that Indian people slept in the streets ‘because of colonialism’.
I tagged a number of pages where what I read contradicted what I have read elsewhere and heard from those who were there and those who lived with FEPOWs as family and neighbours. I do understand that the two sisters have created this book from a tiny notebook kept by their father, some 1970s tape recordings he made where memory might have been unclear, and conversations with his very good friend from the time. There is an extensive bibliography which shows that someone has done a lot of work, it’s just that the book itself leaves one feeling that the man has been let down by the lack of attention to military, political and historical detail and the silly 21st Century baloney.
I am not going to award any stars for this book, but I would suggest that ‘The Forgotten Highlander’ by Alistair Urquhart is a better volume both for description of travel to Singapore, life there before the fall, during the occupation, and the Hell Ships. His coverage of the political aspects of the Japanese Surrender, the return home and the aftermath is also a more accurate reflection, as it is untainted by hindsight.
Amazon product
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