Jungle Journal: Prisoners of the Japanese in Java 1942-45 - Softcover

This is the story of a young Royal Artillery officer, Lieutenant Ronald Williams, who was held as a prisoner of war in the Japanese-occupied Dutch East Indies from 1942-45. It is a true account of the alternate horror and banality of daily life, and the humour that helped the men survive the beatings, deprivation and death of comrades. Told through the diary and papers of Williams and others, Jungle Journal includes many cartoons and poems produced by the prisoners, as well as extracts from the original Jungle Journal, a newspaper created by the men under the noses of their guards. Ronald Williams was the `editor' of this potentially fatal `publication'. Jungle Journal describes the survival of hope even in desperate straits, and is a testament to those men whose courage and fortitude were tested to the limit under the tropical sun.

Frank Williams is a retired hospital consultant. On the 60th anniversary of VJ Day his mother gave him his father Ronald's papers, which detailed the latter's experiences as a prisoner of the Japanese in Java. Using these, along with contemporary illustrations, journals, poems, and memories of conversations with his father, Frank Williams has created the book that his father always intended to write. Some of the documentation is held at the Imperial War museum and they will support the book.