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OverviewIn 1942, RAF flight controller Robert Wyse became a Japanese prisoner of war on the island of Java in Indonesia. Starved, sick, beaten, and worked to near-death, he wasted away until he weighed only seventy pounds, his life hanging in tenuous balance. There were strict orders against POWs keeping diaries, but Wyse penned his observations on the scarce bits of paper he could find, struggling to describe the brutalities he witnessed. After cleverly hiding his notes in a piece of bamboo next to his bed, in December of 1943, he carefully hid his notes inside a bottle beneath his prison hut. After the war, he wrote to the Dutch authorities, asking them to dig up his diary and return it to him. In this detailed and frank portrayal of life under Japanese occupation, Wyse reveals the both the best and the worst of human nature. He criticized his fellow soldiers for botching the defence of Java and Sumatra and admonished his captors for their brutality. Yet, Wyse also describes the selfless efforts of the Dutch civilians who helped the prisoners by doing whatever they could as well as his first-hand observations of acts of self-sacrifice among the prisoners themselves.Bamboo Cage is volume 13 in the New Brunswick Military Heritage Series. Full Product DetailsAuthor: Jonathan Vance , Jonathan F Vance (Canadian military and cultural history, war and society in the twentieth century, and social memory)Publisher: Goose Lane Editions Imprint: Goose Lane Editions Volume: 13 Dimensions: Width: 13.90cm , Height: 1.00cm , Length: 19.60cm Weight: 0.176kg ISBN: 9780864925299ISBN 10: 0864925298 Pages: 146 Publication Date: 29 May 2009 Audience: General/trade , General Format: Paperback Publisher's Status: Active Availability: In stock We have confirmation that this item is in stock with the supplier. It will be ordered in for you and dispatched immediately. Table of ContentsReviewsAuthor InformationJonathan Vance is a Professor and Canadian Research Chair in Conflict and Culture in the Department of History at the University of Western Ontario. He has been interested in the history of prisoners of war for over thirty years and has written several books on the topic, including The Encyclopedia of Prisoners of War and Internment. Tab Content 6Author Website:Countries AvailableAll regions |