The Naked Island
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"In 1941, after graduating from the University of Sydney, Russell Braddon enlisted in the Australian army. Together with thousands of other young Australian soldiers, he was sent to Malaya, where Allied forces were attempting to halt the territorial expansion of the Japanese. Although much vaunted as an impregnable fortress, Singapore proved instead to be a deadly trap, and Braddon spent almost four years as a prisoner of war after the city fell to the Japanese. This is not only the harrowing record of the years he spent struggling for survival in the notorious Pudu Gaol, in Changi, and in the tragic H Force on the Thai-Burma railway, but also of the equally brutal treatment of the native populations by the Japanese and the hollowness of the Greater Asian Co-prosperity Sphere they promised. Braddon emerged from Changi on swollen legs and ulcerated feet, from calls with desperate illnesses such as beri-beri and other starvation diseases, malaria and dysentery. Intelligent, tough, resourceful and tough in body and spirit, he was determined to surmount his ordeal. He even sharpened his mind by memorising the sole available book Mein Kampf! The Naked Island vividly portrays battle and prison life as experienced in the ranks. It is a tale of heroism, horror, squalor, starvation and disease endured with fortitude, ironic humour and extraordinary ingenuity."--Publisher description.
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Mans inhumanity to his fellow man looms large in this raw telling of four years as a POW under the Japanese. Author Russel Braddon tells of his time with nothing left for the imagination. He covers his horrific tale of endurance with all emotions from cynicism through to utter despair and weariness. At the conclusion of this book I was caught by a certain sense that his incarceration may have also become a way of life. He wrote about the breakup of his fellow POWs as they were about to return home and made comment that “The careful fabric of one's personal life, built up over four years, (was) disintegrated at a single blow.” Nostalgia? But as he left for home he wrote “And with that I brightened. After all, the sea was green and dear: the sun was warm and free: there was food aplenty and no need for anxiety as the old ship ploughed her confident way eastwards, away from Singapore. We were all going Home. That, for the moment, must be enough.” Mixed emotions run the full gamut in this book.
Russell Braddon wrote of his experiences while they were still fresh in his mind as this memoir was released 1952. Braddon was someone I had never heard to prior to reading this book and on finishing I read of his life. He became a prolific author but he did at one time suffer depression and attempt suicide. His war time experiences were the issue and his doctors at the time suggested he recuperate away from Australia.
Based on his writing he seemed to me to not have been the military type in the first place. He joined to “kill Germans” but his writing gave the impression he may not of been aware of what that really meant nor the discipline required, he even notes the bad language by his comrades and seemed surprised by it; “I heard sufficient foul language in five days to deter me from ever using anything but the king's English (though not enough to blind me to the fact that on occasions the Australian uses his ‘bloodies' and ‘bastards' with a rhythmic grace which I - in my more orthodox style - could never be capable)”.
His war itself was short as his capture was early. He did describe his first kill though. “...in desperation, I moved alone to the trees in front of me and, as the Jap ran crouching towards it, stepped out from behind it and presented him with a firmly held rifle and bayonet. Upon this he promptly impaled himself with a firmly held rifle and bayonet. At the moment of impact, as I tucked my right elbow securely against my hip and moved to my left foot slightly forward, I found myself thinking ‘Just like a stop volley at tennis' - and spent the next hour musing, rather confusedly, over the unpleasantness of a situation which compelled one to apply the principles of a clean sport to the altogether dirty business of killing”
Not long after he began the rest of his war, POW camps on the Malay Peninsular and on the construction of the Thailand Railway. He actually volunteered for the railway to be with a mate. The descriptions of his time in Thailand are some of the most brutal I have read.
I read that this book has had multiple reprints and sold over 2 million copies since its release. I understand why. This is a genuine must read for anyone even remotely interested in a firsthand account of the brutality of life under Imperial Japanese forces for those captured. It is raw and emotional, as well as very well written. Highly recommended.
