2 comments about Under the Shadow of the Rising Sun: The True Story of a Missionary Family's Survival and Faith in a Japanese Prisoner-Of-War Camp During Wwii.

1. This book kept me glued to the page. A gripping account of a teenager stuck in a concentration camp without having done anything wrong. A surprising lack of rancor, the author gives a picture of the good and bad in the people on both sides of the conflict. Also unusual are the admissions of less than perfect actions on his own part. It almost made me feel like I had been there.



2. This book is well written and quite well documented. It contains some of the best endnotes I've seen in a long time. The author drew from several other diaries (often not published) to present a more well rounded view often elaborating in the chapter endnotes. My only complaint is that the notes were presented at the end of the chapter instead of as page footnotes. I was constantly flipping pages to access the notes as I read. Overall an interesting book to anyone fascinated with WWII.

No comments about Surprised By Joy - CS Lewis Autobiography (until CHIKU Paperback) Japanese Language Book.

No comments about Nihon shi jinbutsu seibotsu nenpyo (Japanese Edition).

5 comments about Lost in Action: A World War II Soldier's Account of Capture on Bataan and Imprisonment by the Japanese.

1. Although I am the writters son. Based on all the reading I have done over the years. This book comes as close to telling the true story as possible. He had nothing to gain by writing this story. He only wanted to live his life and that he did. Go in peace, Dad!



2. This book is a must for anyone who reads stories of war and the affect it has on the soldiers. I praise the author for the courage he had to write it. I love you grandpa...



3. Afer I started reading Lost In Action I could not put it down, it is well written and comes very close to my father's accounts of the Philippines, the Bataan Death March, the various camps and Japan. There are many coincidences, that make me wonder if the author knew my Dad?
   I wish the author had included maps, photographs, even the insignia from the Coast Artillery, but I have many of those to refer to. This is not to criticise the verbal descriptions which are very visual.
   I feel that this book was very difficult for the author to write for men like my father had a great difficulty discussing the atrocities and the effects upon their fellow prisoners. I am grateful to the author for his courage and the perseverance that it evidently took to write this book which I hightly recommend.



4. I just read this 343 paged story of the account of my dad's first cousin's experience as a soldier and prisoner of war, and I will never think the same about the sacrifices made by soldiers as I did before reading this.
   One can also glean insight into the human heart or nature, when it is threatened, or starved, alone and isolated or in a pack or group.
   And for me personally, this story makes me proud of the contribution Bilyeus have made to the United States, not only in wars but many other ways, since the first Billiou (later Bilyeu) landed at what was then called New Amsterdam back in 1661, as Huguenots sailing here from Leyden, Holland, just 41 years after the Pilgrims.



5. I normally wouldn't pick up a book about war to read. I knew Dick and that it took him decades to get his story the way he wanted. I sensed he was someone who's story i wanted to read. I too, couldn't put it down. This is a story that truely tells the horror of WAR and what "Man's inhumanity towards Man" really is. Dick's book made me a more appreciative American.

No comments about If This Should Be Farewell: A Family Separated by War.

1 comments about The Man Behind the Bridge: Colonel Toosey and the River Kwai.

1. The Colonel Nicholson character (in the movie the Bridge over the river Kwai) is based on the allied camp commander, Lieutenant Colonel Philip Toosey, who was a remarkable officer by any standards.
   
   Awarded the DSO for heroism during the defense of Singapore, he refused an order to join the evacuation so he could remain with his men during captivity. Under the Geneva Convention, it was forbidden for prisoners of war to do any work of use to the enemy. Building the bridge might be construed as collaboration but there was no alternative. Toosey, from the outset, understood that the only real issue was to ensure that as many of his men as possible should survive. Under the circumstances, he achieved this to a remarkable degree. In the hellish conditions of the camp, he worked courageously to ensure that as many of his men as possible would survive. He endured regular beatings when he complained of ill-treatment of prisoners, but as a skilled negotiator he was able to win many concessions from the Japanese by convincing them that this would speed the completion of the work. Behind their backs, however, he did everything possible to delay and sabotage the construction without endangering his men, and also helped organize a daring escape, at considerable cost to himself. For his conduct in the camp, he won the undying respect of his men.
   
   One of a number of Allied POW's, Toosey was in charge of his men from late 1942 through May 1943 when they were ordered to build two Kwai River bridges in Burma (one of steel, one of wood), to help move Japanese supplies and troops from Bangkok to Rangoon. In reality, the actual bridge took 8 months to build (rather than two months), and they were actually used for two years, and were only destroyed two years after their construction - in late June 1945. The memoirs of the 'real' Colonel Nicholson were compiled into a 1991 book by Peter Davies entitled "The Man Behind the Bridge."
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   After the war, he showed great generosity of spirit by saving the life of Colonel Saito, second in command at the camp and a relatively decent officer, when he spoke up for him at the war crimes tribunal. He worked for the veterans all his life, and became President of the National Federation of Far Eastern Prisoners of War.
   
   Toosey returned to Liverpool and resumed his career in banking.
   
   He refused repeated requests by the veterans to speak out against the film, being much too modest to seek any glory or recognition for himself. However you will find his achievements documented in a book by Professor Peter Davies entitled "The Man Behind the Bridge".
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   Extensive photos:
   
   http://www.diggerhistory.info/pages-battles/ww2/kwai.htm
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   Other books on the building:
   
   http://facultyofhistory.com/Military_Kwai.html
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   Extensive 27 page PDF file on the building of the bridge:
   http://ets.uop.edu/humanities/journal/Burma-ThailandRailway.pdf
   
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   13,000 prisoners of war died while building the Burma-Thailand Railway for the Japanese.

No comments about Fake Fish: The Theater Of Kobo Abe.

No comments about Kobo no hito: Chiba-ken jinbutsu jiten (Japanese Edition).

No comments about My best World War II souvenir: Chronicles of one man's experiences in the United States Army.

No comments about Jinbutsu fairu, 1990: Kono hitotachi kara gendai ga mieru, mirai ga miete kuru (Jidai no kodo o hanshasuru shinjiten shirizu) (Japanese Edition).