Prisoners of War : Australians under Nippon by Nelson, Hank - 1985

ABC Enterprises(Australian Broadcasting Corporation), 1985. 1st Edition. Soft cover. Near Fine. 224 pages. This book is in good or better condition. It has no tears to the pages and no pages are missing from the book. The spine of the book is still in great condition and the front cover is largely unmarked. It has signs of previous use but overall is in really nice, tight condition. The previous owner has stamped his name inside both covers. Items are shipped same day or next business day and are shipped directly from our Australian address. SYNOPSIS: Extract from a review by James Oglethorpe. 'This book is one of the most widely-cited works dealing with WW2 POWs. It contains a wide variety of fascinating personal vignettes and makes a very powerful impression on the reader. More than three-quarters of the text comprises direct quotes from ex-POWs and other eyewitnesses. These accounts were originally collected during the early 1980s for a highly-acclaimed Australian Broadcasting Commission radio series. Professor Hank Nelson has assembled scores of these eyewitness statements into a well-paced chronological structure. Nelson also provides expert historical interpretation of the circumstances surrounding their experiences. Australian prisoners of the Japanese numbered approximately 22,000. They were predominantly young male soldiers captured in the disastrous defeats of 1942, but the book also describes the harsh experiences of several dozen female nurses who were made POW. Very sadly, more Australians died while prisoners of the Japanese than any other category of WW2 casualties. These POWs bore approximately 35\% of Australia's WW2 death toll. (The next most fatal category was Australian bomber crews over Europe, the subject of another Hank Nelson book: "Chased by the Sun".) Although most of these oral history interviews were collected 40 years after the event, the recollections are still vivid. Often, adequate time has passed for an admirable historical perspective to have developed, but it's not surprising that some interviewees were unable to overcome feelings of bitterness when describing their harrowing experiences'. Quantity Available: 1. Category: General, World War II, 20th Century; ISBN: 0642527369. ISBN/EAN: 9780642527363. Pictures of this item not already displayed here available upon request. Inventory No: 0000835. . 9780642527363