The memoirs of a World War II POW.
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
As a junior naval officer, Michel served on the Pope, one of the dozen obsolete "four-stack" destroyers from the WWI era that fought a doomed rearguard action against the Japanese in the early months of 1942. Most of the Pope's sea time, Michel tells us in this engaging memoir, was spent on routine patrols of the Philippines and Java; its episodes of combat were almost too confusing to be terrifying. In port, repair and maintenance vied for importance with finding sources of food and liquor and taking advantage of opportunities to meet women. When the Pope went down after engaging a fleet of Japanese destroyers, Michel was taken prisoner, to spend most of the war in Japan, working as a laborer at a Nagasaki shipyard. Hunger, crowding and overwork took lives enough, but conditions were much better than those of the now notorious camps in southeast Asia. Even newspapers were available. By not challenging the guards and foremen beyond a certain point, the POWs were able to maintain a chain of command and enforce their own standards of discipline. Michel makes an excellent case for this system, often criticized in particular by enlisted prisoners. In a broader context, his narrative supports the contention that Japanese POW policies were essentially ad hoc (unlike those of Nazi Germany), depending more on circumstances and personalities than on concepts of honor or principles of racism. It is a tribute to Michel's character that he emerged from his ordeal able, as early as 1948, to make the clear-eyed statement published here a half-century later. Photos.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Michel's World War II naval memoir was actually written some 50 years ago, shortly after Michel returned from more than three years as a Japanese POW. A lieutenant aboard the Asiatic fleet destroyer Pope, Michel served in her through the whole ordeal of the U.S. Asiatic Fleet and survived her sinking while trying to escape from Java. His subsequent captivity was less onerous than that of many Allied POWs, with fewer shortages of basic necessities and somewhat more professional, occasionally even humane, conduct on the part of the Japanese. Michel writes plainly but manages to vividly convey the range of behavior in the POW camps, from the heroic to its opposite. He is also plainspoken about the behavior of the Dutch, both during the fighting and later in captivity, and his negative remarks may partially account for his book's deferred publication. This is definitely a valuable addition to Pacific war POW literature and to knowledge of the forgotten Asiatic fleet. Roland Green
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This book presents a rather objective view to a profoundly painful period in a service man's life. It is broad in scope. It covers a wide array of emotions. It starts as an adventure , hope barely alive.As it suffers through the senseless horror,death and pain of war and imprisonment it become gray and somber. The author wrote it over 50 years ago in an easy yet compelling style and tone. It is ejoyable and informative , an good addition to any library especially one dealing with WWII naval history in the Pacific Area.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
An informative and educational work. The war can best be felt through the eyes of those who participated in it, from the time before the U.S. entered through the pre-pacific war days to Pearl Harbor and beyond. An interesting cast of characters on the ship (the pope) and in the POW camps. I was surprised at how badly the Dutch acted and, at times, how well the Japanese behaved. One of the best books I have read in a long time.
Format:Hardcover
This is not a perfect work at all; it lacks maps and its photo section is somewhat thin. But, the amazing diversity and richness of experiences so vividly described by "Jack" Michel, and his preservation of innumerable historical details, far supersede these issues. For that I give the book five stars, and make no apologies for it.
John J. A. Michel wrote his account of his wartime experiences in 1948, when many of the events he describes were relatively fresh in his memory. The book he published in 1998 was little altered from the original MS, he claims. In any case it is an absolutely invaluable and precious historical record.
For any student of the early months of the Pacific War and the venerable U.S. Asiatic Fleet, this work, along with those of Walter Winslow, Kemp Tolley, and Dwight R. Messimer, is absolutely essential reading. It is also easily one of the finest first person accounts written by an Asiatic Fleet officer, and makes one realize all the more powerfully just what may have been lost aboard some of the other ships sunk in the forlorn NEI campaign of Jan-March, 1942, since we now know that other officers aboard other ships--such as the USS EDSALL (DD-219)--were keeping journals of their experiences, too.
"Jack" Michel was much too modest & unassuming; his book is clear, unemotional, and humane without ever becoming maudlin or embittered--which it might well have. From his assignment to the Far East in March, 1941 as a young communications officer aboard USS POPE (DD-225) to the loss of that warship a year later on 1 March, 1942 in the upper Java Sea near Cape Puting, Borneo, subsequent capture, and incarceration for the war's duration, Michel covers a world of details, large & small, that would have been largely lost otherwise.
He meets, or crosses paths with countless figures who play important roles in the final, dreadful weeks of the Asiatic Fleet's existence, from Richard Nott Antrim & Welford Blinn of the POPE to Admiral Thomas Hart, CINCAF; from the tough, fearless old Dutch LT COL Gortman ("Johnny War")--who was eventually executed by the Japanese--to LT CDR Tom Donovan, First Lieutenant of USS LANGLEY (AV-3), stranded on Xmas Island, and later captured by the IJN when that island fell; from RADM Mori Kunizo, former C.O. of the Kaigun Tokubetsu Rikusentai at Kendari & Makassar, Celebes, and later head of the 23rd Special Base Force at Makassar and of all regional P.O.W. camps, to SGT Frank "Foo" Fujita, of the so-called 'Lost Battalion', who was one of the only Japanese-American soldiers captured in the war, and who ended up in the same camp (Fukuoka No. 2 near Nagasaki) as Michel. The list of men Michel encountered is worth getting the book in itself.
An important work in every regard that all Pacific War researchers would do well to familiarize themselves with, and that students of the old Asiatic fleet simply must read, and read again...
Well-done, indeed, Mr. Michel!
John J. A. Michel wrote his account of his wartime experiences in 1948, when many of the events he describes were relatively fresh in his memory. The book he published in 1998 was little altered from the original MS, he claims. In any case it is an absolutely invaluable and precious historical record.
For any student of the early months of the Pacific War and the venerable U.S. Asiatic Fleet, this work, along with those of Walter Winslow, Kemp Tolley, and Dwight R. Messimer, is absolutely essential reading. It is also easily one of the finest first person accounts written by an Asiatic Fleet officer, and makes one realize all the more powerfully just what may have been lost aboard some of the other ships sunk in the forlorn NEI campaign of Jan-March, 1942, since we now know that other officers aboard other ships--such as the USS EDSALL (DD-219)--were keeping journals of their experiences, too.
"Jack" Michel was much too modest & unassuming; his book is clear, unemotional, and humane without ever becoming maudlin or embittered--which it might well have. From his assignment to the Far East in March, 1941 as a young communications officer aboard USS POPE (DD-225) to the loss of that warship a year later on 1 March, 1942 in the upper Java Sea near Cape Puting, Borneo, subsequent capture, and incarceration for the war's duration, Michel covers a world of details, large & small, that would have been largely lost otherwise.
He meets, or crosses paths with countless figures who play important roles in the final, dreadful weeks of the Asiatic Fleet's existence, from Richard Nott Antrim & Welford Blinn of the POPE to Admiral Thomas Hart, CINCAF; from the tough, fearless old Dutch LT COL Gortman ("Johnny War")--who was eventually executed by the Japanese--to LT CDR Tom Donovan, First Lieutenant of USS LANGLEY (AV-3), stranded on Xmas Island, and later captured by the IJN when that island fell; from RADM Mori Kunizo, former C.O. of the Kaigun Tokubetsu Rikusentai at Kendari & Makassar, Celebes, and later head of the 23rd Special Base Force at Makassar and of all regional P.O.W. camps, to SGT Frank "Foo" Fujita, of the so-called 'Lost Battalion', who was one of the only Japanese-American soldiers captured in the war, and who ended up in the same camp (Fukuoka No. 2 near Nagasaki) as Michel. The list of men Michel encountered is worth getting the book in itself.
An important work in every regard that all Pacific War researchers would do well to familiarize themselves with, and that students of the old Asiatic fleet simply must read, and read again...
Well-done, indeed, Mr. Michel!
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