Author: Robine Andrau
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780996411905
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 360
Book Description
More than 10,000 women and children. That's how many civilian prisoners of the Japanese were packed into Tjideng, reportedly the worst Japanese concentration camp in Java during World War II. Among these 10,000 mostly Dutch women and children were Hungarian-born Klara and her three young daughters. Meanwhile Klara's Dutch husband, Wim, a captain in the Royal Dutch Air Force, was among the 1500 military men crammed into a hell ship and transported to Japan as a slave laborer. "Bowing to the Emperor: We Were Captives in WWII," a memoir/biography penned by Klara and daughter Robine, chronicles the Andrau family's experience during those dark years in the then-Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia) and in Japan. The story reveals the fierce determination and ingenuity of a mother and the strength and leadership of a father when faced with starvation, brutality, and unspeakable living conditions. Klara's part of the story details what she did to keep the couple's three children and herself alive and well in body and mind, both during the Japanese occupation in 1942 and during the children's and her subsequent internment. Left with no income after Wim was taken away, Klara scraped along by giving language lessons, teaching the three R's to classes of children, and making and selling jams. Later, when interned in camp, she supplemented their daily diet of a handful of rice, a little piece of gummy bread, and a few leaves of a spinach-like plant by digging up the packed earth and planting some leafy vegetables, which she fertilized with night soil. She also pawed through the camp kitchen garbage looking for anything edible and knitted socks for the Japanese to earn some sweets for her children. She kept the wonder of Christmas alive one year by stealthily evading the patrolling Japanese guard in the predawn darkness, climbing a fir tree next to the barbed wire and bamboo camp fence, and sawing off the tree's top with a toy saw. When decorated with a few candles, the top was transformed into the most magical of Christmas trees. Wim's story centers on his role as the senior officer in charge of 400 Dutch and later an additional 200 American and 2 British POWs in camp Fukuoka #7 in the Japanese coal-mining town of Futase. He led his men with good humor and optimism and negotiated tirelessly with the Japanese commander, sometimes successfully, for shorter work hours in the coal mines (from 12-to-14-hour days to 10-to-12-hour days), for more rest and recreation time (from a partial to a full day "off" every ten days), and for more food. Beatings on the part of the Japanese guards were a perennial problem. By bypassing the Japanese commander and slipping a list of brutality complaints among other suggestions for changes into the hands of the visiting Swedish consul, Wim succeeded in marginally improving the situation for his men. His greatest success, however, was in maintaining order and discipline among the prisoners, reducing friction and increasing understanding between the two main national groups, and building morale despite the dirt, near-starvation rations, disease, brutality, and horrendous work and living conditions in the damp dangerous coal mines and the flea- and lice-infested barracks. Besides being the personal story of a family, "Bowing to the Emperor" is also a universal story of survival and of hope despite loss of country and loss of all material possessions.
Bowing to the Emperor
Author: Robine Andrau
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780996411905
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 360
Book Description
More than 10,000 women and children. That's how many civilian prisoners of the Japanese were packed into Tjideng, reportedly the worst Japanese concentration camp in Java during World War II. Among these 10,000 mostly Dutch women and children were Hungarian-born Klara and her three young daughters. Meanwhile Klara's Dutch husband, Wim, a captain in the Royal Dutch Air Force, was among the 1500 military men crammed into a hell ship and transported to Japan as a slave laborer. "Bowing to the Emperor: We Were Captives in WWII," a memoir/biography penned by Klara and daughter Robine, chronicles the Andrau family's experience during those dark years in the then-Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia) and in Japan. The story reveals the fierce determination and ingenuity of a mother and the strength and leadership of a father when faced with starvation, brutality, and unspeakable living conditions. Klara's part of the story details what she did to keep the couple's three children and herself alive and well in body and mind, both during the Japanese occupation in 1942 and during the children's and her subsequent internment. Left with no income after Wim was taken away, Klara scraped along by giving language lessons, teaching the three R's to classes of children, and making and selling jams. Later, when interned in camp, she supplemented their daily diet of a handful of rice, a little piece of gummy bread, and a few leaves of a spinach-like plant by digging up the packed earth and planting some leafy vegetables, which she fertilized with night soil. She also pawed through the camp kitchen garbage looking for anything edible and knitted socks for the Japanese to earn some sweets for her children. She kept the wonder of Christmas alive one year by stealthily evading the patrolling Japanese guard in the predawn darkness, climbing a fir tree next to the barbed wire and bamboo camp fence, and sawing off the tree's top with a toy saw. When decorated with a few candles, the top was transformed into the most magical of Christmas trees. Wim's story centers on his role as the senior officer in charge of 400 Dutch and later an additional 200 American and 2 British POWs in camp Fukuoka #7 in the Japanese coal-mining town of Futase. He led his men with good humor and optimism and negotiated tirelessly with the Japanese commander, sometimes successfully, for shorter work hours in the coal mines (from 12-to-14-hour days to 10-to-12-hour days), for more rest and recreation time (from a partial to a full day "off" every ten days), and for more food. Beatings on the part of the Japanese guards were a perennial problem. By bypassing the Japanese commander and slipping a list of brutality complaints among other suggestions for changes into the hands of the visiting Swedish consul, Wim succeeded in marginally improving the situation for his men. His greatest success, however, was in maintaining order and discipline among the prisoners, reducing friction and increasing understanding between the two main national groups, and building morale despite the dirt, near-starvation rations, disease, brutality, and horrendous work and living conditions in the damp dangerous coal mines and the flea- and lice-infested barracks. Besides being the personal story of a family, "Bowing to the Emperor" is also a universal story of survival and of hope despite loss of country and loss of all material possessions.
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780996411905
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 360
Book Description
More than 10,000 women and children. That's how many civilian prisoners of the Japanese were packed into Tjideng, reportedly the worst Japanese concentration camp in Java during World War II. Among these 10,000 mostly Dutch women and children were Hungarian-born Klara and her three young daughters. Meanwhile Klara's Dutch husband, Wim, a captain in the Royal Dutch Air Force, was among the 1500 military men crammed into a hell ship and transported to Japan as a slave laborer. "Bowing to the Emperor: We Were Captives in WWII," a memoir/biography penned by Klara and daughter Robine, chronicles the Andrau family's experience during those dark years in the then-Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia) and in Japan. The story reveals the fierce determination and ingenuity of a mother and the strength and leadership of a father when faced with starvation, brutality, and unspeakable living conditions. Klara's part of the story details what she did to keep the couple's three children and herself alive and well in body and mind, both during the Japanese occupation in 1942 and during the children's and her subsequent internment. Left with no income after Wim was taken away, Klara scraped along by giving language lessons, teaching the three R's to classes of children, and making and selling jams. Later, when interned in camp, she supplemented their daily diet of a handful of rice, a little piece of gummy bread, and a few leaves of a spinach-like plant by digging up the packed earth and planting some leafy vegetables, which she fertilized with night soil. She also pawed through the camp kitchen garbage looking for anything edible and knitted socks for the Japanese to earn some sweets for her children. She kept the wonder of Christmas alive one year by stealthily evading the patrolling Japanese guard in the predawn darkness, climbing a fir tree next to the barbed wire and bamboo camp fence, and sawing off the tree's top with a toy saw. When decorated with a few candles, the top was transformed into the most magical of Christmas trees. Wim's story centers on his role as the senior officer in charge of 400 Dutch and later an additional 200 American and 2 British POWs in camp Fukuoka #7 in the Japanese coal-mining town of Futase. He led his men with good humor and optimism and negotiated tirelessly with the Japanese commander, sometimes successfully, for shorter work hours in the coal mines (from 12-to-14-hour days to 10-to-12-hour days), for more rest and recreation time (from a partial to a full day "off" every ten days), and for more food. Beatings on the part of the Japanese guards were a perennial problem. By bypassing the Japanese commander and slipping a list of brutality complaints among other suggestions for changes into the hands of the visiting Swedish consul, Wim succeeded in marginally improving the situation for his men. His greatest success, however, was in maintaining order and discipline among the prisoners, reducing friction and increasing understanding between the two main national groups, and building morale despite the dirt, near-starvation rations, disease, brutality, and horrendous work and living conditions in the damp dangerous coal mines and the flea- and lice-infested barracks. Besides being the personal story of a family, "Bowing to the Emperor" is also a universal story of survival and of hope despite loss of country and loss of all material possessions.
Three Steps, One Bow
Author: Heng Ju (Bhikshu)
Publisher: Buddhist Text Translation Society
ISBN: 1601030738
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 327
Book Description
Based on the principle that peace in the world begins with peace in our hearts, two American monks, Heng Ju and Heng Yo, undertook an arduous 10 month pilgrimage in 1973. As they bowed down in full prostrations to the ground once every three steps, they prayed for world peace and sought spiritual awakening. A collection of excerpts from the journal they kept, this book offers an honest and moving account of their journey as they relate their internal and external hardships as well as their interactions with their teacher, Master Hsuan Hua, and their awakenings. This book shows Buddhism in its true form: a practice to transform the mind and thereby the world in which we live. This 40th anniversary edition comes with a preface written by Jeanette Testu, daughter of the former Heng Ju who had returned to lay life.
Publisher: Buddhist Text Translation Society
ISBN: 1601030738
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 327
Book Description
Based on the principle that peace in the world begins with peace in our hearts, two American monks, Heng Ju and Heng Yo, undertook an arduous 10 month pilgrimage in 1973. As they bowed down in full prostrations to the ground once every three steps, they prayed for world peace and sought spiritual awakening. A collection of excerpts from the journal they kept, this book offers an honest and moving account of their journey as they relate their internal and external hardships as well as their interactions with their teacher, Master Hsuan Hua, and their awakenings. This book shows Buddhism in its true form: a practice to transform the mind and thereby the world in which we live. This 40th anniversary edition comes with a preface written by Jeanette Testu, daughter of the former Heng Ju who had returned to lay life.
Testimonies concerning the patriarch Nicon, the tsar, and the boyars, from the Travels of the patriarch Macarius of Antioch, written in Arabic by his son and archdeacon Paul of Aleppo
Author: William Palmer
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Church and state
Languages : en
Pages : 648
Book Description
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Church and state
Languages : en
Pages : 648
Book Description
Japan
Author: Khoon Choy Lee
Publisher: World Scientific
ISBN: 9789810218652
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 318
Book Description
This work, written by an ex-Ambassador to Japan, is a first-hand account and observation of the various aspects of Japanese society ? political, historical, social and economic. It introduces themes such as Japanese religions and the political system, as well as describing and explaining many of the country's rich traditions. The author's personal experiences of Japan are interspersed with historical tales and factual details, providing an insight into Japanese behavior, thinking and way of life. This book will be immensely useful to those who wish to gain a deeper knowledge and understanding of the Japanese mind. It is the result of a four-year stay in Japan by the author, a Singaporean ex-Ambassador and politician.
Publisher: World Scientific
ISBN: 9789810218652
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 318
Book Description
This work, written by an ex-Ambassador to Japan, is a first-hand account and observation of the various aspects of Japanese society ? political, historical, social and economic. It introduces themes such as Japanese religions and the political system, as well as describing and explaining many of the country's rich traditions. The author's personal experiences of Japan are interspersed with historical tales and factual details, providing an insight into Japanese behavior, thinking and way of life. This book will be immensely useful to those who wish to gain a deeper knowledge and understanding of the Japanese mind. It is the result of a four-year stay in Japan by the author, a Singaporean ex-Ambassador and politician.
The Patriarch and the Tsar: Testimonies concerning the patriarch Nicon, the Tsar, and the boyars, from the Travels of the patriarch Macarius of Antioch, written in Arabic by his son and archdeacon Paul of Aleppo
The Prince and His Concubine
Author: Wendell
Publisher: Trafford Publishing
ISBN: 1426941617
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 171
Book Description
Crown Prince Xiang Xus life is regimented and predetermined by tradition from the day of his birth. The Prince of Yan, slated to be the next emperor, is bored with his life. But this disposition changes drastically when he and his cousin journey into the village incognito. Unexpectedly, the prince encounters Wei Lu, a woman who captures his interest and will one day become his soul mate. A member of a formerly wealthy family that has fallen on hard times, Wei Lu now works in a sandal factory to help her elderly and ailing parents. In exchange for financial support for her parents, Wei Lu agrees to become Xiang Xus concubinehis first and only love. She vows to bear him many children. But the couple, so devoted to each other, faces many challenges in their unusual relationship. The vagaries of war, assassination attempts, and treachery are part of the culture in which they live, and only time will tell whether their love will last.
Publisher: Trafford Publishing
ISBN: 1426941617
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 171
Book Description
Crown Prince Xiang Xus life is regimented and predetermined by tradition from the day of his birth. The Prince of Yan, slated to be the next emperor, is bored with his life. But this disposition changes drastically when he and his cousin journey into the village incognito. Unexpectedly, the prince encounters Wei Lu, a woman who captures his interest and will one day become his soul mate. A member of a formerly wealthy family that has fallen on hard times, Wei Lu now works in a sandal factory to help her elderly and ailing parents. In exchange for financial support for her parents, Wei Lu agrees to become Xiang Xus concubinehis first and only love. She vows to bear him many children. But the couple, so devoted to each other, faces many challenges in their unusual relationship. The vagaries of war, assassination attempts, and treachery are part of the culture in which they live, and only time will tell whether their love will last.
The Emperor's General
Author: James Webb
Publisher: Bantam
ISBN: 0307567451
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 482
Book Description
Captain Jay Marsh had never questioned where his ultimate loyalty lay. He had witnessed the bloody horror left behind by the retreating Japanese army during World War II's final days. And he had abandoned his beautiful Filipina fiancée to see his duty through. But not even Marsh could guess the terrible personal price he would have to pay for his loyalty. He would follow General Douglas MacArthur to Tokyo itself. There he would become the brilliant, egocentric general's confidant, translator, surrogate son--and spy. Marsh would play a dangerous game of deliberate deceit and brutal injustice in the shadow world of postwar Japan's royal palaces and geisha houses, and recognize that the defeated emperor and his wily aides were exploiting MacArthur's ruthless ambition to become the American Caesar. The Emperor's General is a dramatic human story of the loss of innocence and the seduction of power, about the conflict between honor, duty, and love, all set against an extraordinary historical backdrop.
Publisher: Bantam
ISBN: 0307567451
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 482
Book Description
Captain Jay Marsh had never questioned where his ultimate loyalty lay. He had witnessed the bloody horror left behind by the retreating Japanese army during World War II's final days. And he had abandoned his beautiful Filipina fiancée to see his duty through. But not even Marsh could guess the terrible personal price he would have to pay for his loyalty. He would follow General Douglas MacArthur to Tokyo itself. There he would become the brilliant, egocentric general's confidant, translator, surrogate son--and spy. Marsh would play a dangerous game of deliberate deceit and brutal injustice in the shadow world of postwar Japan's royal palaces and geisha houses, and recognize that the defeated emperor and his wily aides were exploiting MacArthur's ruthless ambition to become the American Caesar. The Emperor's General is a dramatic human story of the loss of innocence and the seduction of power, about the conflict between honor, duty, and love, all set against an extraordinary historical backdrop.
The Emperor of Dreams
Author: Clark Ashton Smith
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780575073739
Category : Fantasy fiction, American
Languages : en
Pages : 580
Book Description
From the vampire-haunted alleyways of mediaeval Averoigne to the shining spires of dying Zothique, Clark Ashton Smith weaves his literary sorcery, transporting us to forgotten realms of necromancies and nightmares, lost worlds and other dimensions. In the enchanted regions of Hyperborea, Atlantis and Xiccarph, encounter malefic magic and demonic deeds beneath the last rays of a fading sun . . . For the first time ever, this volume encompasses Clark Ashton Smith's entire career as a writer. Smith virtually stopped writing stories in 1937, for reasons that have never been satisfactorily explained, but he left behind a unique legacy of fantasy fiction which is as imaginative and decadent today as when it was first published in the pulp magazines more than half a century ago.
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780575073739
Category : Fantasy fiction, American
Languages : en
Pages : 580
Book Description
From the vampire-haunted alleyways of mediaeval Averoigne to the shining spires of dying Zothique, Clark Ashton Smith weaves his literary sorcery, transporting us to forgotten realms of necromancies and nightmares, lost worlds and other dimensions. In the enchanted regions of Hyperborea, Atlantis and Xiccarph, encounter malefic magic and demonic deeds beneath the last rays of a fading sun . . . For the first time ever, this volume encompasses Clark Ashton Smith's entire career as a writer. Smith virtually stopped writing stories in 1937, for reasons that have never been satisfactorily explained, but he left behind a unique legacy of fantasy fiction which is as imaginative and decadent today as when it was first published in the pulp magazines more than half a century ago.
The Patriarch and the Tsar ...
Author: William Palmer
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Church and state
Languages : en
Pages : 650
Book Description
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Church and state
Languages : en
Pages : 650
Book Description
Change We Can Believe In?
Author: Anthony Livingston Hall
Publisher: iUniverse
ISBN: 1450233147
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 392
Book Description
ANTHONY L. HALL takes aim at every important issue of our time with a unique and refreshing perspective. He comments on: Obama accepting the Nobel Prize Many people are still wondering what that mysterious light hovering over Norway was on the night before he arrived. But, despite claims that it was generated by a UFO or the failed test launch of a Russian missile, die-hard believers (like me) will tell you that it was just a celestial sign heralding the Nobel coming of Barack Obama. The swine flu pandemic that wasnt An Obama advisor has been quoted saying, You never want a serious crisis to go to waste It is instructive to note that the pharmaceutical companies that produce vaccines, as well as the peddlers of surgical masks and other flu paraphernalia, appear to be heeding this advice. Movie about Nehrus affair with the wife of a British diplomat One can only imagine the physical passion they shared, especially in light of Edwinas reputed nymphomania, which, notwithstanding Nehrus efforts, she reportedly satiated by making scandalous booty calls on a black man for over 30 years. Christmas Day underwear bomber [W]e had the secretary of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano, assuring us on Sunday that the system worked in this case. If this good-job-Brownie faux pas doesnt suggest that our whole airline security system is devoid of logic, nothing does. Cartoon of Obama kneeling and kissing shoe of Chinese leader To be sure, the cartoon takes some creative license. But the essential point it conveys is undeniable: America cannot stand like a superpower with China squeezing its balls in a financial vise grip! Expenses scandal that rocked UK Parliament Who knew that the only swine flu Britons had to worry about was an epidemic of MPs feeding at the public trough like pigs? Tiger Woodss Thanksgiving-Day spat with his wife Cheating Tiger, fuming dragon.
Publisher: iUniverse
ISBN: 1450233147
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 392
Book Description
ANTHONY L. HALL takes aim at every important issue of our time with a unique and refreshing perspective. He comments on: Obama accepting the Nobel Prize Many people are still wondering what that mysterious light hovering over Norway was on the night before he arrived. But, despite claims that it was generated by a UFO or the failed test launch of a Russian missile, die-hard believers (like me) will tell you that it was just a celestial sign heralding the Nobel coming of Barack Obama. The swine flu pandemic that wasnt An Obama advisor has been quoted saying, You never want a serious crisis to go to waste It is instructive to note that the pharmaceutical companies that produce vaccines, as well as the peddlers of surgical masks and other flu paraphernalia, appear to be heeding this advice. Movie about Nehrus affair with the wife of a British diplomat One can only imagine the physical passion they shared, especially in light of Edwinas reputed nymphomania, which, notwithstanding Nehrus efforts, she reportedly satiated by making scandalous booty calls on a black man for over 30 years. Christmas Day underwear bomber [W]e had the secretary of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano, assuring us on Sunday that the system worked in this case. If this good-job-Brownie faux pas doesnt suggest that our whole airline security system is devoid of logic, nothing does. Cartoon of Obama kneeling and kissing shoe of Chinese leader To be sure, the cartoon takes some creative license. But the essential point it conveys is undeniable: America cannot stand like a superpower with China squeezing its balls in a financial vise grip! Expenses scandal that rocked UK Parliament Who knew that the only swine flu Britons had to worry about was an epidemic of MPs feeding at the public trough like pigs? Tiger Woodss Thanksgiving-Day spat with his wife Cheating Tiger, fuming dragon.