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Surviving the Sword: Prisoners of the Japanese in the Far East, 1942-45

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Brian MacArthur has written a stirring account of the plight of the prisoners of the Japanese during WWII. The book goes far beyond David Lean's fictional "Bridge on the River Kwai," presenting details and first-person accounts that Hollywood never could. The book reveals the scope of Japanese abuses in individual camps, as well as the distribution of these camps throughout SE Asia. And while the story is heart-wrenching at face-value, there is an overriding theme that words are inadequate to express the misery that was actually endured by these tortured souls, many of whom never made it home. The mortality rate among prisoners of the Japanese was five times that of the Germans, a fact that may surprise many who get most of their history from the media. This book represents a new look at the darker side of the Pacific War, and is a glowing tribute to the perseverance of the allied prisoners of war.

Brian MacArthur has done a tremendous service to the people who fell under the sway of the Japanese during World War II. Since that war was sixty years ago, it is easy to forget how nasty, brutish, and malevolent were the ways in which the Japanese treated their prisoners. This book performs admirably in reminding those who forgot, how bad it really was.

The book concentrates on the plight of the British and Australian POWs that were captured primarily in the fall of Singapore. While this may seem restricted, it is actually a good grouping as most of the war in the far east was fought by Americans and another recent book - Conduct Under Fire - covers that ground. It is an interesting exercise to read these books in close proximity to each other - as I did, inadvertantly!

The story is told in essentially three parts. The first part focuses on the building of the Burma-Thailand Railway and the horrors of the initial descent into the hell that was a Japanese POW camp. A film that was produced some decades ago also showed this event which was called "A Bridge on the River Kwai". The author takes umbrage at the movie and spends many pages comparing the reality to the fictionalized version and indeed, the movie was a complete whitewash and a twisting of the real events. I say it was a whitewash because after reading the accounts of the suffering workers, it is impossible to see the movie's opening sequence with the lines of actors cheerfully whistling "Colonel Bogey" as having any connection to the reality.

The reality was that the prisoners were mistreated and abused horribly, torture was practiced by the Japanese as a tool for slaking their sadistic tendencies and starvation was a tool to slowly kill off the prisoners. Clearly the goal of the Japanese was to get the most amount of work out of the prisoners as they could while spending the least amount possible to maintain them. We read over and over again about how the Japanese kept food and medicines away from the prisoners preferring to hoard the materials rather than save any lives.

The second part of the book chronicles the lives of the surviving prisoners after the railway was concluded. Many of the prisoners were transported around the theater by ship and many stories are told about these "Hellships". I thought it was instructive to note that more people died on the Hellships than did during the construction of the railway which was the object of the first part of the book! The only discordant note in this section was when the author describes one set of events and points out that throughout the war, only Americans descended into killing their own in this one event. That was an unnecessary and gratuitous slap at a group of fellow prisoners.

the final part of the book is simply a collection of disparate anecdotes. The author recounts the horrors of some of the worst-known events - for example an island where a force of 2401 prisoners were building an airfield and only 6 survived it - as well as focus on the prisoners in Japan and their efforts. The final set of chapters tell the story of the end of the war, the release of the prisoners, their journeyes home, and their unwillingness and inability to tell their story. A poignant chapter towards the end of the book tells the story of what probably turned the author on to the writing of this book - it is a newspaper article authored by Brian MacArthur of the final meeting of the association of POWs that decided to stop meeting while their few remaining members still had any dignity left.

This book was a fascinating read and served to remind me of the difference between real atrocities as committed by the Japanese and the so-called atrocities of today at Guantanamo. Reading this book places these two events in such a different light that it makes me think that mankind's future is hopeful.

I read this book in a matter of days simply because it was so moving and fascinating that I could not put it down. It is an horrific account of the atrocities that occurred in the Japanese POW camps during WWII and the way the prisoners dealt with the injustices and hardships that were dealt upon them on a daily basis.
If you are interested at all in learning the truth about the shocking way our soldiers were treated this book is a must.
I highly recommend it.

Upon reviewing the several hundred books in my library on World War II, I noticed my reading was skewed heavily to the European Theatre (particularly the Eastern Front) ... I felt this book was a good start to creating more balance in my studies.

With a firm understanding of Japanese brutality during the war ("The Rape of Nanking" illustrates this very clearly), I felt I needed more than the Bataan Death March, hari kari and suicide pilots to better understand the Japanese disdain for surrendering. This book proved to be a real jaw-dropper.

I had no idea as to the horrific conditions of the prison camps or the brutal treatment received by the men who were confined in them. As gratuitous as the violence and disgusting conditions were within these prison camps the book supplies more than enough examples of how utterly brilliant man can be in his will to survive. The stories that these survivors recall so vividly will keep the reader thoroughly engrossed to the very last page.

If someone desires to gain a deeper knowledge of World War II's Pacific Theatre, I would definately recommend this book ... it is a superb resource.

I couldn't leave the book. The author's ability to describe the prisoner's horrific treatment kept me spellbound.