The author was sold into child bondage in Singapore in 1930, and gained her freedom only to suffer under the Japanese occupation. This is a remarkable story of courage, resourcefulness and the will to live.
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The author was sold into child bondage in Singapore in 1930, and gained her freedom only to suffer under the Japanese occupation. This is a remarkable story of courage, resourcefulness and the will to live.
Read Less
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Seller's Description:
Near Fine in Near Fine jacket. First edition. Some sunning around the edges and the spine, else near fine in near fine dustwrapper with a sunned spine.
Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination.
Seller's Description:
Very Good. No Jacket. 8vo-over 7¾"-9¾" tall. BOOK: Previous Owner Markings (Christmas Gift Inscription of 1958 Neatly Inked to Front Free Endpaper); Corners, Spine, Boards Bumped; Light Shelf Rub to Boards; Slight Yellowing Due to Age. DUST JACKET: Missing. SUB-TITLE: An Autobiography. CONTENTS: Foreword; Author's Preface; I Early Childhood; II A Slave Girl; III The Mission School; IV The Mission Hospital; V War; VI Sumatra; VII Yamato Hotel; VIII Escape; IX Nursing Again; X War Comes and Goes. SYNOPSIS: Life in the Chinese village where Janet Lim passed her childhood went on pretty much as it had for a thousand years. Hunger and the spirits invisibly but closely lurking everywhere were its common pre-occupations, but the slow daily round was varied and mitigated by the ancient rituals of religion and superstition, the festivities attendant upon birth, marriage and death, the quiet, unspoken happiness of family love. When Janet was eight her father died and her mother re-married and presently, giving Janet in charge to a neighbour, left for a distant place with her new husband. Little time elapsed before her guardian sold her to an elderly merchant in Singapore wanting an additional servant and concubine. The local Christian Mission procured her release, sent her to school and arranged for her to be trained as a nurse. Then, after several tranquil years, the war broke out in the East and the military hospital in which she was working was ordered to be evacuated to India on the approach of the Japanese. The ship was bombed and Janet, after two fearful days on a raft, was rescued by some fishermen from Sumatra. But Sumatra was already in Japanese hands, and her adventures had in fact barely begun. Once sentenced to be a "Japanese comfort girl, " once to be executed by a firing squad, her courage, resourcefulness--and usefulness to her captors--enabled her to survive until the return of the British.
