The Emperor's Guest: The Diary of a British Prisoner-of-War of the Japanese in Indonesia - Softcover

Inhaltsangabe

“His is a story of the human spirit triumphing against the most fearful odds.” - Derek Jameson

The Emperor’s Guest is Don Peacock’s diary of 1276 days as a British prisoner of war of the Japanese in Indonesia during World War II, spent mainly as a white coolie on the tropical island of Haruku. The tale opens in Singapore as the young Yorkshireman is patriotically drinking gin, to prevent it falling into enemy hands. Fleeing on a ship bound for Australia, he is ordered off in Batavia (now Jakarta) to defend Java, but the island surrenders and, after rejecting a guerrilla life behind Japanese lines, he is persuaded to join a slave-labour battalion.

After conversion to a rice diet, and toughening up to withstand the brutality, he joins a party transforming Haruku into an aircraft carrier. The island of disease, despair and death is run by a half-crazed sergeant as his own little kingdom. Survivors run the gauntlet of American bombers and submarines to regain Java. The author is bound for Indo-China when the Allies blocked the Seas and he ends his war in Singapore.

“The writer will always remain one of my heroes.” - Lepanto

Part of the Oleander Classics series, this 1989 title has been reproduced using the highest-quality modern scanning technology. This is done in order to keep important works from the Press’s 50-year history from going out of print. In this way, the invaluable resources provided by this and other books in the series remain available for general readers, academics and other interested parties.

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