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Unbroken: A Memoir of a Tennis Star Who Survived as a Japanese Prisoner of War
A Harrowing True Story, On Sale For a Limited Time For .99, Usually 4.99
Phillip Harman wasn't born with a silver spoon in his mouth, he was born with a tennis racquet in his hand. As a young tennis player from California, he goes to Hong Kong for a fundraiser to help the Children of China. While there he falls in love, but Japan takes over Hong Kong and he is tortured and put in prison. Unwilling to die or be broken, he fights to survive and reunite with his new love.
Phillip Harman wasn't born with a silver spoon in his mouth, he was born with a tennis racquet in his hand. As a young tennis player from California, he goes to Hong Kong for a fundraiser to help the Children of China. While there he falls in love, but Japan takes over Hong Kong and he is tortured and put in prison. Unwilling to die or be broken, he fights to survive and reunite with his new love.
229 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 28, 2015
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
March 15, 2015
Philip Harman was a professional tennis player from Berkeley California in the late 1930s. He went to Hong Kong for a fundraiser to help the Children of China. In December 1941 Japan captured Hong Kong and he was taken as a prisoner of war.
Harman gives a detailed account of the fall of Kowloon and Hong Kong. He starts off more excited about seeing history made than understanding the danger he was in. He points out that the Japanese were not interested in doing any fighting; they had only one interest and that was the gang and brutal rape of every female. They beat and raped every female from babies to old women leaving many of them dead. Then they started beating and interrogating white men staying in the major hotels. Harman was badly beaten several times and thought he was going to be killed. He said that the Japanese officers called him “Yankee boy,” He was starved and suffered from Beriberi and other starvation related diseases.
The Swedish arraigned to give the prisoners safe conducted back to their countries of Britain, Netherlands and United States. The story ends with his boarding a Swedish ship.
The book is written in the first person and is an interesting firsthand account of the fall of Hong Kong. Similar to other memoirs of the Japanese takeover of China it reveals the brutality of the Japanese soldiers particularly toward the females.
The audio production is amateurish but the content was interesting enough to over look it. I read this as an audiobook downloaded from Audible. Glenn Langohr was the narrator.
Harman gives a detailed account of the fall of Kowloon and Hong Kong. He starts off more excited about seeing history made than understanding the danger he was in. He points out that the Japanese were not interested in doing any fighting; they had only one interest and that was the gang and brutal rape of every female. They beat and raped every female from babies to old women leaving many of them dead. Then they started beating and interrogating white men staying in the major hotels. Harman was badly beaten several times and thought he was going to be killed. He said that the Japanese officers called him “Yankee boy,” He was starved and suffered from Beriberi and other starvation related diseases.
The Swedish arraigned to give the prisoners safe conducted back to their countries of Britain, Netherlands and United States. The story ends with his boarding a Swedish ship.
The book is written in the first person and is an interesting firsthand account of the fall of Hong Kong. Similar to other memoirs of the Japanese takeover of China it reveals the brutality of the Japanese soldiers particularly toward the females.
The audio production is amateurish but the content was interesting enough to over look it. I read this as an audiobook downloaded from Audible. Glenn Langohr was the narrator.
March 7, 2016
Better than I expected. You get a good harsh look at the war and prison camps but without it being too over-the-top horrific.
May 7, 2020
People put up and live through amazing shit. What I have wondered all my life is why there is so much shit.
January 25, 2016
The past
I cannot even imagine how it would be to experience the ordeals Philip had endured, like many other atrocities of WW2, inline with the Nazi regimes appalling crimes,hopefully these ,although never forgotten,be put in the past to encourage better understanding among different races ,although it seems that there may never be a complete freedom from these horrors as is now being put upon the world by I.S.
I cannot even imagine how it would be to experience the ordeals Philip had endured, like many other atrocities of WW2, inline with the Nazi regimes appalling crimes,hopefully these ,although never forgotten,be put in the past to encourage better understanding among different races ,although it seems that there may never be a complete freedom from these horrors as is now being put upon the world by I.S.
March 30, 2015
Really enjoyed this book. It was interesting to see how people were treated in the Japanese Prisoner of war camps. I cannot even begin to imagine how horrible and scary it must have been for everybody there especially the children. I hope nobody else ever has to go through the things those poor people did. This book should be enough t o stop anybody wanting to start a war.
November 22, 2017
Well Written
Worthy of 5 stars, great writing superb storyline with no punches pulled. You can see everything through the words and I can honestly say that is one of those books that I have read very fast and then want more.
Worthy of 5 stars, great writing superb storyline with no punches pulled. You can see everything through the words and I can honestly say that is one of those books that I have read very fast and then want more.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews