The Way of a Boy: A Memoir of Java

by ErnestHillen (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  1995

  $3.49

  Chronicles the years Ernest Hillen spent as a little boy in a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp on Java. He and his family lived in Java on a tea plantation before the war and they were interned by the Japanese and transported to a series of camps.

• Used

  Hardcover
  1994

  $3.19

  This is a chronicle of the years Ernest Hillen spent as a little boy (aged 8-11) in a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp on Java. The year is 1942, World War II is raging and the Japanese have just invaded the island. Overnight - and for the next three and a half years - life is ruled by tension, fear and unpredictability as the boy struggles to endure the cruel camp conditions. Ernest comes to understand his new world by observing others: Japanese soldiers, fellow prisoners and his mother, who fights to retain her moral values amidst brutal deprivation and degradation. To survive, young Ernest is obliged to master such basic skills as lying, stealing and fighting. But he also learns to practise patience, generosity and self-control, to quell self-pity, to take nothing for granted and to trust only with caution.