Very powerful!
My parents had an old hardcover copy of this book around our house for years. I often thought about reading it but never did. I found this trade paperback copy at a thrift store a couple of years ago and finally got around to it. Sorry I put this off for so long. This was a very compelling account of the author's (Agnes Keith) imprisonment by the Japanese during WWII. She and her husband, Harry were assigned to a post in Borneo at the start of the war. Harry was the director of agriculture for the government of North Borneo. Agnes could have left Borneo before the Japanese invaded but decided to stay with her husband. When the Japanese arrived, she and her young son George are placed in a women's prison camp while Harry is put in a separate civilian men's camp. The book goes on to describe the many hardships endured by Agnes including lack of food and medicine, unsanitary conditions, disease including constant bouts with Malaria, and at one point, she was attacked by a Japanese guard who attempted to rape her. This resulted in a severe beating by the Japanese who didn't believe her story. Agnes and the other women thought the war would end in a few months but instead they were imprisoned for three and a half years. The struggle to survive was constant but in the end, Agnes did not fault the Japanese but she decided war itself was to blame for their miseries. Overall, a good memoir of life in a Japanese prison camp.
