Way of a Boy a Memoir of Java

by Ernest Hillen

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 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.

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir, History, Asia, Biography, World War II

208 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1993

Reviews

[Sharon · Rating 5 out of 5]

This remains, years later, one of the best books I have read. Also with the best quote, Memories, are all we own.

[Leslie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank goodness for library book sales. I knew nothing of this book, but I saw it on the table and it looked worth a try, so I picked it up. And it’s very, very good. He tells the story of his years in Japanese prison camps in Indonesia as a young boy. What most impressed me was the voice—I could hear the voice of a child, simultaneously innocent and old, aged too early by brutal experience. He is never sentimental, though deeply emotional, and he never strives for effect; he tells us what he saw and felt and thought, and leaves the rest to us to contemplate, to respond to as we will. His love for his older brother and his remarkable mother glow through the pages.

[Susan Chow-Dukhan · Rating 3 out of 5]

A memoir of a Dutch boy's three and a half years at three Japanese run internment camps for Europeans in Java during Word War II.
As Ernest Hillen entered the first camp when he was seven years old, most of the chapters focused on wandering around with nothing to do and nothing to play with. With the exception of having to stand for long periods of time in the heat, and being hungry, life in the camp seemes to consists mostly of boredom. His viewpoint that the Japanese left the children alone and only punished the women and older girls seems a bit naive, but this may have been due to the level of awareness that seven year old has towards his surroundings.
Life after the second camp is more descriptive as shown through his description of the train transport, camp conditions and the events involving the Japanese in control of the camp. Even then, the reader is sometimes left feeling that the author is holding back from telling us the whole truth of what he experienced.

[Louise · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had a special interest in reading this 200 page memoir as one of my patients where I worked was herself, a prisoner of war during the 1940's. She was held captive in some of the same camps mentioned in this memoir.

Ernest Hillen has written a moving and sobering tale of his experiences as a prisoner of war in a Japanese war camp. Hillen and his family endured their fate with clamness and without hysteria.

The memoir is filled with courage, stamina, friendship, love and even some humour as he tells the tale of his families life during their imprisonment.

These POW's endured ghastly injustices, cruelty, brutality, anger, terror, fear and death.

A remarkable memoir that should be read by everyone but will never be forgotten!

[Cathy Van · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written from the memories of a young boy, this book tells the story of a family imprisoned by the Japanese when they invaded Java during WWII. Surprisingly, it is a memoir of life in Java, not a horror story, but a tale of survival. Ernest Hillen's ability to include the sights, sounds, and smells of his childhood, and temper the brutality with the triumph of the human spirit make this a strong story.

[Akash · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was the first ever serious book that I had read.

The book transports the reader to the Java as seen from the eyes of a young boy. The initial lazy afternoon play times and weekend routines in colonial java collapse into the hardship of internment camps under Japanese occupation. The book gives us a unique perspective of life under occupation from the eyes of a lively young child who is forced to grow up fast and care for people around him.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautiful memoir of the horrors of living in a Japanese detention camp in Java. It's almost matter of fact style is nevertheless powerful and moving. Before reading this memoir I had no knowledge of the history of Java. Nor what occurred there during WWII Japanese occupation. The aftermath of the fight by Indonesians for Independence from Holland is only mentioned at the end. It would be fascinating to learn about this history.

[Diane B · Rating 4 out of 5]

Learning about how the Japanese rounded up the English and Dutch and interred children and women during World War 2 in labour camps horrified me. I had heard of how the Germans treated the Jews, and also about how Canadians and Americans interred the Japanese.

There is triumph of the human spirit for some, but not everyone survived the atrocities. Many of those who did were deeply scarred.

Man's inhumanity to man can be truly shocking.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

A gentle evocative memoir of a young Dutch boy who with his family was imprisoned by the Japanese in Java during WWII.
I felt that the author was intent on presenting only those years as he experienced them and attempted to keep all that happened before and after from coloring his story.
He presents his story without bitterness or judgement. Written 50 years later his recollection is inspiring.

[Alan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A bitter/sweet memoir of life for a 8 year old Dutch boy incarcerated in war camps by the Japanese in Java. I can't imagine how difficult this must have been to write as an adult and I find those who criticize it heartless.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

An impressive, unsentimental retelling of a boy’s life during a challenging time in history. He was a Dutch boy living in Indonesia during World War 2. These are things that cannot be forgotten.

[Liesbeth Gren · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enlightened me about internment camp life that my relatives lived and or died in.

[Meaghan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I simply did not find this book interesting. It sounds like good fodder for a memoir: an innocent family locked up in an internment camp because of a faraway war. But it was dull, dull, dull. I don't know how much of it was the author's writing and how much of it was just the situation. Because, when you think about it, life in an internment camp probably would be mostly squalid and boring rather than exciting and scary. I also wish more historical context had been provided to the story. I don't know much about the Pacific Theater of World War II and I wasn't always sure about why things happened the way they did.

For a much more exciting take on white colonials in Southeast Asia during World War II, try Roland Smith's novel Elephant Run.

[kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

It took me a bit to get into this memoir of a young Dutch boy growing up in a work-camp in Java during World War II. But once I did, I loved the simple description of his memories. I am often irritated by memoirs of childhood that seem to exaggerate or analyze childhood experiences so that the voice of the child and the voice of the adult author are all mixed up. But this book does a great job of taking the reader into a world where toy soldiers and scavenged bits of food were precious commodities. The way he learns about joy in hard times and how caring and responsibility go together was clear, but never cheesy.

I think this would be a good book to read slowly.

[Christopher Mitchell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite simply, this is one of the better memoirs that I've had the pleasure of reading. Hillen speaks from the perspective of his childhood self with no lack of complexity and sophistication. It reads beautifully throughout, and sheds some important light on my travels to Indonesia.

[Keith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty good childhood account of family incarceration in Java by the Japanese soldiers of WW II. Tells about good and evil and various personalities and some philosophy. Not bad at all. Somewhat like "Empire of the Sun."

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyable. I read it while in Bandung and was pleased to be able be seeing some some of the places he was writing about while reading the book.

[Jen Roe · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked this book

[Sid Klooster · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very informative. After years of hearing stories from my Mother-in-law who lived through the Japanese war camps it was informative to read another's account.

[Jmrober · Rating 5 out of 5]

I couldn't put this book down. It is one of the best books I have ever read and I read it in less than a day.