Hell on Earth : Aging Faster, Dying Sooner : Canadian Prisoners of the Japanese during World War II

Toronto: McGraw-Hill Ryerson Limited, 1997. Remainder mark on bottom edge else Fine condition in bright, shiny Near Fine Dust Jacket (lightly rubbed). No chips. No tears. No creases. No owner's name or bookplate. No underlining. No highlighting. No margin notes. Clean, square, tight, and unmarked. Sharp corners. Pages are fresh and crisp. Illustrated with 8 pages of photos. Bibliography. From the Dust Jacket: "This book is not for the squeamish. It is about depravity, disease, torture, malnutrition, medicine available but denied, slave labour, surgery by rusty razor blade, hate, despair and death... McIntosh paints a vivid picture of the experiences of the Canadian POWs, from their capture with the fall of Hong Kong, through the inhumane conditions of the 'hell ships' on which they were transported and their brutal treatment in the labour camps and at the hands of the Japanese in the camp hospitals. HELL ON EARTH draws heavily from firsthand accounts of Canadian POWs who gave testimony at war crime trials and parliamentary inquiries, as well as from transcripts of medical interviews... In addition, extensive excerpts from the diaries of Air Commodore Len Birchall, DFC, OBE (for gallantry), published here for the first time, detail the emotions and events that make HELL ON EARTH such riveting reading." [Birchall, known to many as 'saviour of Ceylon,' kept a secret diary for the 3 and a half years he was interned in Japanese prisoner-of-war camps. Buried in oilcloth, it was retrieved after the war]. First printing with complete number row (123456789 10) on the copyright page. . First Printing of the First Edition. Hard Cover. Publisher's black boards/DJ Not Price Clipped (29.95). 8vo. x, 278pp. .