Download or read book Survival on the Death Railway and Nagasaki written by Jim Brigginshaw and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2018-06-30 with total page 157 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a remarkable and unique story of Jim Brigginshaw. Having been captured by the Japanese after the fall of Singapore in 1942, Jim was first sent to work in Burma, to build what has become known as the Death Railway. Unlike many of his comrades, Jim survived this ordeal, only to be transferred to Nagasaki, Japan, where he was sent to work in the mines of Sendryu.Jim describes how the conditions in the 'Hell pits of Sendryu' were even worse than those experienced in Burma, but were ultimately the reason why he survived the war. On the 9th August 1945, the Americans, dropped the second nuclear bomb on Nagaski. Jim was fortunately underground at the time, but through this book re-lives the harrowing aftermath of the attack when the ground shook violently.
Download or read book Survival on the Death Railway and Nagasaki written by Jim Brigginshaw and published by Casemate Publishers. This book was released on 2018-06-30 with total page 157 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a remarkable and unique story of Jim Brigginshaw. Having been captured by the Japanese after the fall of Singapore in 1942, Jim was first sent to work in Burma, to build what has become known as the Death Railway. Unlike many of his comrades, Jim survived this ordeal, only to be transferred to Nagasaki, Japan, where he was sent to work in the mines of Sendryu.Jim describes how the conditions in the 'Hell pits of Sendryu' were even worse than those experienced in Burma, but were ultimately the reason why he survived the war. On the 9th August 1945, the Americans, dropped the second nuclear bomb on Nagaski. Jim was fortunately underground at the time, but through this book re-lives the harrowing aftermath of the attack when the ground shook violently.
Download or read book The Hell Pit of Sendryu written by Jim Brigginshaw and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2018-05-05 with total page 7775 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jim Bodero spent much of World War Two in several versions of hell. Taken prisoner when Singapore fell into Japanese hands early in 1942, he – along with thousands of fellow POWs – was conscripted as a slave labourer. He was deep underground, in a coal mine near Nagasaki, when the US dropped its second atomic bomb, on 9 August 1945. The blast that obliterated the city and incinerated 66,000 people freed Jim from his living hell below the ground. But his struggles were far from over. Badly debilitated by the daily privations of working in the mine, weakened by chronic starvation, as well as suffering from the tropical diseases he contracted during his time on the Death Railway and on nightmarish prisoner-transport ships, he was more dead than alive. Jim was repatriated to Australia, but his war never really ended, its legacy a lifetime of pain. Jim’s story reveals some of the darkest chapters of the twentieth century. His suffering at the hands of a sadistic enemy was extreme, but through those and all the subsequent years, he never lost his sense of humour. His story is infused with it and, as such, is a glowing testament to the resilience that has sustained Australians at war, especially when the going got tough.
Download or read book HELL PIT OF SENDRYU written by JIM. BRIGGINSHAW and published by . This book was released on 2020 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Forgotten Highlander written by Alistair Urquhart and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2010-10-01 with total page 283 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Alistair Urquhart was a soldier in the Gordon Highlanders, captured by the Japanese in Singapore. Forced into manual labor as a POW, he survived 750 days in the jungle working as a slave on the notorious “Death Railway” and building the Bridge on the River Kwai. Subsequently, he moved to work on a Japanese “hellship,” his ship was torpedoed, and nearly everyone on board the ship died. Not Urquhart. After five days adrift on a raft in the South China Sea, he was rescued by a Japanese whaling ship. His luck would only get worse as he was taken to Japan and forced to work in a mine near Nagasaki. Two months later, he was just ten miles from ground zero when an atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. In late August 1945, he was freed by the American Navy—a living skeleton—and had his first wash in three and a half years. This is the extraordinary story of a young man, conscripted at nineteen, who survived not just one, but three encounters with death, any of which should have probably killed him. Silent for over fifty years, this is Urquhart’s inspirational tale in his own words. It is as moving as any memoir and as exciting as any great war movie.
Download or read book Survival written by G. S. Willmott and published by Garry Willmott. This book was released on 2018-10-01 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'A compelling read, this is the story of one family's journey through wars, tragedies and triumphs. A story of love, family, unity and resilience. Another great story from Australian author G. S. Willmott. Very difficult to put this one down.' - Christine 'Historical thriller of how one family beat the odds to survive WWI and WWII... The ending leaves the reader astonished.' - David 'A masterful book written in the most powerful way, about two families and their struggle with business, two world wars and the loss of the family and friends held dearest to them.From the very first page you are held in suspense, through the absorbingly vivid descriptions of the most horrific and colourful situations, that were the period during and between the two great wars.The spellbinding finale leaves the reader wanting answers to the vexed questions of life, and its true meaning.' - Ian
Download or read book Last Man Out written by H. Robert Charles and published by Motorbooks. This book was released on 2006 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From June 1942 to October 1943, more than 100,000 Allied POWs who had been forced into slave labor by the Japanese died building the infamous Burma-Thailand Death Railway, an undertaking immortalized in the film "The Bridge on the River Kwai." One of the few who survived was American Marine H. Robert Charles, who describes the ordeal in vivid and harrowing detail in Last Man Out. The story mixes the unimaginable brutality of the camps with the inspiring courage of the men, including a Dutch Colonial Army doctor whose skill and knowledge of the medicinal value of wild jungle herbs saved the lives of hundreds of his fellow POWs, including the author.
Download or read book Hiroshima written by John Hersey and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2020-06-23 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Hiroshima is the story of six people—a clerk, a widowed seamstress, a physician, a Methodist minister, a young surgeon, and a German Catholic priest—who lived through the greatest single manmade disaster in history. In vivid and indelible prose, Pulitzer Prize–winner John Hersey traces the stories of these half-dozen individuals from 8:15 a.m. on August 6, 1945, when Hiroshima was destroyed by the first atomic bomb ever dropped on a city, through the hours and days that followed. Almost four decades after the original publication of this celebrated book, Hersey went back to Hiroshima in search of the people whose stories he had told, and his account of what he discovered is now the eloquent and moving final chapter of Hiroshima.
Download or read book Nagasaki The Forgotten Prisoners written by John Willis and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2022-08-02 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is one of the most remarkable untold stories of the Second World war. At 11.02 am on an August morning in 1945 America dropped the world's most powerful atomic bomb on the Japanese port city of Nagasaki. The most European city in Japan was flattened to the ground 'as if it had been swept aside by a broom'. More than 70,000 Japanese were killed. At the time, hundreds of Allied prisoners of war were working close to the bomb's detonation point, as forced labourers in the shipyards and foundries of Nagasaki. These men, from the Dales of Yorkshire and the dusty outback of Australia, from the fields of Holland and the remote towns of Texas, had already endured an extraordinary lottery of life and death that had changed their lives forever. They had lived through nearly four years of malnutrition, disease, and brutality. Now their prison home was the target of America's second atomic bomb. In one of the greatest survival stories of the Second World War, we trace their astonishing experiences back to bloody battles in the Malayan jungle, before the dramatic fall of Fortress Singapore, the mighty symbol of the British Empire. This abject capitulation was followed by surrender in Java and elsewhere in the East, condemning the captives to years of cruel imprisonment by the Japanese. Their lives grew evermore perilous when thousands of prisoners were shipped off to build the infamous Thai-Burma Railway, including the Bridge on the River Kwai. If that was not harsh enough, POWs were then transported to Japan in the overcrowded holds of what were called hell ships. These rusty buckets were regularly sunk by Allied submarines, and thousands of prisoners lived through unimaginable horror, adrift on the ocean for days. Some still had to endure the final supreme test, the world's second atomic bomb. The prisoners in Nagasaki were eyewitnesses to one of the most significant events in modern history but writing notes or diaries in a Japanese prison camp was dangerous. To avoid detection, one Allied prisoner buried his notes in the grave of a fellow POW to be reclaimed after the war, another wrote his diary in Irish. Now, using unpublished and rarely seen notes, interviews, and memoirs, this unique book weaves together a powerful chorus of voices to paint a vivid picture of defeat, endurance, and survival against astonishing odds.
Download or read book The Burma Thailand Railway of Death written by E. R. Hall and published by . This book was released on 1981 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Evolution Of U s Army Nuclear Doctrine 1945 1980 written by John P Rose and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-07-09 with total page 169 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The development of U.S. Army nuclear doctrine—policies, plans, procedures, tactics, and techniques—since World War II, its impact on Army forces, and its role in future wars is the subject of this policy-oriented analysis. The definition of Army nuclear doctrine advanced by the author clearly implies a distinction between policy for the employment of nuclear weapons as determined by the president and the role adduced by the Army. Dr. Rose suggests that developments—both nuclear and conventional—in U.S. Army tactical doctrine have been more responsive to political preferences held by national authorities than to the real nature of the potential threat and rigors of the nuclear battlefield. Further, he argues that the type of war preparations favored by U.S. political authorities over the last fifteen years and the type of war for which the Soviet Union is preparing differ markedly, making the U.S. Army poorly prepared for a major war.
Download or read book Unbroken written by Laura Hillenbrand and published by Random House Trade Paperbacks. This book was released on 2014-07-29 with total page 530 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE • Look for special features inside. Join the Random House Reader’s Circle for author chats and more. In boyhood, Louis Zamperini was an incorrigible delinquent. As a teenager, he channeled his defiance into running, discovering a prodigious talent that had carried him to the Berlin Olympics. But when World War II began, the athlete became an airman, embarking on a journey that led to a doomed flight on a May afternoon in 1943. When his Army Air Forces bomber crashed into the Pacific Ocean, against all odds, Zamperini survived, adrift on a foundering life raft. Ahead of Zamperini lay thousands of miles of open ocean, leaping sharks, thirst and starvation, enemy aircraft, and, beyond, a trial even greater. Driven to the limits of endurance, Zamperini would answer desperation with ingenuity; suffering with hope, resolve, and humor; brutality with rebellion. His fate, whether triumph or tragedy, would be suspended on the fraying wire of his will. Appearing in paperback for the first time—with twenty arresting new photos and an extensive Q&A with the author—Unbroken is an unforgettable testament to the resilience of the human mind, body, and spirit, brought vividly to life by Seabiscuit author Laura Hillenbrand. Hailed as the top nonfiction book of the year by Time magazine • Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for biography and the Indies Choice Adult Nonfiction Book of the Year award “Extraordinarily moving . . . a powerfully drawn survival epic.”—The Wall Street Journal “[A] one-in-a-billion story . . . designed to wrench from self-respecting critics all the blurby adjectives we normally try to avoid: It is amazing, unforgettable, gripping, harrowing, chilling, and inspiring.”—New York “Staggering . . . mesmerizing . . . Hillenbrand’s writing is so ferociously cinematic, the events she describes so incredible, you don’t dare take your eyes off the page.”—People “A meticulous, soaring and beautifully written account of an extraordinary life.”—The Washington Post “Ambitious and powerful . . . a startling narrative and an inspirational book.”—The New York Times Book Review “Magnificent . . . incredible . . . [Hillenbrand] has crafted another masterful blend of sports, history and overcoming terrific odds; this is biography taken to the nth degree, a chronicle of a remarkable life lived through extraordinary times.”—The Dallas Morning News “An astonishing testament to the superhuman power of tenacity.”—Entertainment Weekly “A tale of triumph and redemption . . . astonishingly detailed.”—O: The Oprah Magazine “[A] masterfully told true story . . . nothing less than a marvel.”—Washingtonian “[Hillenbrand tells this] story with cool elegance but at a thrilling sprinter’s pace.”—Time “Hillenbrand [is] one of our best writers of narrative history. You don’t have to be a sports fan or a war-history buff to devour this book—you just have to love great storytelling.”—Rebecca Skloot, author of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
Download or read book Long Way Back to the River Kwai written by Loet Velmans and published by Skyhorse Publishing Inc.. This book was released on 2011-09 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "He survived brutality, sickness, and war, but he refused to give up hope. Loet Velmans was seventeen when Germany invaded his native Holland in 1940. He and his family escaped to London just before the Dutch army surrendered and German U-boats began their deadly patrol of the North Sea. Deciding they would be safer in the Far East, the Velmans family sailed to the Dutch East Indies--now Indonesia--where Loet joined the Dutch army. In March 1942, the Japanese invaded, conquered the colony in a week without firing a shot, and imprisoned all Dutch soldiers. For three and a half years, Loet toiled in slave-labor camps building the railway made famous by The Bridge on the River Kwai, which would supply the Japanese invasion of India. Some 200,000 POW's and laborers died building this Railway of Death. Loet suffered malaria, dysentery, malnutrition, and unspeakable abuse, but never gave up hope. Almost sixty years later he returned to the place where he nearly died and where he buried his best friend in a burlap sack. From that emotional visit comes this stunning memoir" -- Back cover.
Download or read book The Martyr and the Red Kimono written by Naoko Abe and published by Random House. This book was released on 2024-04-18 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The remarkable true story of Saint Maximilian Kolbe, and the two men in war-torn Japan whose lives he changed forever. On the 14th of August 1941, a Polish priest named Maximilian Maria Kolbe was murdered in Auschwitz. Kolbe's life had been remarkable. Fiercely intelligent and driven, he founded a movement of Catholicism and spent several years in Nagasaki, ministering to the 'hidden Christians' who had emerged after centuries of oppression. A Polish nationalist as well as a priest, he gave sanctuary to fleeing refugees and ran Poland's largest publishing operation, drawing the wrath of the Nazis. His death was no less remarkable: he volunteered to die, saving the life of a fellow prisoner. It was an act that profoundly transformed the lives of two Japanese men. Tomei Ozaki was just seventeen when the US dropped an atomic bomb on Nagasaki, destroying his home and his family. Masatoshi Asari worked on a farm in Hokkaido during the war and was haunted by the inhumane treatment of prisoners in a nearby camp. Forged in the crucible of an unforgiving war, both men drew inspiration from Kolbe's sacrifice, dedicating their lives to humanity and justice. Ozaki followed in his footsteps and became a friar. Asari created cherry trees as peace offerings. In The Martyr and the Red Kimono, award-winning author Naoko Abe weaves together a deeply moving and inspirational true story of resistance, sacrifice, guilt and atonement.
Download or read book Hellships Down written by Michael Sturma and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2021-03-19 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On 12 September 1944, a wolfpack of U.S. submarines attacked the Japanese convoy HI-72 in the South China Sea. Among the ships sunk were two carrying Allied prisoners of war. Men who had already endured the trials of Japanese captivity faced a renewed struggle for survival at sea. This book tells the broader story of the HI-72 convoy through the stories of two survivors: Arthur Bancroft, who was rescued by an American submarine, and Charles "Rowley" Richards, who was rescued by the Japanese. The story of these men represents the thousands of Allied POWs who suffered not only the atrocious conditions of these Japanese hellships, but also the terror of friendly fire from their own side's submarines. For the first time, the personal, political and legal aftermath of these men's experiences is fully detailed. At its heart, this is a story of survival. Charting the survivors' fates from rescue to their attempts at retribution, this book reveals the trauma that continued long after the war was over.
Download or read book And the River Flowed as a Raft of Corpses written by Chad Diehl and published by Excogitating Over Coffee Publishing. This book was released on 2010-01-01 with total page 134 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Tanka poems compiled, translated, and edited by Chad Diehl"--T.p. verso.
Download or read book The Men of the Line written by Pattie Wright and published by Melbourne University. This book was released on 2008 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The extraordinary engineering feat of the Thai-Burma Railway, or the Line as it is often called, was built with a slave labour force. A mixture of Australian, Asian, British, Dutch and American men built 688 bridges-eight made of steel and concrete-viaducts, cuttings, embankments and kilometres and kilometres of railway track through thick malarial jungle. The men of the Line died of starvation, torture and disease at the hands of the Japanese Imperial Army-here are their stories."--Provided by publisher.
