The diary of prisoner 17326 : a boy's life in a Japanese labor camp / John K. Stutterheim.

A teenaged prisoner of Japan, numbers 17326 -- Discovering Java -- Malang -- Merbaboe Park -- War -- Uncertain times in Malang -- Kesilir -- The final days of De Wijk -- The transport -- Lampersari -- The Benteng -- Camp Bangkong -- Horseplay -- The diary -- The disease of despair -- Bleak prospects -- Death and unexpected freedom -- Hidden dangers -- The British -- Escape from hell -- A family again -- Time to fly -- Surabaja restored -- To Holland on Oranje.

N this memoir a young man comes of age in an age of violence, brutality, and war. Recounting his experiences during the Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies, this account brings to life the shocking day to day conditions in a Japanese labor camp and provides an intimate look at the collapse of Dutch colonial rule. As a boy growing up on the island of Java, the author spent hours exploring his exotic surroundings, taking walks with his younger brother and dachshund along winding jungle roads. His father, a government accountant, would grumble at the pro German newspaper and from time to time entertain the family with his singing. It was a fairly typical life for a colonial family in the Dutch East Indies, and a peaceful and happy childhood for the young author. But at the age of 14 it would all be irrevocably shattered by the Japanese invasion. With the surrender of Java in 1942, the author's father was taken prisoner. For over three years the family would not know if he was alive or dead. Soon thereafter, the author, his younger brother, and his mother were imprisoned. A year later he and his brother were moved to a forced labor camp for boys, where they toiled under the fierce sun while disease and starvation slowly took their toll, all the while suspecting they would soon be killed. Throughout all of these travails, he kept a secret diary hidden in his handmade mattress, and his memories now offer a unique perspective on an often overlooked episode of World War II. What emerges is a story of a young man caught up in the machinations of a global war, struggling to survive in the face of horrible brutality, struggling to care for his disease wracked brother, and struggling to put his family back together.