The Emperor's Grace: Untold Stories of the Australians Enslaved in Japan during World War II by Mark Baker


The Emperor's Grace: Untold Stories of the Australians Enslaved in Japan during World War II
Title : The Emperor's Grace: Untold Stories of the Australians Enslaved in Japan during World War II
Author :
Rating :
ISBN : 1922464031
ISBN-10 : 9781922464033
Format Type : Paperback
Number of Pages : 240
Publication : Published May 1, 2021

The Emperor’s Grace is the story of the men of “C” Force—the first contingent of Australian, British, and Dutch POWs shipped from Singapore to Japan in November 1942—who worked in the Kawasaki Shipyard in Kobe before the American firebombing campaign razed the city, and then the infamous Fukuoka coal mine before the atomic bombings brought World War II to an end. When the Japanese seized most of South-East Asia in early 1942, they captured 22,000 Australian military personnel. More than a third would die over the next three years from malnutrition, disease, and violent abuse. The horrors of the Thai–Burma Railway and Sandakan are well documented. Less well known is the fate of the 3,800 Australians sent to work as slave labourers in the factories and mines of mainland Japan.

The Emperor's Grace: Untold Stories of the Australians Enslaved in Japan during World War II Reviews

  • Ron Brown

    I have had a long-time interest in Australian POW history. 22,000 Australian military personnel were captured by the Japanese. 13,872 lived to tell of the horrendous cruelty of their imprisonment. I have read widely on this subject.
    My first text in this field was Stan Arneil’s 1980 “One Man’s War”. Sandakan by Paul Ham. Richard Flanagan’s “The Narrow Road to the Deep North” is a must read. I have subsequently read numerous other accounts of the treatment that allied soldiers endured under the sadistic hand of many Japanese.
    I knew a POW who had been in Thailand and I believe ended up in Japan working in the coal mines near Nagasaki. He never spoke of his time there.
    The story of the torpedoing of a few Japanese ships with allied POWs on board is a fascinating and sad part of the whole POW story.
    Mark Baker has completed an admirable task in the telling the story of Australian POWs taken to Japan to work as slaves in factories and mines. Baker is a journalist and his book travels with several soldiers in the journey as POWs in Japan. At first I was not sure that this was the most suitable literary technique. It seemed to cheapen the historical theme of the book. However, by the end of the book I was comfortable with this technique, especially when the men who had survived and returned to the lives in Australia. I was quite moved on certain pages. I imagine there is only a handful of these men alive today.
    It is important that books like this be written and read otherwise the stories of these brave men will disappear as they leave us.

  • Megan

    A well researched book centred on the diaries and remembrances of Australian Prisoners of War in Japan during WW2.

    The cruelty of their captivity was terrible to read about. I remember my father fought in WW2 in the Middle East but his abiding hatred remained with the Japanese hierarchy and the troops who dealt with the allied prisoners of war in nothing but inhumane ways. He could never forgive them for the pain, suffering and death they inflicted on Australians.

    The account of the mass murder of the Australian nurses on Banka Island was just horrific, those poor brave women.

    A book that should be read by as many young Australians as possible - to remember the bravery of their forebears and to remind us all that War is hell and nothing good comes of it.