Ray Parkin's Wartime Trilogy: Out of the Smoke; Into the Smother; The Sword and the Blossom

Ray Parkin's Wartime Trilogy: Out of the Smoke; Into the Smother; The Sword and the Blossom | Ray Parkin | Required reading to understand WWII in the Pacific

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Ray Parkin's Warti...

	Ray Parkin's Wartime Trilogy: Out of the Smoke; Into the Smother; The Sword and the Blossom Ray Parkin Melbourne University Publishing, 2003 - 970 pages average customer review:based on 2 reviews view larger image
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Both the courage and the inhumanity displayed during wartime are chronicled in these three diaries penned by Ray Parkin, who served during World War II. Engaging narratives and pictures detail his experience on the HMAS Perth in the Sunda Strait battle with the Japanese naval force that eventually sunk his ship. Also recounted are Parkin's 15 months as a prisoner of war, during which he helped construct the Burma-Siam railway. Details of his final 12 months of captivity in a crowded tramp steamer reveal the endurance of soldiers who survived submarine attacks and weathered a typhoon. These stories provide a single man's perspective on the war but also offer insight into the Japanese way of thinking and the traumas of combat.

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A WELL BALANCED HERO

The novels were first published in London in the 1960's, the author himself stating it took this long for him to take a balanced view of the things he saw as a sailor during war and as a prisoner of war under the Japanese. His hand drawn pictures in these works were made whilst in Custody under threat of execution if seized.

Before the war, PARKIN was a professional sailor, after the war he studied as a classical artist, and worked on the wharfs of Melbourne as a tally clerk.

This description meets his works, his love of the sea, his artwork throughout the works, his beautiful descriptions, and his exacting detail.

The first novel is of a shipwreck survivor, it doesn't show it, but he is the hero portrait, it is a TRUE story. The second is a diary of his captivity on the Burma railway, and the third of his captivity in Japan, including the dropping of the A-Bomb. 'He states that a newspaper dropped in by air to Japan when he was first released has three momentous events, atomic weapons, jet propulsion and ball point pens'.

His works are not bitter, if anything appreciative of having lived a life less fortunate. Very Australian in it's style and language, it is as moving as any of the recognized greats. I will not wax lyrical about its style further, the editorials above do so far more eloquently than I could.

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Required reading to understand WWII in the Pacific

I read these books many years ago and found them moving, perhaps 'The Sword and the Blossom' the most moving. This, the third book, attempts to understand the Japanese character as it was experienced by the POWs. It's not pretty, but it is necessary if you want to try to come to grips with quite a lot of the meanings behind the Pacific theatre of WWII.

Parkin's writing is well-balanced, as pointed out. The brutality, sadism and all the other things can't be hidden. Parkin wrestles with the complexity of the Japanese psyche in the war. The POWs are men in extreme situations. Some may not act as well as they may have liked, but Parkin doesn't judge them: who could? There are quietly heroic acts that just seem 'normal', but Parkin doesn't make a big deal about it.

What shines through is the author's humanity. In spite of the brutality, he can appreciate the people he meets, the world around him (e.g. 'the coruscating sea'), and capture it in his sketches.

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