Former Civilian POWs of the Japanese Disapprove the Inaccurate Account
of their History as Told in  Child P.O.W.—A Memoir of Survival
 

 
Amazon.com describes this book written by A.L. Finch as follows:

Alice's riveting story of an ill-fated Philippine vacation shares her struggle to survive four years as a POW, in three countries, with her mother Nonie. Their mental defiance and fight for life kept them sane, in the face of death and overwhelming evil.

http://www.amazon.com/Child-POW-L-Finch/dp/1599770083

It is reported that the book is now being made into a movie with the anticipated release date as December 7, 2011, the 70th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor.
 

However, many of those who are familiar with the history of civilian POWs of the Japanese during WWII, including survivors, have raised serious questions about the book’s accuracy. They express their strong concerns that the book is very harmful for preservation of accurate history.

Here are some of the false statements in the book listed by Mr. Mike Houlahan, a retired American diplomat who writes frequently on the Philippines and World War II:

Finch claims they traveled to multiple camps in the Philippines (most of which aren’t known to have existed); to Foochow, China (work in a tin mine); to Fukuoka, Japan; back to Manila; back to Japan (Kobe); and then repatriation from Japan to the U.S. via Australia. 

No accounts of prisoners being moved around this much appear to exist.  Furthermore, civilians seized in the Philippines were usually taken to one of three holding camps, Santo Tomas University (Manila), University of the Philippines (Los Baños) and Baguio, where they remained for the duration of the war.

In Chapter 10, while incarcerated at an unnamed sub-camp in the Philippines,  Finch describes a camp commandant, whose hobby was raising roses, which he regularly watered by decapitating prisoners while the survivors were forced to watch (pp. 125-6). 

Finch also describes executions where victims were crucified, nailed face-first against wooden buildings, doused with gasoline and set on fire. (p. 125). 

These two execution stories aren’t found elsewhere in wartime accounts of
Japanese abuse.

Finch further charges that this camp commander “became a mega-millionaire” and a member of the Japanese Diet following the war.  And that he was protected from prosecution by the American government which “needed…men to run the new Japanese government.”  (p. 128)   Later she claims General Douglas MacArthur placed this man as “the American head of an immense electronic corporation, which MacArthur helped establish.”  (Ch. 21, “A Long Road Home,” pp. 248-9) 

No evidence is offered to support the charges against Gen. MacArthur and the U.S. Government, and neither the Japanese man, nor the company she claims he headed is identified.       

In Chapter 13 is another of the more serious inventions in Finch’s book.  Here she claims that, upon the surrender of Corregidor, the Japanese rampaged through the Malinta tunnel hospital, where “they came across wounded patients, nurses, doctors and surgeons [and] …machine gunned every single person without mercy…” (p. 142) 

This massacre never happened, nor were patients and medical personnel massacred at the two large field hospitals on Bataan when the Filipino and American forces surrendered a month earlier. Indeed, all 100 American military nurses survived the war.

In Chapter 18, Finch writes that an Australian friend “Dear Lennie” was beheaded for no apparent reason in front of her and her mother while in Fukuoka, Japan in early February 1943.  

A photo accompanying this beheading account appears on p. 198.  At the bottom of this photo is a link to the Australian War Memorial website (www.awm.gov.au), which identifies this as a famous photo of Sgt. Leonard George Siffleet being decapitated on a beach in Aitape, New Guinea along with two other Australian military men on 10/24/43. 

Mr. Houlahan expresses his concern:

The book is sure to encourage anger in the U.S. over the allegations made against the Japanese during World War II.  This is not to imply that the Japanese didn’t abuse military and civilian prisoners; however, many of the “incidents” described in the book never happened.  Casual readers or average movie audiences are unlikely to know this.  Furthermore, the book expresses hatred and contempt for the Japanese and their culture.  This is unfair and destructive.
 

Ms. Sascha Jansen, Senior Commander of the Bay Area Civilian Ex-Prisoners of War (BACEPOW), whose childhood experience as a civilian POW of the Japanese was prominently featured in the 2007 PBS documentary, “The War,” also writes:

Finch tells the readers of her horrible time as a child victim in a brothel (8 years old) for a very elite Japanese Officer’s R&R camp in Baguio. She claims she was beaten, her body burned with lit cigarettes, exposing her to sexual perversions. “I found this work to be boring,” she says in an offhanded way.

This does not ring true, as after careful research and interviews, I found no such a camp for officers R&R in the Baguio area.

Finch blatantly displays great historical inaccuracies and leaves absolutely no paper trail to fall back on for those of us who research the history of the World War II prisoner experience.

As a former civilian prisoner of the Japanese in the Philippines, incarcerated in the Santo Tomas civilian camp, I take umbrage with the author, Finch’s disgraceful memoir of embellishments, lies and exaggerations. Her story devalues the experiences and sufferings of those who were actual prisoners of the Japanese, mocking our true history with a false written testament which will be confused with true history.                     ( Sascha’s diary featured in PBS’s “The War”)

Mr. Angus Lorenzen, Commander of BACEPOW, says: 

One of the objectives of the Bay Area Civilian Ex-POW organization (BACEPOW) is to safeguard the true and factual history of those who were interned by the Japanese in East Asia during World War II.  It is important to those of us who lived through some terrible experiences that they not be fictionalized or distorted.  We strive to ensure that books, movies, and documentaries are accurate and provide a legitimate historical basis for our descendents and for those doing honest research.  Unfortunately the A.L. Finch Book, Child POW, is an egregious example of an author creating a fantasy about her personal experiences that are unreal and in direct conflict with documented evidence.  BACEPOW is actively engaged in trying to prevent this piece of fiction from being made into a movie that will pollute the true history of our experiences.            (Mr. Lorenzen's story as a civilian POW.)
 

I can only imagine how frustrating it must be for the survivors of Japanese camps to have to defend their history and integrity of their stories even within their country.

The Japanese government supported former Dutch civilian POWs of the Japanese in their efforts to preserve and disseminate their stories.  No similar support has been offered to former American civilian POWs to date.

It is hoped that the Japanese government will take immediate action to help former American civilian POWs in their crucial endeavor to safeguard the true history by offering them similar support it offered to their Dutch counterparts.                       -- Kinue Tokudome                                         
                    (with Mr. Lorenzen and Ms. Jansen)
                     photo courtesy: Mr. Lou Gopal                     

*BACEOPOW's website:  http://bacepow.net/index.htm

*Ms. Sascha Jansen can be reached at Mabuhayma@aol.com

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　  posted on June 25, 2010