A Lovely Little War: Life through the eyes of a child imprisoned in a Japanese internment camp.
"The entire book was utterly gripping. I can't say there was a single scene that stands out, merely because the entire tale was so absorbing that I had trouble putting the book down, although the descriptions of how the camp was bombed after they were 'liberated' were incredibly vivid. I could practically hear the explosions and the rattle of gunfire. The Japanese had not yet been conquered in Manila when soldiers arrived and there's even a photo that shows the author running into the building where his family was housed as the campus was bombed."   --Bookfool and Babble,Nancy Horner Feb.9,2009A Lovely Little Warby Angus Lorenzen,History Publishing Company.This is a great season for fresh new books with adventures of war and intimate tales of personal intrigue. In a Japanese prison camp in the Philippines. captured through a young child's eyes, a personal story unfolds from a small boy, Angus Lorenzen. As I delved into A Lovely Little War, the increasingly contrasting tale of comparative lives, drew me into this young boy's world.From England to China with his family, then to Manila, Angus Lorenzen, brings to the reader great insight of people living in cultural contrasts and mores on foreign shores. Part of big business in the Chinese concessions, the elder Lorenzen, brought his family into Tientsin''s domain of social familiarity: summer on the beach of Peitaho. country clubs, lunches with cards and mahjong. gracious sports of tennis, sailing and golf, household servants. and the immense flow of elegant parties. Among China's strong illustrious history of the arts and political intrigue of their adoptive country's regime, the family gained prestige and popularity. Life was good.Little thought was given to the Japanese occupation of Northern China until 1941. Then under threat of war. Angus. his mother and sister Lucy, were on a journey to escape China when their ship was rerouted to the "safe" port of Manila. Their plans were dashed as the Japanese Imperial Army took over the U.S.-owned Philippines as well.Through the minds eye of a youngster, hell-bent on adventure and new wonders, the reader is carried through the foibles and war time experiences behind the walls of a civilian prison camp for the next three years of the brutal realities of war. After the restrictions of camp life, the horror of the last year of malnutrition and the promise of imminent execution of the civilians, the U.S. fighting forces liberated the Santo Tomas camp on Feb 3, 1945. The freeing of the prisoners by the Ist Cavalry Division's Flying Column only began the fierce, month-long catastrophic fight that was known as the infamous and devastating Battle for Manila.A first hand witness to WlI history, the young Lorenz en's depiction into the harsh realities of war many years later has been summed up in the following statement. "I no longer look at war with those innocent child's eves, for battles aren't fought by little lead soldiers. It is so clear to me that it isn't just ' armies that stiffer and die, but the innocent populations caught between the grindstones. For them, the war isn't over when the battle ceases, but lingers and changes their lives forever. "Triumphantly touching, this wide-awake perception of innocence is written with extreme care, with a vast collection of important childhood memories during the time of evil and conflict sixty four years ago. This book definitely belongs in your permanent library.The confinement of all civilian enemy aliens in various geographical points in the Philippines and the Far East, became one of the most underplayed, underscored events of WII. --Word of Mouth on BACEPOW by Sascha Jansen