Gold Warriors possible inaccuracy?

Thank you for the link, Rational Observer. And I do agree that it is odd that JIA looting seems to be hardly documented. I'll keep hunting for publications on this matter too.

UPDATE: I have yet to receive a reply from the Seagraves. Either they are tardy or have chosen not to reply.

Being a bit bored on a rainy Sunday, I finished off the book. Another inaccuracy was found on page 254. "Malaysian Borneo" did not exist in 1948. For that matter, Malaysia had yet to exist in that year too. I am not an historian and do not assume know all the pertinent data, but it seems to me that if a writer can make such glaring errors on relatively-unimportant facts, what about the accuracy of the really important facts? I think I'll not waste the effort to write to Verso Books. 'Nuff said.

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In a book written on a later date , Malaysian Borneo is used  as an indication . I was called for centuries  as SERAWAK .  Cornelius

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		Quote:			Posted by goldigger
	If I had written the book, I would have used modern territorial designations, BUT, I would have included maps to show pre-WW2 territories  and a modern map overlay, to show how and where borders had changed. Obviously they did not do this, and it is not clear that they knew there were different borders, then. Modern territorial references can make the story seem more real. It sounds like bad research, to me. I wrote a book of historical fiction, in the 80s, and researched for months. I wound up having to stretch a few dates to make it all fit. BUT! That was fiction, so I would say for a history based book, such as this, the data has to be accurate or there should be a statement of information withheld or altered to protect certain groups or individuals. You have not mentioned any such declaration, so..... but is the book a good read, despite these errors or omissions? goldigger

The authors attempt to be credible in the very first sentence of the Author's Note: " Many people told us this book was historically important and must be published - then warned us if it were published, we would be murdered." If you want an "entertaining" read, borrow a copy or buy it 2nd hand. It's not worth the brand-new price.

If you want something that is more factual, I recommend Sabah: Under The Rising Sun Government by Stephen R. Evans (Opus Publications). This book has a section on cannibalism by the JIA, and I have been told of the same (in gory detail) by survivors.

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Hello All

It is not the only report case of cannibalism in WW2. The siege of Leningrad Russian citizens to survive ate the frozen dead lying in the streets, and about 2000 JIA Troops cut off from their supply lines in the Owen Stanly Ranges New Guinea eaten by cannibals and native head hunters, are two I can think of......

As horrible as it is, not as rare as one thinks.

hardluck 

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Hello Hobbyist

I am not sure but many of the veterans never fully reveled the horrors they went through. It was a personal emotional secret that they kept to themselves. They did not want to revel the horrors to families that had relatives who had perished in that terrible war.

That is why these sad tired old men haunted by the horrors of war make their pilgrimage back to their fallen comrades to remember them with dignity and respect for the ultimate sacrifice they made. It is an unwritten code that binds them.

Most people are brought up to be honest and compassionate to their fellow man. But then one day the winds of war came and blew that all away. Turning everything in your life that you have been brought up be, not to be. And so Stealing the most sacred thing of all,your humanity.

Then one day they tell stop being the inhuman monster you have become and go back to where you have come from. They never tell you how to turn off the horror that haunts you, in your deepest nightmares were sleep merges into day and sleep into night.

No can ever understand the darkness these men went through, or the new generation of ones of today, that are going through it.

It sadly the undoing of our human race.

Hardluck   

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