Item Condition: Collectible; Very Good
1st Edition signed paperback.
Based upon real people, facts and research, this story encompasses the
experiences of three men - all of whom fought in Malaya during World War Two.
Itu Nakahama
Itu Nakahama was born in Singapore to Japanese parents, both Christians.
He attended English speaking schools in Singapore, Malaya and also Tokyo
university just prior to The Japanese invasion. He was conscripted into the
Japanese army educational corps. When the Japanese took over Singapore,
Itu, because of his knowledge of Singapore and Malaya was appointed as an
interpreter.
Lim Hung
Lim Hung was a Chinese railway clerk totally innocent of the war and politics,
who was, by virtue of meeting a Chinese girl, well versed in communism and
very active in a literary sense, in support of Chinese anti-Japanese freedom
fighters.
Chuck Stewart
Manchester Regiment soldier and comrade of the author Arthur Lane.
Chuck deserted his unit in order to fight the lapanese. When he later returned to
his unit voluntarily he was charged with desertion in the face of the enemy but the
charges were never pursued.
IS BN 978--897666-71-5
……….INTRODUCTION
ln 1950. after I had said goodbye to the army to settle down in civvy
Street. I had time to consider if what I had experienced in my (so far)
short existence had really been worth while. Iwas thirty years of age
and I felt that I had already used up more than fifty years of my life.
Having witnessed the ugly head of jealousy and its resultant carnage
I had, similar to my friends and comrades, reached the bottom of the
barrel of despair. My aim then was to try and tell the world about the
Japanese and their vile insidious methods and dispensation of cruelty.
It was imperative that I get my imperceptible message across to
the families of those men who in my opinion had been betrayed by
their own government into giving away their lives on the whim of a
jumped up picayune Member of Parliament.
Ünfortunately I had no means by which to do this. With just a
council school education I left school when lI was fourteen years of age
and apart from being able to count up to twenty without having to
resort to taking my shoes off and being able to read such books as
Treasure lsland and Rudyard Kipling's book of poems, I was
considered, and I also considered myself- thick. Many times trying to
put pen to paper and each time realising more than ever that I was
never going to be able to fulfil this ambition.
Finally I obtained a second hand typewriter and although it had
seen better days it gave me a new lease of purpose. I settled down and
compelled myself to type at least one page every day. Using just two
fingers and with no knowledge whatsoever about using the noisy
machine, Istruggled for more than a year to produce a rough draft of
One God Too Many Devils.
I then hawked it around to the various newspaper editors and
reporters, who in the main although being sympathetic, could never
find the time to even look at the synopsis. My manuscript such as it
was, was consigned to an old set of drawers in the attic. There it
remained for several years while I attempted to get on with my life.
Trying to get rid of the ghosts of the past, no matter how hard I tried.…….