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「抑留日記:四年間の赤服生活」Four Years in a Red Coat

Text

Title
「抑留日記:四年間の赤服生活」Four Years in a Red Coat
Subject
World War, 1939-1945--Asia
Internment camps
Indonesia
Australia--History--20th century
Category
4. World War II
Author
古池三八勝, Miyakatsu Koike
Publisher
Self Published by the author
Place of Publication
Japan
Keywords
Loveday
Current holder
Personal collection
Period of reference
1941 – 1946
Date
1987
Access rights
Permission required
Country of origin
Japan
Place
Loveday camp
Language
Japanese
Description from source
English language translation is Four Years in a Red Coat, published by Wakefield Press.
Summary of the translation:
Before the Japanese Imperial Navy Air Service staged its surprise strike on Pearl Harbor, Miyakatsu Koike lived the privileged life of a Japanese expatriate in the Dutch East Indies. Through the working week he was a conscientious employee of the Yokohama Specie Bank in Surabaya. The rest of his time he could devote to playing golf and tennis, to indulging his hobby photography, and to exploring Java with his wife Fumiko. When his countrymen committed themselves to the 'Greater East Asia War', however, that world came to an abrupt and painful end.

Four Years in a Red Coat presents for the first time in English translation Miyakatsu Koike's wartime diary. It is a keenly observed record of his arrest, his hellish voyage to distant South Australia, his endurance of years in the Loveday Internment Camp, and his return ultimately to a war-ravaged homeland. More than that, it is a testament to one man's calmly stoic triumph over sustained adversity. The scars of his war are indelible, yet Koike emerges from it with his humanity not just intact but enhanced.
Physical format
Manuscripts
Translation
English translation by Hiroko Cockerill, edited by Peter Monteath and Yuriko Nagata
Related resources
https://omaa-arts.sydney.edu.au/texts/3127/
File
Four Years in a Red Coat cover