With or without their parents, children were interned in great numbers in Japanese camps, some 4,000 UK children alone. This thoroughly researched and rounded account of their story relates their experiences of the camps and through the personal stories – often recounted for the first time - learn what impact these events had on their lives as children and as adults. Their experiences are very mixed, some suffered through terrible deprivations under despotic camp guards others were “luckier” to be interned under less strict rulers, a few luckier still were young enough and resilient enough to see it all as a terrific adventure. With so many disparate strands, it would be easy to lose focus but Nicola Tyrer has a strong hand on the narrative , honouring the people who told her their stories.
Stolen Childhoods : The Untold Story of the Children Interned by the Japanese in the Second World War Synopsis
When the Japanese entered the war in 1941, some 20,000 British civilians in the European colonies in Asia were rounded up and marched off to concentration camps where they were to remain for three long years. Over 3,000 of them were children. This is the first time their extraordinary experiences of suffering, endurance and bravery have been collected together. STOLEN CHILDHOODS offers a window to a forgotten era and explores what happened when that world was brutally and suddenly shattered. Living on what effectively became the frontline of a war, in daily contact with an enemy whose values were totally alien, they witnessed acts of shocking violence. Harrowing, but ultimately uplifting, internment from a child's perspective is a complex - and untold - story. It is a story that features horror, suffering and self-sacrifice, but also celebrates the resilience, adaptability and irrepressibility of the human spirit.
