Horio, You Next Die!

Joe Nason was a US Naval aviator in WW2, and was shot down over the Pacific island of Bougainville on his first combat mission. He has left an important record of the two dangerous years that he spent as a Prisoner of War in the hands of the Japanese Military Police (Kempeitai) at Rabaul on the island of New Britain. This book is historically significant, having been cited by respected Pacific War academics. Nason's book is well-structured and shows careful attention to historical detail. His co-author, Bob Holt, seems to have made an excellent contribution in helping Joe to produce such a readable work. Nason writes on many issues with impressive frankness. Some of the episodes depict the author in less-than-flattering situations, and he is to be applauded for including them and not being tempted to edit history. The dire circumstances of Nason's captivity are interspersed with flashbacks to his earlier romantic lifestyle, training as a debonair young aviator, and the book also contains many interesting photos. Some of the most poignant illustrations are facsimiles of the official letters that Nason's family received from the US Government declaring him first missing, then dead, then, thanks to a radio broadcast by the Japanese of a letter he wrote to his fiancé, resurrected to official life. However, Nason's survival as a POW was imperilled almost daily; nearly 90% of his fellow prisoners in Rabaul died. Of these, a large group were massacred following the destruction of their prison by Allied bombing in March 1944, the others gradually wasted away due to extreme malnutrition. Notably, two died just before the end of the war after being injected with malarial blood by a crackpot Japanese doctor. They had been offered one piece of fruit each for agreeing to participate in this "experiment", without knowing its nature in advance. Several Japanese and Pidgin English phrases are used in the text. There is a good Glossary in the back of the book which explains them. Nason draws interesting pen-portraits of his fellow prisoners. There are some very moving moments as many of these familiar characters gradually succumb to disease and exhaustion. Miraculously, Nason kept surviving despite often being in poorer physical condition than some of the men who didn't make it. By far the most notable character portrayed in the narrative is the captured Australian coast-watcher John Murphy, an experienced island administrator who was able to assert some moral authority over their guards. Murphy repeatedly saved the lives of his fellow inmates, stealing vital supplies from under the noses of the Japanese, and playing a dangerous psychological game to shame the Kempeitai into occasionally providing better rations. Even after the Japanese surrender, Murphy probably saved the POWs once more by quickly fetching Japanese officers when two "die-hard" former guards appeared ready to shoot the six survivors. Amazingly, the Australian Army later