A Boy's War

"A Boy's War" tells of a six-year old Australian boy, son of a missionary, who went off to Chefoo boarding school in China in 1939 and didn't see his parents again until 1945. World War II intervened and he was interned by the Japanese in Weihsien camp in Shandong province, China. This is a brief book of 170 pages, but Michell covers a lot of ground. He tells about his life at the boarding school as the clouds of war gather and Japan conquers more and more of China. Then, he endures two years of internment with more than one thousand other foreigners at Weihsein. The internees were rescued dramatically by American partroopers at the end of the war and young David undertakes an epic journey back to Australia by ship where he is reunited with his family. The author concludes by telling us about his 1985 return visit to Weihsein. This is a missionary's story and the author affirms his faith, although not in a way that will offend the non-religious. The boy was fortunate in having many surrogate parents during his years of isolation, of whom one of the most important was Eric Liddell, the Olympic runner (recall "Chariots of Fire?") who lived and died at Weihsein. John Birch -- who inspired the radical political organization, the John Birch Society -- is a minor character in the book as he too was a "mish kid" in pre-Communist China. Weihsien camp in China has generated a great deal of literature. Rarely have so many talented people resided together in such close quarters. "Shantung Compound" is a sociology classic by Langdon Gilkey and "The Call" by John Hersey is one of my favorite novels. "A Boy's War" is a brief introduction to missionary life in China and the experiences of foreigners trapped by war. Smallchief