Evening star., 1947-04-06
The Tale That
Agnes Keith
Lived to Tell
THREE CAME HOME

ldntfc-Ltttte, bTotDH " Co., So1
Reviewed by
CARTER BROOKE JONES.
-HE more articulate among
those who managed to sur
viye Captivity in the Pacific
war-soldiers and civilians.
men and women-have been writing
their experiences into books and
magazine pieces and telling them to
newspapers and audiences ever since
they were liberated.
1t was q story that should have
been told fully. both for their con-
temporaries and for future records.
In past generations too few took the
trouble or had the opportunity to
set down their accounts OF such
sagas: the archives often. are mea-
ger. Today, with all our facilities
of expression, SO many tell that IN
time the public is surfeited and no
longer listens.
You may already have read a lot
about internment camps and prls-
oners-of-war compounds under the
benevolent command of the Japa-
nese. But before you decide you know
enough about this interlude OF slaV-
cry, be sure to read Three Game
Home" For Mrs. Keith has written
a story of living-if you could call 1t
that-under enemy despotism that
could well be preserved for the years
ahead as a definitive description OF
this particular phase of the late
war. Her book is the well-placed
April selection of the Book-of-the-
Month Club.
"reminiscences of Suffering.
Mrs. Keith went through in Bor-
neo what must have been at least
an average experience In such pr:
camps. Women in other camps suf-
fered worse treatment; others prob
ably Jared better than she. She
went through enough, in all con-
science.
What makes her record so valu-
able is that she has not written in
violent Indignation, but calmly, fac
tually, rarely invoking eloquence or
sentimentality. Sometimes her
writing is curiously detached, as if
she were describing what happened
to someone else. There is even at
times judicial approach, unusual
indeed In "reminiscences OF humilia-
ton and suffering.
Mrs. Keith is an American girl,
She and Harry Keith, a British sub
ject, were married in 1884 while he
was on leave from his post as di-
rector of agriculture for North Bor-
nso. They went to Borneo and
stayed hve years, and Mrs. Keith
wrote Land Below the Wind" the
book that won the Atlantic Month
y Nonfiction Prize in 1899. Just
After they got back to Borneo from
isave In the United States, their son
was born.
Made Prisoners Of War.
The japanese captured North
Borneo early In 1912. and impris-
oned all civilians. They were treat
I'd as prisoners Of war, not as in
ternes, Mrs. Keith points out. Men
and women were kept in separate
camps, and 1t was rarely during
three and a half years Of captivity
that Mrs. Keith saw her husband,
though sometimes, through the
camp smuggling system they ex-
changed notes.
These prisoners, like thousands of
others, were nearly starved; they
got malaria, beriberi, almost every
thing else the tropics and malnu-
triton could bring on. There were
score of children in Mrs. Keith's
camp. The good nuns, Dutch and
English, taught them and helped
them heroically. Mrs. Keith often
was struck; once she was beaten
until her ribs were broken; another
time a treacherous sentry tried to
attack her and she fought him off.
That she and her son and her hus-
band and others like them emerged
alive is tribute to the courage and
tenacity of the human spirit.
Yet she has tried to be fair, TO
appraise and understand her cap
tors, and she mentions as readily
when they were kind as when they
were brutal. She's inclined to think
that their commanding officer, Col
suga, a graduate of the University
of Washington, meant well, though
he was torn between his cultural
side and his supposed duties as
Japanese officer He had read her
book, and he often talked to her
Sometimes he was generous, but too
often he$ignored the savagery of
his subordinates. Afterward, while
awaiting trial. he cut his throat.
Mrs. Keith's narrative is all the
more dramatic for the quiet way 1t
h told. And she spares nothing.
Sights. sounds, smells, pain. hope,
fear-all are there. To read her
book Is, in a way, to share her long