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Eaten by the Japanese: The Memoir of an Unknown Indian Prisoner of War
By John Baptist Crasta
134 pages
3 hours
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Description
"Eaten by the Japanese" is the inspiring story of John Baptist Crasta, an Indian soldier in the British Indian Army, who miraculously survives 3 1/2 years of inhuman imprisonment and bombardment during World War II. Rescued by Australians, he returns home to India and writes this memoir in 1946. He then waits another 51 years before it is read and published by his son, who by then is an author living in the United States. In the process of reading and publishing the book, the son rediscovers his father.
To begin with one of the rave reviews: “What emerges in Crasta’s survivor’s tale is not a mere story of self but an epic of collective agony. This is the story, then, of a nation’s agony as well as a man’s, a man’s survival as well as that of a nation’s, in both cases to await the next chapter in a complex narrative.”
The story begins in Singapore, where John Baptist Crasta was posted, and the British commander surrenders unconditionally to the invading Japanese. Rather than switch sides simply to save his own life, he chooses to suffer through 3.5 years of horrific imprisonment, including a journey in the Torture Ship to Torture Island.
This shocking and poignant story of World War II and its forgotten Indian Prisoners of War has never been told before from the viewpoint of an ordinary Indian soldier who was there, as one of its actor-victims.
“A classic in military history, telling the story of men trapped in a world of torture, starvation, and death"—Roger Mansell, War historian, in Tameme Magazine
“You see the horror of war, without a trace of artifice, through the eyes of one who was there, the writing a simple act of catharsis. A war memoir that ranks with the best.”—Professor Mark Ledbetter, Nisei University
This 32,000-word book made Professor Barry Fruchter write: “Striking and raw, an antidote to myth. Something to be treasured. This is the kind of record that this generation is losing fast, and we need to hold on to this. It made me think of what had happened to my own father's memoirs, which were lost.”
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PUBLISHER:
Richard Crasta
RELEASED:
Mar 29, 2011
ISBN:
9781458122995
FORMAT:
Book
About the author
JCJohn Baptist Crasta
John Baptist Crasta, 1910-1999, was the father of Richard Crasta, the author of eight books and minor co-author and editor of EATEN BY THE JAPANESE. He was born in the village of Kinnigoli in India, and walked barefoot for 20 miles through tiger-infested jungles to Mangalore to enroll in the high school there. Miraculously escaping an earthquake at Quetta (now in Pakistan), he joined the British Indian Army and was captured by the Japanese during their blitzkrieg invasion of Singapore. His memoir of being a Prisoner-of-War of the Japanese during World War II was published by his son, who edited the book and added an introduction and three essays to it. The book was originally launched on December 27, 1997, and later in 1999 (second edition). It is now published in a new e-book edition on Smashwords and on other e-book platforms. At the time that it happened, John Baptist Crasta was the oldest Indian to have his first book published: he was 87 years old when it happened, and the manuscript had lain in his steel trunk for 51 years after he wrote it.
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EATEN BY THE JAPANESE: The Memoir of an Unknown Indian Prisoner of War
by John Baptist Crasta, Richard Crasta (Goodreads Author)
really liked it 4.00 · Rating details · 23 ratings · 0 reviews
A true story of World War II: how Indian soldiers in the British army became Prisoners of War and were shipped by their Japanese captors in "torture ships" to Papua New Guinea, and how a fraction of them, including the author, survived 3 1/2 years of horrific imprisonment, beatings, starvation, bombings and more to return home to India.
John Baptist Crasta's story, written shortly after the war, was published 51 years later, when he was 87 years old (2 years before his death), by his son, who had only recently discovered the manuscript. Indeed, it was by reading his father's memoir that the son not only discovered his father; but decided to do all he could to make the world know about it. This book contains not just the father's memoir, but the son's essays about rediscovering his father and his feelings about the memoir.
This shocking and poignant story of World War II and its forgotten Indian Prisoners of War has never been told before from the viewpoint of an ordinary Indian soldier who was there as one of its actor-victims. Nor has it ever been coupled with a moving story of fathers and sons.
“A classic in military history, telling the story of men trapped in a world of torture, starvation, and death"—Roger Mansell, War historian, in Tameme Magazine
“You see the horror of war, without a trace of artifice, through the eyes of one who was there, the writing a simple act of catharsis. A war memoir that ranks with the best.”—Professor Mark Ledbetter, Nisei University
“Striking and raw, an antidote to myth. Something to be treasured. This is the kind of record that this generation is losing fast, and we need to hold on to this. It made me think of what had happened to my own father's memoirs, which were lost.”--Professor Barry Fruchter.
"More than any book in recent memory, Eaten by the Japanese drives home the lasting effects of enforced captivity – not only on the bodies but also on the minds of the prisoners... it is a book about kindness, solidarity, and collective survival, about the bonds that matter: those between one single human being and another. It is truly a testimony to truth.” —Barry Fruchter, Ph.D., Professor, Nassau Community College, New York (less)
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