Last Man Out: Surviving the Burma-Thailand Death Railway: A Memoir

by H. Robert Charles, James D. Hornfischer (Foreword by)

Overview

An American Marine recounts his ordeal as a World War II POW forced by the Japanese to build the railway immortalized in The Bridge on the River Kwai.

From June 1942 to October 1943, more than 100,000 Allied POWs who had been forced into slave labor by the Japanese died building the infamous Burma-Thailand Death Railway, an undertaking immortalized in the film The Bridge on the River Kwai. One of the few who survived was American Marine H. Robert Charles, who describes the ordeal in vivid and harrowing detail in Last Man Out. The story mixes the unimaginable brutality of the camps with the inspiring courage of the men, such as a Dutch Colonial Army doctor whose skill and knowledge of the medicinal value of wild jungle herbs saved the lives of hundreds of his fellow POWs, including the author.

Praise for Last Man Out

“A remarkable story, long overdue, of the treatment of POW’s captured by Japan.” —Arthur L. Maher, USN, Senior officer to survive sinking of the USS Houston, POW of the Japanese in World War II

“In World War II, to move materials and troops from Japan to Burma by avoiding the perilous sea route around the Malay Peninsula, the Japanese military built a railroad through the jungles of Thailand and Burma at great human cost to its prisoner laborers. Last Man Out is an effective addition to the history of this tragedy.” —Library Journal

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781616737603
Publisher:	Quarto Publishing Group USA
Publication date:	12/20/2022
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	250
Sales rank:	425,417
File size:	6 MB

About the Author

H. Robert Charles was born in Pitcher, Oklahoma, Charles grew up on a wheat farm and cattle ranch near Hutchinson, Kansas, and enlisted in the Marine Corps in June 1940. He was a machine gunner aboard the USS Houston at the time it was sunk by the Japanese in Sunda Strait, March 1, 1942. He swam nine hours, was picked up off the coast of Java by the Japanese, and held forty-three months in slave labor camps in Burma, Thailand, and Saigon.

Repatriated at the end of the war by British paratroopers and Office of Strategic Services personnel, Charles spent time at a hospital in Calcutta before returning home.

After graduating from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, Charles later joined Parents Magazine in New York, serving as family home editor.

H. Robert Charles was born in Pitcher, Oklahoma, Charles grew up on a wheat farm and cattle ranch near Hutchinson, Kansas, and enlisted in the Marine Corps in June 1940. He was a machine gunner aboard the USS Houston at the time it was sunk by the Japanese in Sunda Strait, March 1, 1942. He swam nine hours, was picked up off the coast of Java by the Japanese, and held forty-three months in slave labor camps in Burma, Thailand, and Saigon.Repatriated at the end of the war by British paratroopers and Office of Strategic Services personnel, Charles spent time at a hospital in Calcutta before returning home.After graduating from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism, Charles later joined Parents Magazine in New York, serving as family home editor.

H. Robert Charles was born in Pitcher, Oklahoma, Charles grew up on a wheat farm and cattle ranch near Hutchinson, Kansas, and enlisted in the Marine Corps in June 1940. He was a machine gunner aboard the USS Houston at the time it was sunk by the Japanese in Sunda Strait, March 1, 1942. He swam nine hours, was picked up off the coast of Java by the Japanese, and held forty-three months in slave labor camps in Burma, Thailand, and Saigon.Repatriated at the end of the war by British paratroopers and Office of Strategic Services personnel, Charles spent time at a hospital in Calcutta before returning home.After graduating from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, Charles later joined Parents Magazine in New York, serving as family home editor.

Table of Contents

Contents

 

Preface

Acknowledgments

Prologue: August 1978

 

Part One

1.                  Sundown in Java Sea

2.                  Sunda Strait

3.                  The Inferno

4.                  “Horyo!”

5.                  Moving On Into Darkness

6.                  Dignity in a Bilge

7.                  Tales of Towana

8.                  Assignment in Burma

9.                  Doctor Without Credentials

10.              The Grand Design

 

Part Two

11.              A Ray of Hope

12.              The Food Quota

13.              Breach of Protocol

14.              The Red Caboose

15.              Test of Steel

16.              The Rain Came

 

Part Three

17.              The Last Man Out

18.              The Search

19.              Message From Texas

20.              Dallas: August 9, 1983

 

Appendix

A.                 Speech Delivered by Lt. Col. Y. Nagatomo, October 28, 1942

B.                 Presidential Unit Citation to USS Houston

C.                 Americans Interned with Dr. Hekking

Bibliography

Photos

Index

Editorial Reviews

Charles was one of the few POWs to survive the building of the infamous railroad--basis for the classic film The Bridge on the River Kwai--that took the lives of more than 100,000 imprisoned Allied soldiers and enslaved natives over 16 months from 1942 to 1943. His 1988 memoir details his captivity and the horrors bestowed by the Japanese. Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal