THE CURSE OF THE RISING SUN: Surviving a Japanese prison camp

What would be your worse living nightmare? Try being enslaved by mindless captors in a distant land within a culture alien to your own, where no one knows of your whereabouts, or even being brutally beaten, half-starved and condemned to a life of hard labour for no fault of your own. This was the harrowing lot of Emrys Withey who, having enlisted as a teenager with the RAF Volunteer Reserve during the early part of WW2, was posted to Malaya as a wire operator, only to be captured by the Japanese on the Indonesian island of Java. At one point a boy growing up in the Welsh Valleys, loved and cherished by his family, the next a young man in the prime of his life wasting away in an iron-ore mine, at the expense of a fanatical regime bent on world domination. This book is not intended to shock so much as convey the day to day struggle of survival against the odds, in a world where barbaric savagery and death are the norm, and the past and future of no consequence. It also touches upon the unique role played by Emrys as a go-between with his captors in helping to save the lives of fellow prisoners. Favoured by his captors they give him the nickname, ‘Imo’. It is a story shared by other POWs too, not just British, but American, Canadian, Australian and Dutch, all of whom endure the same cruel fate of being transported in ‘hellships’ to Japan, on account of their technical skills, only to find themselves in a remote labour camp in the mountainous north of the country, where winters are severe and snowfalls the greatest on earth. After three and half gruelling years with no end in sight, only that of certain death, the tide of history turns unexpectedly in their favour, because of Japan’s unconditional surrender. Its crumbling Empire brought to its knees, the Pacific War finally ends. After circumnavigating the globe, by way of Canada, Emrys returns home, settles down to family life and eventually embarks on a successful career, but not without further challenges. For the victors and POWs alike, of whom great sacrifices were demanded, it marks the triumph of good over evil. ‘When you go home, tell them of us and say, for your tomorrow we gave our today.’ – ASIN: B0DCGS2R7B | ISBN13: 9798335073806 | ISBN-13: 979-8335073806