Out in the Midday Sun: Singapore, 1941-45--the End of an Empire

by Kate Caffrey

This book is an astonishingly fresh and original account of the Fall of Singapore, unique in that it follows events right through from the first rumblings of war to the final repatriation of those few men lucky enough to have survived the four years as prisoners of the Japenese. Tragic and appalling though it was, the story of the campaign, which makes up the first part of the book, is often surprisingly funny. Miss Caffrey's re-creation of a city about to be blown wide open in which people still behaved as though in the heyday of the British Empire makes absorbing reading. The second part of the book deals with the long and terrible period of captivity with sympathy and understanding. Even when recording the history of the Burma railway and the notorious death march, the author keeps a clear head: the Japanese don't emerge as monster but as men with an entirely different set of values and with remarkable courage and endurance. The whole gruesome story is made tolerable by the author's vivid re-creation of the physical and domestic details of the camps and of the ways in which the men kept each other going and some survived. In this book Miss Caffrey, whilst maintaining a scrupulous regard for historical accuracy has, through her own vivid interest, transformed an unhappy episode of British military history into a fascinating book.

Hardcover

Published January 1, 1973