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Japan’s sudden surrender ends World War II but triggers the Indonesian declaration of independence from the Netherlands, catching the returning Dutch and ‘Southeast Asia’s peacekeepers’, the British, by surprise.
In a chaotic, mistrustful peace the Japanese are ordered to defend the white colonial order. Recent foes have no choice but to become allies…of a kind. In greatest peril are 80,000 European women and children interned by the Japanese. Defenceless, abandoned and half-starved, some of them former sex slaves, they become hostages to the future of a free Indonesia. As their former jailors become their guardians, deep hatreds and prejudices are hastily re-examined.
British, Gurkha and Indian troops, veterans of the long Burma campaign arrive in Java expecting a warm welcome from grateful civilians and easy duties. Very soon their orders are rewritten, their mission and motives questioned, as they face determined, frequently suicidal opposition.
In the mayhem of siege and slaughter, once sworn enemies stand shoulder to shoulder against a murderous human tide. Yet when loyalties are questioned fragile, new bonds are threatened and Japanese must face Japanese in a private, deadly, finale.
Five amidst a maelstrom:
Kate van Dam is struggling to survive the squalor and deprivation of an internment camp. Faced with a sick mother, little food and medicines she accepts a dubious offer of work at a Japanese officers’ club….
Lamban longs for independence for Indonesia. A chance encounter with an activist plunges him into a teeming, dangerous world of secret societies, plots and the whirlwind of revolution….
For Kenichi Ota, Japan’s surrender saves him from a suicidal last stand. But to save the woman he loves he will have to fight once more….
Private Alun MacDonald has had his fill of the British Army but finds himself facing a new, unpredictable foe and having to trust his former enemies with his life….
War Correspondent Meg Graham is expecting to cover Japan’s defeat. Instead she is pitched into a ruthless struggle for an empire unrestrained by rules of war.
Assessment:
Marron's exquisitely written work of historical fiction deftly captures the real events of post-World War II Indonesia. Told through the perspectives of a colorful group of civilian and military survivors, this book breathes new life into the oft-forgotten and harsh realities of war and offers lively new perspectives on colonialism and on the ensuing post-war complications that embroiled Southeast Asia. Both an exciting and exactingly brutal slice of world history is encompassed here, with another volume planned.
Date Submitted: September 23, 2016