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Sto caricando le informazioni... Digger's Story: Surviving the Japanese POW Camps Was Just the Beginningdi David Barrett
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David Digger Barrett was given his nickname at an early age by his father. It was prophetic: as an eighteen-year-old looking for fun and adventure, he enlisted as a private and served in World War II. After surviving the Malayan campaign, he would spend over three years as a Japanese prisoner of war. It would take Digger more than fifty years to rid his mind of the hate he had for the guards of the Imperial Japanese Army. His story of courage, mateship and survival takes him from the prison camps of Thailand and Burma to the fight for reparations for all Australian POWs of the Japanese. Non sono state trovate descrizioni di biblioteche |
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 Google Books — Sto caricando le informazioni...GeneriSistema Decimale Melvil (DDC)940.547252History and Geography Europe Europe 1918- Military History Of World War II Prisoners of war; medical and social services Prisioner-of-War CampsClassificazione LCVotoMedia: (5)
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(Kindle Book Review)
This is the chronicle of one person's life as a Prisoner of War in World War II, and his life after he returned home.
Barrett was your average Australian teenager who enlisted in the military for some adventure, and to escape a difficult home life. He found himself in an ambulance corps in Malaysia, near Singapore. The average soldier knew very little of what was happening, but they were sure of one thing. The British commanders in the area were doing a terrible job. They were more interested in retreating than in actually fighting the Japanese. Everyone knew that surrender was inevitable.
For the next three years, Barrett was a prisoner of the Japanese, "helping" to build a railroad through Burma and Thailand. To say that conditions were beyond brutal and inhuman is much too generous. He was part of the medical detail, doing whatever he could for the very sick. Barrett spent his days digging mass graves outside the camp, for the thousands who dies of causes ranging from starvation and overwork to diseases like cholera and dysentery. After the war, Barrett joined an Allied commission that traveled that same railroad, looking for mass graves. The intention was to look for evidence of Japanese war crimes, and to give those who were buried a final bit of recognition and dignity.
Fast forward to the 1980s. After a successful career in sales, Barrett learned of a group of Canadian ex-POW's who, through the United Nations, demanded reparations from Japan. Why couldn't Australian ex-POW's do the same thing? Barrett put together a Reparations Committee, and found that the vast majority of ex-POW's were totally in favor. Th Executive Committee of the National Ex-POW Association did not agree. Secret negotiations with the Japanese Government start moving in a direction that Barrett does not like. Does he stick it out? Does he ever reduce his hatred of all things Japanese?
This book easily gets 5 stars. It does not go too far in any one direction, but is very well-done chronicle of a person's journey to hell and back. It is highly recommended.
(The Kindle Book Review received a free copy of this book for an independent, fair and honest review. We are not associated with the author or Amazon.) (