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Unwritten Letters to Spring Street
December 1941. Jack Frith left his family and his life to go to war like so many others, uncertain whether he would come home. Whilst in a convoy bound for the Middle East the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbour, triggering Allied entry into the Pacific War. Hastily regrouped and ordered to the Far East, the now ill-equipped convoy peeled off for Java and elsewhere. Slipping the moorings, Jack could not have known that years of captivity and brutality, starvation and forced labour, and yet worse, awaited him.
This is no cry for revenge but justice, laying bare actions and exposing inaction, demanding long overdue apologies and uncovering past atrocities. It is also a moment of reflection on the forgotten armies of the Far East, in remembering each subsequent generation owes a great unpaid debt of gratitude to those who gave so much for our present freedom. The price of that freedom was by no means free.
This is no cry for revenge but justice, laying bare actions and exposing inaction, demanding long overdue apologies and uncovering past atrocities. It is also a moment of reflection on the forgotten armies of the Far East, in remembering each subsequent generation owes a great unpaid debt of gratitude to those who gave so much for our present freedom. The price of that freedom was by no means free.
474 pages, Paperback
Published July 30, 2020
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
December 11, 2021
I was sent a copy of this book via the publisher as part of a book tour hosted by Kaleidoscopic Book Tours, with thanks to them and the author.
This is a semi-fictional, based on a true story, book written about a young soldier named Jack Firth who leaves his home in Manchester in 1941 to fight in WW2. Less than a year into his service, he is captured and is taken to a Japanese POW camp. In November 1943, at just 23, Jack is murdered alongside 250 of his follow POWs after their ship is torpedoed by allied forces and they are not deemed saveable by the Japanese army and are instead gunned down. This atrocity was not public until 1949 when an Australian Captain receives a letter to investigate the crime and questioned a dozen or so Japanese personnel who were present on that day. But essentially, no justice can be served. This book begins from Jack's POV, firstly at home as a young man, then as a healthy young soldier in the POW camp, to growing sicker and weaker and then lastly, in the water where he dies. It then moves to the Australian Captain's POV as he fights for justice and is ultimately unable to secure it for the lives that were lost and the fact this went unreported for years. It ends in 2010, where the author states that she is the great-niece of Jack Firth, named after him, and explains that justice was never served for the family of the 250 servicemen who lost their lives on the SS Suez Maru atrocity.
This book is very well written, it doesn't sugarcoat the situation at all. War is brutal, for all involved, and finding justice for war crimes is so difficult to assertain. This book was hard-hitting, emotional and understandably so. This is an atrocity I would have known nothing about and my heart breaks for the families who lost members, often unknowingly. This author clearly has a talent for writing, this book is clear in its message and easy to read and follow and I'm so happy I selected this book to read. It's not often I read historical accounts, but I was really hooked by this one.
This is a semi-fictional, based on a true story, book written about a young soldier named Jack Firth who leaves his home in Manchester in 1941 to fight in WW2. Less than a year into his service, he is captured and is taken to a Japanese POW camp. In November 1943, at just 23, Jack is murdered alongside 250 of his follow POWs after their ship is torpedoed by allied forces and they are not deemed saveable by the Japanese army and are instead gunned down. This atrocity was not public until 1949 when an Australian Captain receives a letter to investigate the crime and questioned a dozen or so Japanese personnel who were present on that day. But essentially, no justice can be served. This book begins from Jack's POV, firstly at home as a young man, then as a healthy young soldier in the POW camp, to growing sicker and weaker and then lastly, in the water where he dies. It then moves to the Australian Captain's POV as he fights for justice and is ultimately unable to secure it for the lives that were lost and the fact this went unreported for years. It ends in 2010, where the author states that she is the great-niece of Jack Firth, named after him, and explains that justice was never served for the family of the 250 servicemen who lost their lives on the SS Suez Maru atrocity.
This book is very well written, it doesn't sugarcoat the situation at all. War is brutal, for all involved, and finding justice for war crimes is so difficult to assertain. This book was hard-hitting, emotional and understandably so. This is an atrocity I would have known nothing about and my heart breaks for the families who lost members, often unknowingly. This author clearly has a talent for writing, this book is clear in its message and easy to read and follow and I'm so happy I selected this book to read. It's not often I read historical accounts, but I was really hooked by this one.
November 28, 2020
"He looked to his window, birds hopped on the sill, chirruping. They were blissfully unaware of the horrors of war, the brutality and inhumanity that had spread across the world like a plague."
Too many of us are no longer blissfully unaware of the atrocities of war. In her heavily researched factually based WWII historical fiction novel Unwritten Letters To Spring Street author Jacquelyn Frith forces the reader to take off any blinders they may have on about war and the continuing suffering it causes for everyone.
From the very first paragraph we are brought front and center into the world of POWs and the constant tortures they endured simply for the pleasures of the psychopaths in charge.
We meet British soldier Jack jumping off torpedoed Prisoner of War ship Suez Maru in the first sentence of the book. What follows is his back story and what led to his capture by the Japanese and the horrendous treatment he received under their rule.
My late father in law was a POW in Japan near the end of WWII. He never talked about it. He had a metal plate in his head from being beaten with a rifle. The flag that was on his coffin is displayed in its case with his purple heart and handwritten thank you letter from President Truman next to it in our living room. My son looks at it with pride for his grandfather. I look at it with sadness for the pain and loss it represents.
I have such respect for this writer in telling the tragedy of these soldiers whose story has gone mostly unknown by the public. The fight by so many soldiers to have the war criminals responsible for abusing and killing so many POWs is awe inspiring and yet so tragic.
I received a free copy of this book from the author for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own.
Too many of us are no longer blissfully unaware of the atrocities of war. In her heavily researched factually based WWII historical fiction novel Unwritten Letters To Spring Street author Jacquelyn Frith forces the reader to take off any blinders they may have on about war and the continuing suffering it causes for everyone.
From the very first paragraph we are brought front and center into the world of POWs and the constant tortures they endured simply for the pleasures of the psychopaths in charge.
We meet British soldier Jack jumping off torpedoed Prisoner of War ship Suez Maru in the first sentence of the book. What follows is his back story and what led to his capture by the Japanese and the horrendous treatment he received under their rule.
My late father in law was a POW in Japan near the end of WWII. He never talked about it. He had a metal plate in his head from being beaten with a rifle. The flag that was on his coffin is displayed in its case with his purple heart and handwritten thank you letter from President Truman next to it in our living room. My son looks at it with pride for his grandfather. I look at it with sadness for the pain and loss it represents.
I have such respect for this writer in telling the tragedy of these soldiers whose story has gone mostly unknown by the public. The fight by so many soldiers to have the war criminals responsible for abusing and killing so many POWs is awe inspiring and yet so tragic.
I received a free copy of this book from the author for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own.
February 2, 2021
Excellent read. Transported to a time that to be honest, I don't think I could have coped in. Very detailed in every way and made me realise that I dont have it that hard after all! Highly recommended.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews