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Tenko #1
Tenko
The experiences of British, Australian and Dutch women who were captured after the Fall of Singapore in February 1942, after the Japanese invasion
- GenresWar
256 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1981
2 people are currently reading
47 people want to read
About the author
Anthony Masters
260 books12 followersAnthony Masters was a writer, educator and humanitarian of exceptional gifts and prodigious energy. He was, in the parlance of his spiritual ancestors, the ancient mariners, that rare voyager "as gracious as a trade wind and as dependable as an anchor".
He leaves 11 works of adult fiction – notably, Conquering Heroes (1969), Red Ice (1986, with Nicholas Barker), The Men (1997), The Good and Faithful Servant (1999) and Lifers (2001) – and was in the process of completing another, Dark Bridges, which he thought would be his best. Many of these works carry deep insights into social problems that he gained, over four decades, by helping the socially excluded, be it by running soup kitchens for drug addicts or by campaigning for the civic rights of gypsies and other ethnic minorities.
His non-fiction output was typically eclectic. It ranged from the biographies of such diverse personalities as Hannah Senesh (The Summer that Bled, 1972), Mikhail Bakunin (Bakunin: the father of anarchism, 1974), Nancy Astor (Nancy Astor: a life, 1981) and the British secret service chief immortalised by Ian Fleming in his James Bond books (The Man Who Was M: the life of Maxwell Knight, 1984), to a history of the notorious asylum Bedlam (Bedlam, 1977).
He leaves 11 works of adult fiction – notably, Conquering Heroes (1969), Red Ice (1986, with Nicholas Barker), The Men (1997), The Good and Faithful Servant (1999) and Lifers (2001) – and was in the process of completing another, Dark Bridges, which he thought would be his best. Many of these works carry deep insights into social problems that he gained, over four decades, by helping the socially excluded, be it by running soup kitchens for drug addicts or by campaigning for the civic rights of gypsies and other ethnic minorities.
His non-fiction output was typically eclectic. It ranged from the biographies of such diverse personalities as Hannah Senesh (The Summer that Bled, 1972), Mikhail Bakunin (Bakunin: the father of anarchism, 1974), Nancy Astor (Nancy Astor: a life, 1981) and the British secret service chief immortalised by Ian Fleming in his James Bond books (The Man Who Was M: the life of Maxwell Knight, 1984), to a history of the notorious asylum Bedlam (Bedlam, 1977).
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
November 25, 2018
Es la historia de varias mujeres que fueron hechas prisioneras en la Segunda Guerra Mundial, cuando se encontraban en Singapur con la colonia británica. Son llevadas a campos de trabajos japoneses donde estarán casi 3 años. Mujeres ricas, acostumbradas a no trabajar se ven de pronto desprovistas de todo, con hambre y en condiciones vergonzosas. Veremos una gran evolución en nuestras protagonistas tanto a lo largo del cautiverio como al obtener la libertad. Me ha gustado mucho y me ha parecido una perspectiva diferente.
February 20, 2022
I picked this up because I wasn’t ready to leave the characters after finishing up the reunion special. And it’s still a compelling story, but on balance I agree with others that the show tells it better. It’s sort of an apples to oranges comparison, because they are very different mediums. So the choice to novelise almost line for line and moment to moment doesn’t help the transition. The writing tells more than shows - but there are occasionally moments of insight into characters, particularly Beatrice towards the end of the novel. I’m glad I read it, and I enjoyed the read. But it’s a flatter Tenko.
August 15, 2024
This book wasn't unenjoyable, It just felt like it wasn't sure what it was trying to achieve. After finding out this book was a shot for shot recreation of the TV series everything makes a little more sense, it's just poorly written and poorly thought out.
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July 29, 2018Gripping adaption of the tv first series of the tv programme
February 28, 2016
In Singapore, a group of British men and women are living a rather posh lifestyle. They are all obviously of the “upper class”, snobbish and bent only on their own pleasures.
They do not take the possibility of a Japanese invasion seriously until it's too late, and the Japanese bomb the city. A group of refugees gets on a ship to sail to Australia, but the ship is sunk and the survivors end up on an island. No sooner does the group find shelter then the Japanese military appears.
Many of the people try to run away. A Japanese soldier yells at them, in English, to stop, but they don't, and one of the soldiers shoots and kills one of those fleeing.
When they end up at a POW camp, they still try to maintain their “better-than-thou” approach to life and make no effort to try to understand the Japanese, even when they are simply trying to explain how to bow properly.
One of the women ends up getting put into a punishment cage for trying to use a crystal radio that the other women had told her to leave alone and not touch under any conditions.
What is incredible is how pompous and sure-of-themselves some of the women can be, making absolutely no effort whatever to adapt to the situation they are in, thinking they are still almost regal people that shouldn't have to share hardship or hard work. I feel no sympathy for them at all. I do feel sympathy for those who are at least trying to make do in the situation, but the ultra-selfish, ultra-self-centered ones are just making a bad situation worse for everyone.
They just can't seem to accept that they are no longer in command, and not everyone is going to bow and scrape to them simply because they have money.
In spite of problems with little food, unsanitary conditions, little water, Japanese soldiers, etc, the women find time to complain about two women who might and might not be having a lesbian relationship. In my opinion, this just shows how unrealistic some of the people are behaving, to get upset about something that might be happening between two consenting adults, when there are almost countless other major problems of real importance for them to be concerned about.
Two of the women escape (despite knowing full well that, if caught, all the others will also be punished), and then are turned in by Marion, the leader of the British group. All the Dutch prisoners can do is to blame the English prisoners for everything that is going wrong when the two women are caught, and almost everyone is blaming Marion and one other woman for telling the Japanese commandant of the escape.
The two sides are finally able to come together (somewhat) for a project they need to do to save an English prisoner from dying, but the animosity is still always there between the two groups.
I have two major problems with this book.
1. Most of the characters are unsympathetic. Yes, you can feel sorry for the women who lose their children, but otherwise most of the women are selfish, nasty people who are more intent on their own selves then on helping others. The Dutch are almost as much at war with the British prisoners as they are with the Japanese. Granted, the conditions they are in are bad, but selfishness, lying, bullying, etc, are not the answers to their problems.
2. The ending of the book. They simply move on to another camp. End of story. They survive the one camp, gradually seem to start to grow closer together at the end of the book, but you know it's all just going to start again, so it's an ending that's not really an ending.
As far as the conditions in the camp goes and how they were treated by the Japanese, the story seems fairly accurate as far as how bad the conditions were. The Japanese camp commander Yamauchi is not totally unrealistic; the conditions that prisoners found themselves under varied considerably, often depending on who was leading the camp, and Yamauchi is one of the most moderate of the Japanese, considering the times.
Note also; this is a review of the book, not the TV series.
They do not take the possibility of a Japanese invasion seriously until it's too late, and the Japanese bomb the city. A group of refugees gets on a ship to sail to Australia, but the ship is sunk and the survivors end up on an island. No sooner does the group find shelter then the Japanese military appears.
Many of the people try to run away. A Japanese soldier yells at them, in English, to stop, but they don't, and one of the soldiers shoots and kills one of those fleeing.
When they end up at a POW camp, they still try to maintain their “better-than-thou” approach to life and make no effort to try to understand the Japanese, even when they are simply trying to explain how to bow properly.
One of the women ends up getting put into a punishment cage for trying to use a crystal radio that the other women had told her to leave alone and not touch under any conditions.
What is incredible is how pompous and sure-of-themselves some of the women can be, making absolutely no effort whatever to adapt to the situation they are in, thinking they are still almost regal people that shouldn't have to share hardship or hard work. I feel no sympathy for them at all. I do feel sympathy for those who are at least trying to make do in the situation, but the ultra-selfish, ultra-self-centered ones are just making a bad situation worse for everyone.
They just can't seem to accept that they are no longer in command, and not everyone is going to bow and scrape to them simply because they have money.
In spite of problems with little food, unsanitary conditions, little water, Japanese soldiers, etc, the women find time to complain about two women who might and might not be having a lesbian relationship. In my opinion, this just shows how unrealistic some of the people are behaving, to get upset about something that might be happening between two consenting adults, when there are almost countless other major problems of real importance for them to be concerned about.
Two of the women escape (despite knowing full well that, if caught, all the others will also be punished), and then are turned in by Marion, the leader of the British group. All the Dutch prisoners can do is to blame the English prisoners for everything that is going wrong when the two women are caught, and almost everyone is blaming Marion and one other woman for telling the Japanese commandant of the escape.
The two sides are finally able to come together (somewhat) for a project they need to do to save an English prisoner from dying, but the animosity is still always there between the two groups.
I have two major problems with this book.
1. Most of the characters are unsympathetic. Yes, you can feel sorry for the women who lose their children, but otherwise most of the women are selfish, nasty people who are more intent on their own selves then on helping others. The Dutch are almost as much at war with the British prisoners as they are with the Japanese. Granted, the conditions they are in are bad, but selfishness, lying, bullying, etc, are not the answers to their problems.
2. The ending of the book. They simply move on to another camp. End of story. They survive the one camp, gradually seem to start to grow closer together at the end of the book, but you know it's all just going to start again, so it's an ending that's not really an ending.
As far as the conditions in the camp goes and how they were treated by the Japanese, the story seems fairly accurate as far as how bad the conditions were. The Japanese camp commander Yamauchi is not totally unrealistic; the conditions that prisoners found themselves under varied considerably, often depending on who was leading the camp, and Yamauchi is one of the most moderate of the Japanese, considering the times.
Note also; this is a review of the book, not the TV series.
October 15, 2012
A friend gave me a copy of the novelisation of Tenko so we'd have something else for them to sign at the reunion next week. I have to say for the most part the book wasn't nearly as good as the show. Being a short novel with one chapter per episode there really wasn't much insight into the the character's thoughts and feelings. It also left out some key and important scenes.
That said it did remind me how great the first series of Tenko was. How not everyone got along and how horrible some people were to start with. How people started to grow and the terrible conditions that were endured in the first camp. It was a good refresher on the events of the first series. But definitely not as good as watching it. It didn't make me cry once!
That said it did remind me how great the first series of Tenko was. How not everyone got along and how horrible some people were to start with. How people started to grow and the terrible conditions that were endured in the first camp. It was a good refresher on the events of the first series. But definitely not as good as watching it. It didn't make me cry once!
Want to read
April 28, 2012I am a big fan of the TV series done in the 80s. My mum introduced my sister and I to it when we were fairly young and used it as a history lesson. She was big on history lessons and for us to learn about everything. I am very much looking forward to reading the book version of the story. Will edit again if I ever get my hands on this book.
January 12, 2014
Dentro de la vorágine de revisiones de la segunda guerra mundial y quizás eclipsado por el holocausto europeo, poca atención se había prestado al extremo oriente, donde y salvando las distancias el Japón imperial dejó su marca en toda Asia y en sus habitantes.
July 27, 2011
It is the same story as the TV series, a really horrific read, but very good.
A great inside to the womens POW camps.
A great inside to the womens POW camps.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews