We see that javascript is disabled or not supported by your browser - javascript is needed for important actions on the site. Read more

What's New - Home - Login

Member $avings: $81,749,797.73 | Books Available: 731,113 | Members Online: 66

Swap Used Books - Buy New Books at Great Prices!

How To Swap Books Sign Up Search submenu

PBS Market (New Books)

Gift Buying Guide

Book Browser Advanced Search Books Posted Today Member Book Reviews Award Winning Books NYT Best Sellers Amazon Best Sellers Most Traveled Copies Club Wish List

Discussion Forums Book Lists

Club Lists My Book Lists My Watched Lists Create a List

Blog Donations

School Donation Program In Memory of... Military Donation Program Friends of PBS

Box-O-Books Maps The Eclectic Pen Fun Stuff

20 Questions Sudoku Bookmark Creator

Top 100

Requests Posts Swappers Referrers Reviewers

Pulse of PBS Spread The Word

Invite Friends Bookmarks Facebook Page Facebook App More Ways...

Photo Gallery Recipes Club Tag Cloud Member Testimonials

Help Center submenu

How To Swap Books Browse Help Docs Ask the Librarian PBS Member Icons Live Help

Kiosk

PBS Market (New Books) Go Shopping Buy Credits Buy PBS Money Upgrade Membership Gift Certificates Transfer Credits

Need Help?

Search - Prisoners in Paradise: American Women in the Wartime South Pacific

Prisoners in Paradise American Women in the Wartime South Pacific
Author: Theresa Kaminski

While Rosie the Riveter and millions of American women fought World War II on the home front, other women witnessed the war firsthand. Many of them were overtaken by Japan's military offensive in the South Pacific and subsequently held captive. Theresa Kaminski chronicles their harrowing experiences in this moving testament of women in wartime. ... more » Although most of us are familiar with accounts of POWs, few realize that the Japanese imprisoned thousands of American civilian women in the Philippines during World War II. They were businessmen's wives and career girls, missionaries and teachers, nurses and mothers-and some were even spies. Many had grown accustomed to the good life in a colonial society, but after the Japanese invaded they had to learn to fend for themselves. Prisoners in Paradise is the most complete look at the experiences of these heroic women. Theresa Kaminski takes readers inside the internment camps to show how these women coped and how the experience changed them. Some took on leadership roles for the first time in their lives, while many found themselves doing work they had previously left to servants. They learned to stretch both the boundaries of acceptable behavior for women and the norms of motherhood as they struggled to meet the challenge of captivity. They fought to keep their families together, adjusting to changes in work habits and private lives under the watchful eye of their Japanese captors. They also kept up their morale by diverting themselves with fashion--however impromptu it might have been. While most civilian women were interned, others fled into the hills or adopted new identities to avoid captivity, relying on neighbors and former servants for survival. Kaminski shares their stories as well, such as that of an intelligence agent who escaped the Japanese to fight with--and serve as mother to--a band of Filipino guerrillas, and a spy known as "High Pockets" who got her nickname by smuggling documents in her brassiere. Prisoners in Paradise is the product of exceptionally wide-ranging research, drawing on interviews, letters, and diaries of internees. It shows how women under duress negotiated issues of gender and national identity in their struggle to survive, bolstered by their belief in what it meant to be an American woman. By sharing these little-known stories of perseverance and survival, Kaminski draws new profiles of courage that can inspire us half a century later.

ISBN-13: 9780700610037
ISBN-10: 0700610030
Publication Date: 3/2000
Pages: 284
Rating:

Currently 4.5/5 Stars.

4.5 stars, based on 1 rating

Publisher: University Press of Kansas
Book Type: Hardcover
Members Wishing: 4
Reviews: Amazon | Write a Review

Genres:

Biographies & Memoirs >> Community & Culture >> Japanese
Biographies & Memoirs >> Specific Groups >> Women
History >> Asia >> Japan
History >> Asia >> Philippines
History >> Military >> World War II >> General
History >> Military >> World War II >> Women
History >> Military Science
Nonfiction >> Social Sciences >> Sociology >> General
Nonfiction >> Women's Studies >> History

Back to the Top ↑

Search - Prisoners in Paradise: American Women in the Wartime South Pacific

Loading...