The Emperor's Guest: Coming of Age Behind Barbed Wire During WW II in Indonesia

Most of us have read accounts of World War II. This book details an arena of the war that is less familiar than the European and the Russian parts of the war. Here one learns about the Japanese occupation of Java which was known as the Dutch East Indies at that time. Titia Bozuwa faithfully recounts the experiences of Gijs Bozuwa's teen years. She's done a wonderful job collecting these painful experiences from her husband and creating a full picture of what he survived over fifty years ago. Gijs' family lived a comfortable life in the Dutch colony, but the war overtook them. His father, a commander with the naval air base, is Gijs' role model and he expected to follow him into a military career himself. The family moved several times and his father is missing at sea when they are forced into captivity during the Japanese occupation of the island. The young man finally is separated from his mother and sister and sent to a men's internment camp. The conditions in the camp are stringent, primitive and often brutal. Gijs learns to fit in and stay alive. Amid the squalor and deprivations of the camp, Gijs makes some friends and even manages to get some forbidden schooling. He offers to help in the sick bay as dysentery and illnesses ravage the starving camp occupants. This experience had a profound affect on Gijs (as he later became a doctor). I found the memories vivid and compelling. Gijs' experience let me see the unfolding of events that affected so many lives and the changes to Java from being a colonial outpost to its independence after the war. It's amazing to read the details of hardship and endurance that fill the book. This is a most worthwhile addition to World War II literature.