Escape from the Japanese

Escape from the Japanese
Author: Ralph Burton Goodwin
Publisher: Frontline Books
Total Pages: 180
Release: 2015-11-30
Genre: History
ISBN: 1848329318
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Trapped in the depths of Japanese-held territory, it was rare for Allied prisoners of war to attempt escape. There was little chance of making contact with anti-guerrilla or underground organisations and no possibility of Europeans blending in with the local Asian populations. Failure, and recapture, meant execution. This was what Lieutenant Commander R.B. Goodwin faced when he decided to escape from the Shamsuipo PoW Camp in Kowloon, Hong Kong in July 1944 after three years of internment.With no maps and no knowledge of the country or the language, Lieutenant Commander Goodwin set out across enemy territory and war-torn China. Because of the colour of his skin he had to travel during the hours of darkness for much of what was an 870-mile journey to reach British India. Few of his fellow prisoners gave him any chance of succeeding, yet, little more than three months later, he was being transported to the safety of Calcutta. For his daring and determination Lieutenant Commander Goodwin was awarded the Order of the British Empire.

Escape From Davao

Escape From Davao
Author: John D. Lukacs
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 450
Release: 2010-05-11
Genre: History
ISBN: 1439180431
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On April 4, 1943, ten American prisoners of war and two Filipino convicts executed a daring escape from one of Japan’s most notorious prison camps. The prisoners were survivors of the infamous Bataan Death March and the Fall of Corregidor, and the prison from which they escaped was surrounded by an impenetrable swamp and reputedly escape-proof. Theirs was the only successful group escape from a Japanese POW camp during the Pacific war. Escape from Davao is the story of one of the most remarkable incidents in the Second World War and of what happened when the Americans returned home to tell the world what they had witnessed. Davao Penal Colony, on the southern Philippine island of Mindanao, was a prison plantation where thousands of American POWs toiled alongside Filipino criminals and suffered from tropical diseases and malnutrition, as well as the cruelty of their captors. The American servicemen were rotting in a hellhole from which escape was considered impossible, but ten of them, realizing that inaction meant certain death, planned to escape. Their bold plan succeeded with the help of Filipino allies, both patriots and the guerrillas who fought the Japanese sent to recapture them. Their trek to freedom repeatedly put the Americans in jeopardy, yet they eventually succeeded in returning home to the United States to fulfill their self-appointed mission: to tell Americans about Japanese atrocities and to rally the country to the plight of their comrades still in captivity. But the government and the military had a different timetable for the liberation of the Philippines and ordered the men to remain silent. Their testimony, when it finally emerged, galvanized the nation behind the Pacific war effort and made the men celebrities. Over the decades this remarkable story, called the “greatest story of the war in the Pacific” by the War Department in 1944, has faded away. Because of wartime censorship, the full story has never been told until now. John D. Lukacs spent years researching this heroic event, interviewing survivors, reading their letters, searching archival documents, and traveling to the decaying prison camp and its surroundings. His dramatic, gripping account of the escape brings this remarkable tale back to life, where a new generation can admire the resourcefulness and patriotism of the men who fought the Pacific war.

Escape to Manila

Escape to Manila
Author: Frank Ephraim
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
Total Pages: 250
Release: 2010-10-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 0252091116
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A harrowing account of Jewish refugees in the Philippines With the rise of Nazism in the 1930s more than a thousand European Jews sought refuge in the Philippines, joining the small Jewish population of Manila. When the Japanese invaded the islands in 1941, the peaceful existence of the barely settled Jews filled with the kinds of uncertainties and oppression they thought they had left behind. In this book Frank Ephraim, who fled to Manila with his parents, gathers the testimonies of thirty-six refugees, who describe the difficult journey to Manila, the lives they built there upon their arrival, and the events surrounding the Japanese invasion. Combining these accounts with historical and archival records, Manila newspapers, and U.S. government documents, Ephraim constructs a detailed account of this little-known chapter of world history.

Escape to Japanese Captivity

Escape to Japanese Captivity
Author: C.O. Mick Jennings
Publisher: Pen and Sword Military
Total Pages: 271
Release: 2021-01-18
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 152678310X
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This harrowing WWII memoir recounts the tragic ordeal of a British couple separated by war and taken prisoner by Japanese forces in Sumatra. Captain C.O. “Mick” Jennings and his wife Margery were living in British Singapore when the Japanese invaded in 1941. Margery was on her way to Australia with other British families when their ship was bombed, leading to her capture in Sumatra. When Singapore fell in February 1942, Mick and other soldiers commandeered a junk and sailed to Sumatra. With a fellow soldier, he set sail for Australia in a seventeen-foot dinghy. But after an appalling ordeal at sea, he was also captured. Despite their close proximity, Mick and Margery never saw each other again. Though they managed to exchange a few letters, Margery died of deprivation and exhaustion in May 1945, shortly before VJ day, while Mick miraculously survived. Based on personal accounts and Margery’s secret diary, this outstanding book describes in graphic detail their attempted escapes and horrific imprisonments. Above all it is a moving testimony to the couple’s courage, resilience, and ingenuity.

The Greatest Japanese Prison Escape : Yoshie Shiratori

The Greatest Japanese Prison Escape : Yoshie Shiratori
Author: Shubham Vernekar
Publisher:
Total Pages: 29
Release: 2020-04-19
Genre:
ISBN:
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Yoshie Shiratori, aka the Prison Break Magician, was born on July 31, 1907 in Aomori, Japan. He is best known for having an escape from prison four times. Yoshie Shiratori is Japan's own Harry Houdini, and not even handcuffs, copper walls, or dislocated shoulder could stop his daring escapes. This book has 5 chapters each dedicated to Yoshie Shiratori's different escape plans. Yoshie Shiratori is superhuman with immense strength he had suffered from extreme cold weather of japan to specially made solitary confinement for him.Chapter 1: Lockpick Method.Aomori, Japan, 1936, prisoner Yoshie Shiratori had enough he was forced to confess to a murder he did not commit. Falsely imprisoned in Aomori Prison, where he was beaten and tortured every night by prison guards, and now worse, prosecutors were seeking the death penalty.In his mind, it was time to go, but Aomori Prison wasn't the easiest to escape. Regardless, Yoshie Shiratori had nothing to lose. And so at 5:30 a.m., he made his move he knew there would be a 15-minute gap in the patrol time, as he had studied the guards' routine for months. And when the coast was clear, he pulled out a metal wire which he had smuggled in from the bathhouse and started to pick the lock.This was originally the metal support ring that was wrapped around the bathing buckets inmates use to wash themselves. His hands were stiff from the wintry cold but after a few minutes of picking, he had success, and his cell door swung open. But he wasn't out of the woods yet because there were more locked doors ahead.He knew he only had a few minutes left before the guards would return, and so he wasted no time attempting to pick his way through the remaining security doors. Now fortunately for him, he was able to make it out of the facility. But, the bad news was that he was only halfway to freedom. You see, he was still well within the search perimeter, which meant at any moment the alarm could go off and he'd still be caught.At 5:45 a.m. the guards returned, peering into his cell and this is what they saw, Shiratori sound asleep in his futon bed. But of course, what they didn't realize was that they were looking at something else, a pile of loose floorboards underneath his duvet designed to trick them.It wasn't until the next morning that they finally discovered the truth, and the alarm was sounded. But by then Shiratori was long gone. Now he had escaped.But things aren't always as they seem. In fact, for Yoshie Shiratori, aka the Prison Break Magician, this was only the beginning.Three days later he was caught trying to steal supplies from a hospital and just like that, he was back in the slammer.But this time for his escape attempt he was sentenced to life in prison. He would never be with his family again - his wife and his daughter. And all the months of planning had led to just three days of freedom, and now it seemed he'd be locked up for a very long time.Six years later, in 1942, in the midst of the Second World War, Shiratori found himself transferred to Akita Prison in Akita City. There the guards treated him even worse than in Aomori they had heard aboutShiratori's previous escape and were determined to make an example out of him they wanted to make sure he would never escape again.Along with the usual beatings, he was forced to partake in extreme manual labor, made to sleep on the hard concrete floor in the severe winter cold, and placed into solitary confinement for extended periods of time.Now, this was a specially-made solitary confinement cell that was very small and had a very high ceiling, with the walls covered with copper sheets so smooth that it was impossible to grip.In addition, there was almost no sunlight even in the daytime, with the only window light coming from a small sealed skylight high above.................................................

As Good As Dead

As Good As Dead
Author: Stephen L. Moore
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 385
Release: 2020-11-10
Genre: History
ISBN: 0399583564
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“[A] truly uplifting tale of deliverance from certain death . . . A deeply personal read, in which the reader is drawn into the highs and lows of the action, the tragedy, and the salvation, because Moore has so successfully drawn out the characters. . . . Compelling reading and hard to put down.”—Naval History The heroic story of eleven American POWs who defied certain death in World War II, As Good as Dead is an unforgettable account of the Palawan Massacre survivors and their daring escape. In late 1944, the Allies invaded the Japanese-held Philippines, and soon the end of the Pacific War was within reach. But for the last 150 American prisoners of war still held on the island of Palawan, there would be no salvation. After years of slave labor, starvation, disease, and torture, their worst fears were about to be realized. On December 14, with machine guns trained on them, they were herded underground into shallow air raid shelters—death pits dug with their own hands. Japanese soldiers doused the shelters with gasoline and set them on fire. Some thirty prisoners managed to bolt from the fiery carnage, running a lethal gauntlet of machine gun fire and bayonets to jump from the cliffs to the rocky Palawan coast. By the next morning, only eleven men were left alive—but their desperate journey to freedom had just begun. As Good as Dead is one of the greatest escape stories of World War II, and one that few Americans know. The eleven survivors of the Palawan Massacre—some badly wounded and burned—spent weeks evading Japanese patrols. They scrounged for food and water, swam shark-infested bays, and wandered through treacherous jungle terrain, hoping to find friendly Filipino guerrillas. Their endurance, determination, and courage in the face of death make this a gripping and inspiring saga of survival.

Escape from Bataan

Escape from Bataan
Author: Ross E. Hofmann
Publisher: McFarland
Total Pages: 227
Release: 2016-07-25
Genre: History
ISBN: 1476665680
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U.S. Navy Supply Corps Ensign Ross Hofmann had no idea what was in store for him when he arrived at Cavite Naval Base in October 1941. Two months later, Japanese forces struck the Philippines, destroying the base and forcing U.S. personnel to retreat to Bataan. There, Hofmann joined a makeshift unit of Army Aircorps ground personnel, U.S. Marines, U.S. sailors, U.S. Naval ground battalions and Filipinos to fight a Japanese force that landed nearby. In March 1942, with the fall of Bataan imminent, he traveled to Cebu to run supplies through the blockade of Bataan and Corregidor. Soon after his arrival, the Japanese landed on Cebu, forcing the Americans to retreat again. Hiking through jungles and crossing dangerous waters in barely seaworthy vessels, Hofmann avoided capture and reached an American base in Mindanao. He received orders to establish a seaplane base on Lake Lanao. As Japanese troops landed nearby, two seaplanes returning from Corregidor stopped to refuel, one of them hitting a submerged rock on take-off. In a harrowing race against the enemy advance, Hofmann and others worked feverishly to fix the plane and escape before the Japanese converged on Lake Lanao. This memoir recounts Hofmann's experiences in vivid detail. Instructors considering this book for use in a course may request an examination copy here.

Escape From Manchuria

Escape From Manchuria
Author: Paul Maruyama
Publisher:
Total Pages: 428
Release: 2021-03-10
Genre:
ISBN: 9781647537401
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In the closing days of WWII, the Soviet Union attacked and occupied Japanese controlled northern China, then called Manchuria. Immediately, misery and death from cold, hunger, disease, and brutality descended upon the Japanese civilian residents at the hands of the Soviet Army and revenge seeking mobs and bandits. Nearly 2,500 Japanese, mostly the elderly and children, died daily. Three courageous Japanese men embarked on a secret mission and escaped to Japan to eventually bring an end to the Manchurian nightmare. In the riveting story, Escape from Manchuria, the son of one of the three courageous men narrates a compelling tale of the rescue and repatriation of nearly 1.7 million noncombatant Japanese that commenced almost a year after the surrender of Japan. Escape from Manchuria describes the indispensable role that General Douglas MacArthur and his staff played in the repatriation. It also discloses the vital role played by the Catholic Church in Manchuria and in Japan in assisting the three men to achieve this monumental success. The heroics of the three men have hardly been recognized, even in Japan, because they took on the mission of rescue as private citizens, without the consent or knowledge of the then utterly helpless Japanese government. This is the true story of their courage, determination, and sacrifice to save the lives of their fellow Japanese.

Escape from the Wasteland

Escape from the Wasteland
Author: Susan Jolliffe Napier
Publisher: Harvard Univ Asia Center
Total Pages: 284
Release: 1995
Genre: Family & Relationships
ISBN: 9780674261815
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Lurid depictions of sex and impotence, themes of emperor worship and violence, the use of realism and myth - these characterize the fiction of Mishima Yukio and Oe Kenzaburo. Napier discovers similarities as well as dissimilarities in the work of two writers of radically different political orientations. Napier places Yukio's and Kenzaburo's fiction in the context of postwar Japanese political and social realities and, in a new preface for the paperback edition, reflects on each writer's position in the tradition of Japanese literature.

Escape from Yokai Land

Escape from Yokai Land
Author: Charles Stross
Publisher: Tordotcom
Total Pages: 128
Release: 2022-03-01
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1250805716
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Regular readers of Charles Stross's Laundry Files might have noticed Bob Howard's absence from the events of The Nightmare Stacks, and his subsequent return from Tokyo at the start of The Delirium Brief. Escape from Yokai Land explains what he was doing there. Bob's been assigned to work with the Miyamoto Group, checking the wards that lock down Japan's warded sites—a task previously handled by his predecessor Dr. Angleton, the Eater of Souls. This mostly involves policing yokai: traditional magical beings, increasingly grown more annoying and energetic. But then Bob's simple trip turns into a deadly confrontation with the ultimate yokai. It's massively powerful. It's pink. And it says "Hello." At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.