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Tenko #2
Last Tenko
1945. The Americian Air Force bombs Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Japan immediately surrenders, and years of abject suffering and humiliation end for a group of women prisoners in a Japanese Camp.
Life in their second camp, run by the evil Miss Hasan, has starved them of food, love and essential medicines. Yet their determination and courage sustain them through death and abuse at the hands of their guards - and they bravely make plans for the rumoured massacre that will attend the Last Tenko.
But lineration to the luxury of Raffles Hotel brings its own bitterness and disappointments - for after their horrifying experiances life can never be the same for these women like the sane and reasonable Marion, unable to abandon her role as leader and resume that of wife; like Beatrice Mason, whose eyesight has been ruined in captivity; like Dorothy, hounded for her affairs with the Japs; and Maggie whose hurriedly snatched pleasures have unfortunate results...
Life in their second camp, run by the evil Miss Hasan, has starved them of food, love and essential medicines. Yet their determination and courage sustain them through death and abuse at the hands of their guards - and they bravely make plans for the rumoured massacre that will attend the Last Tenko.
But lineration to the luxury of Raffles Hotel brings its own bitterness and disappointments - for after their horrifying experiances life can never be the same for these women like the sane and reasonable Marion, unable to abandon her role as leader and resume that of wife; like Beatrice Mason, whose eyesight has been ruined in captivity; like Dorothy, hounded for her affairs with the Japs; and Maggie whose hurriedly snatched pleasures have unfortunate results...
240 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1985
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
January 28, 2016
This book covers the conclusion of the Tenko television series that was about English and Dutch women and their children who were taken by the Japanese during World War II and placed into internment camps. The conditions in the camps were horrible and there were lots of death from starvation, disease and other causes.
The television series covered how the women tried to survive in such conditions and it shows their strengths and their weaknesses. Their physical condition condition to worsen as the years wore on. The novel describes the camp in detail and discusses the behavior of the leader of the camp and the soldiers under him.
It seems that such camp duty was an embarrassment to the Japanese soldiers who wanted to be on the front lines. It's not a novel nor a series that is for the feint-hearted. The individual women have some very strong stories to tell. The stories are based in general on the things that actually happened to the real women in the real camps at that time and, if anything, what really happened was even worse then in the series, making one wonder how any of the women and children got out alive.
The television series covered how the women tried to survive in such conditions and it shows their strengths and their weaknesses. Their physical condition condition to worsen as the years wore on. The novel describes the camp in detail and discusses the behavior of the leader of the camp and the soldiers under him.
It seems that such camp duty was an embarrassment to the Japanese soldiers who wanted to be on the front lines. It's not a novel nor a series that is for the feint-hearted. The individual women have some very strong stories to tell. The stories are based in general on the things that actually happened to the real women in the real camps at that time and, if anything, what really happened was even worse then in the series, making one wonder how any of the women and children got out alive.
July 9, 2011
Interesting historical fiction about a part of history not always told.
August 7, 2018
Loved the tv series and love the books
November 11, 2015
Es un buen libro. Sentí que tenía una conexión fuerte con casi todos los personajes femeninos de la historia, lo cual en mi opinión, tiene gran mérito pues a menudo lamento que el autor no logre convencerme de creer en los personajes o de sentir al menos simpatía por ellos. Sin embargo, en este libro cualquier prejuicio que uno tenga se va por la ventana. Si no se siente simpatía por al menos una de ellas, es raro. Es una gran pieza de ficción histórica, pero no por ello deja de ser real. Los Tenkos y los campos de prisioneros manejados por japoneses existieron en realidad y lo que aquellos/as prisioneros vivieron ocurrió en la vida real. Tal vez sea el hecho de saber que no es del todo ficticio, lo que me ha ganado al leer este libro.
El libro, sino me equivoco, fue primero una serie de televisión que fue adaptada al formato de novela. Aquí algunas imágenes.
Claro que yo imaginaba diferentes a mis personajes, pero...
El libro, sino me equivoco, fue primero una serie de televisión que fue adaptada al formato de novela. Aquí algunas imágenes.
Claro que yo imaginaba diferentes a mis personajes, pero...
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews