Barbed-Wire Surgeon

by Brian Weinstein (Foreword), Alfred Weinstein

BARBED-WIRE SURGEON is the heroic bestselling WW2 memoir written by Dr. Alfred A. Weinstein originally published in 1948 by the MacMillan Company in hardback. It was also republished in 1965 by Lancer in paperback. From 1948-1965 there were eight printings. It was a selection for the popular Book of the Month Club. In October 2013, BARBED-WIRE SURGEON will be republished once more by Deeds Publishing after being out of print for almost 50 years. A description of the book is best told by Dr. Weinstein himself from the Prologue.... This is a story of G.I. Joe in prison: how he lived, how he adjusted himself to life under the Nips, what he thought about and what he dreamed about. They were a motley, ragged, hungry throng. Under an ugly patina of filth and starvation, their basic individualities continued to glow feebly and occasionally to break forth into flame. Some were rugged, some were weak. As the months faded into years, the feeble faded out of the picture. In the witch's caldron of a Jap prison, G.I. Joe fought for his life with all the breaks against him. Against a somber tapestry of chronic hunger, starvation, and disease, a thin golden thread of the love of a man and woman weaves back and forth. It disappears for months and years, but is ever present. It snaps and breaks, but reappears more vibrant and glowing. Can a woman's love for her man be responsible for the survival of individuality in the face of pestilence and torture? In its broader aspects this is a tale of mankind with his veneer of civilization stripped away.

382 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1947

Reviews

[Positive Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

The "Barbed-Wire Surgeon" was written soon after the war in 1946 and published in 1947. Dr. Weinstein wrote with an elegant descriptive style that has plenty of details of things long forgotten. He mastered the ability to describe the gritty detail of places that he lived.

Alfred Weinstein is a caring surgeon, a talented writer, and a survivor. The book was in depth on the medical cases he saw while in Manila, Bataan and in captivity. He writes about Camp O’Donnell, Cabanatuan, Shinagawa and Mitsushima. It also explained his involvement in the assassination attempt on Mutsuhiro Watanabe. After the war, he tried to find out what happened to his fellow officers, patients and friends, and this made his story fulfilling to know the truth behind his story.

I recommend this book to anyone that wants to have a different perspective on "Unbroken" by Laura Hillenbrand.

[Elena · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just finished this book. The reason I chose to read the book was, because my father was a doctor in the Pacific, serving in the Aleutian Island campaign.

Dr. Weinstein and many other members of the medical department did all they could to try to save the lives of the POW’s. Physically taking the blows by Japanese guards and sometimes Japanese doctors. The examples he relates are harrowing and sickening. There were Japanese guards that did try to help the prisoners, but they were few in number. At the end of the POW incarceration Dr. Weinstein and other doctors wrote notes to the Allies telling them that they had some guards who treated them well and to spare them from harsh treatment. They gave the helpful guards letters to present to the allies. Dr. Weinstein returned many years later to see if the Japanese goals of militarism had changed. They had.