Customer Reviews

Last Man Out: Surviving the Burma-Thailand Death Railway: A Memoir

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have had the pleasure of knowing the author for going on 8 years now. His memoir of his time as a prisoner of the Japanese, building the Death Railroad, the real Bridge on the River Kwai, is riveting, and sadly the suffering of POWs is little known.

In the decades since returning from the War, the author has had a distinguished career requiring excellent writing and editing skills, and this book reflects that. It's an easy read, and when you've finished it, you will most likely re-evaluate the struggles and low points of your daily routine.

Lastly, the man who is the subject of the book, Dr. Henri Hekking of the Dutch Colonial Army, will instill in you a sense of awe in the medical skills he learned from native Javanese sources, and how these skills, scorned by English and American doctors, saved *so many* of the men under his care, the author included.

This book adds greatly to, and dovetails with, Hornfisher's latest, and compliments Winslow's "Galloping Ghost...".

I had the privilege of meeting the author on Feb. 28, 2009, the 67th anniversary of the Battle of Sunda Strait when the Houston was sunk. The Houston has a special interest for me because hearing its story sparked my lifelong interest in studying World War II.

The extra connection is that I had a distant cousin, Floyd Wesley Barron, who was in the Marine detachment with the author. After doing a lot of research, I contacted the author after finding out he only lived four hours from me. He actually remembered my cousin, who did not survive the battle. Hearing his account of the battle, plus reading his book about his experiences as a POW and praising the efforts of Dr. Hekking, has been an absolute thrill for me! I never would have dreamed that I would have hit pay dirt when I began this project, which came on the heels of working on a family history book with my uncle.

During our four-hour visit, the author was energized when talking about his adventure, and the copy of his book which he signed for me, is now my most treasured WWII book in my 300-book collection.

I find it truly amazing that Bob Charles has lived nearly 90 years, considering the brutal torture and starvation he endured for 43 months. He is truly one tough ole Marine, and I salute him for telling the story of the Houston survivors in a way that can only be told by someone who was there. Well done, my new found friend!

This was a very uplifting writing about surviving the deplorable and dire circumstances during WWII in a Japanese prison camp. Dr Hekking was a very remarkable man practicing medicine under such conditions. After reading this book...I have a deeper respect for veterans and survivors.
In ending, the doctor and the Americans seemed to help each other psychologically to survive....

The Bridge on the River Kwai (Two-Disc Collector's Edition) was the last movie my Dad ever saw when it premiered in London. He insisted on getting out of his sick bed & that we all attend with him. I watch the movie every now & again, just to remember him & the walking stick he had that had been made by one of his friends who'd been there.

LAST MAN OUT is H. Robert Charles' memories as a young naval gunner whose ship, the USS HOUSTON, was sunk in the Sunda Strait off Java in one of the earliest PTO battles in March '42. He was hauled out of the sea by an enemy who abhorred surrender. They shipped him & other survivors off to a life of building a railway under starvation conditions with jungle illnesses from Burma to Thailand upon which the Japanese intended to ship men & materiel in its quest to conquer all of Asia.

It's 1978 & Robert Charles is the epitome of the successful American business & family man... except he's falling apart: the same nightmare robs him of sleep, he's drinking like a fish & has so many terrors he's at the end of his rope... & as before, to combat all this he's just sold one company & taken on a whole new one, working in conditions & a location that, for some reason, give him the sweats.

During a rare phone call with one of his wartime buddies he's told that the VA, since the Vietnam War, is open to all sorts of new doctoring & he really ought to get himself to a therapist. There his memories start surfacing, & in doing so relieve him enough to begin unraveling the story of the one person every POW he's kept in touch with says helped keep 'em alive: a Dutchman familiar with the plants of the Burmese jungle, called Dr. Hekking.

Of course, there are never enough B&W photos or maps as I study the young lads who stepped into that storm. Never having been in combat cuz I'm the "wrong" gender, I've been gathering women's memoirs of their POW & camp years. This, written by a man, focuses on what matters to men: what they remember & how, what they opined & why.

One of the best memoirs about someone other than the writer!

An afterthought: Recently major news stations showed a few seconds of a ceremony of remembrance for the dropping of the bombs on Japan where some 100+ thousand civilians were incinerated & even more terribly wounded. The news anchors stressed how remarkable this year was cuz it's the first time American & European representatives have attended... no mention of the 100+ thousands of Allied POWs: killed & alive. It wasn't until 1995 that a memorial in Huston was created for the lads who perished all those decades ago.

I am a practicing Clinical Psychologist. I happen to have the honor of being the friend of the Authors son, and I can tell you that this brave mans story and his sons rememberance of his father, has had a profound affect on me personaly. This book is spellbinding, and it gives us all a place to pause and reflect on what life is really all about. To put your own life into perspective as well as understand the fine men who went through this horror, I highly reccomend this book. Richard H. Pratt,Ph.D. Ltd.

Sad to know that people can go through the things that this man and his fellow POWs went through. I had the pleasure of meeting the author before I even knew he was a writer. I got this book though after having the chance to talk to him and he is a most wonderful man! He writes this book in such a way that you are pulled in and can almost feel as though you are there with him through it all. Having met the author and then reading the book, I felt a more personal attachment to it. Had I not met him though I would have read this thinking that there is no way this could be real, but sadly it is. I met him a few years ago though and he was over 90 and still kicking after dealing with everything he did.

A great read and I highly recommend it. Specially to those that like a good war story, history buffs and the like.