Java Nightmare: An Autobiography

Captive in Indonesia Much has been written about the male experience of captivity under the Japanese during World War Two, but how did women cope with the hardships of imprisonment? Java Nightmare is a riveting autobiographical account of the companionship and endurance forged between women who were tested to the limits of endurance and human frailty. Extensively used as source material for the BBC series Tenko, this is a frank record of daily life in the concentration camps of a part of Southeast Asia, revealing the horrors and squalors that had to be endured. Java Nightmare is a vividly written historical record from a period of cataclysmic change in the world's social order. It is also a moving testimony to the power of the human spirit to survive. 'As a witness of the immediate aftermath of that terrible time, I can only verify the book's authenticity. 'Vastly interesting, I read it all in one 'go'. I was greatly moved and found it compulsive reading.' DIRK BOGARDE