Taken Captive: A Japanese Pow's Story

I do not know whether I dozed off or passed out, but the nextthing I remember is gradually becoming aware of a blunt objectstriking my body over and over. Just as I realized it was a bootkicking me in the side, I felt my arm being grabbed roughly, and Ireturned to full consciousness.

One GI had hold of my right arm, and another had his rifle pointedat me, nearly touching me.

'Don't move. We're taking you prisoner, ' the one with the riflesaid.

On January 25, 1945, Private Ooka Shohei of the Japanese ImperialArmy was captured by American forces in the Philippines. Near deathfrom starvation and acute malaria, he was nursed back to health byhis captors and shipped off to a POW camp. Taken Captive is hispowerful and poignant account of life as a prisoner of war. Longregarded as a literary classic in Japan, this extraordinary memoiris appearing in English for the first time.

There are no epic battles or grand scale heroics. This is anintimate, gripping, and ultimately enlightening true story of asophisticated, middle-aged scholar thrown into a primitive strugglefor survival. It is filled with moments of sublimeordinariness--prisoners passing time by playing 20 Questions--andheartstopping encounters--a lone soldier decides whether or not toshoot an unsuspecting enemy soldier.

The harsh conditions, the daily routines that occupy a prisoner'stime, and above all, the psychological struggles and behavioralquirks of captives forced to live in close confinement are conveyedwith devastating simplicity and candor. Throughout, the authorconstantly probes his own conscience, questioning motivations anddecisions. What emerges is a multileveled portrait of an individualdetermined to retain his humanity in an uncivilizedenvironment.

In Taken Captive, Ooka Shohei provides much more than anunprecedented look at the POW experience from a Japanese point ofview. His stirring account offers a penetrating exploration ofJapanese society, and its values, as embodied by the microcosm ofhis fellow POWs. Recalling his wartime experiences, Ooka Shohei hascreated a brilliant work of rare honesty, insight, and emotionalsubtlety.

Author: Ooka Shohei
Publisher: Wiley
Published: 04/17/1996
Pages: 352
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.49lbs
Size: 9.53h x 6.48w x 1.16d
ISBN: 9780471142850

Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 04/01/1996 pg. 65
Booklist 05/15/1996 pg. 1567
New York Times 09/01/1996 pg. 17
School Library Journal 02/01/1997 pg. 138
Library Journal 08/01/1996

About the Author
OOKA SHOHEI (1909-1988) was a celebrated Japanese novelist and literary critic, and author of the award-winning World War II novels, Fires on the Plain and The Battle of Leyte.

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