THE EMPEROR'S LAST SOLDIERS

This is the story of two Japanese soldiers who survived sixteen years in the jungles of Gurun believing that World War II was still on. It is written by one of them, with a certain hollow-eyed naivete, which is not intended to demean Ito Masashi but simply to indicate the book's essential simplicity. Basically this is a story of learning to live in the jungle where he was dominated by fear of being captured by the aborigines or the Americans and driven by the need for food. The years pass; he risks a trip to the coast for seawater from which to extract salt and preserve meat. Animosity develops: one man goes off for a year; they refuse to consider that the war might be over; one man dies.... Genuine, no doubt, but marginal.