YANKS DON'T CRY

by Martin Boyle ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 16, 1963

Sadie the Sadist speaks to the American POWS he guards at Osaka #1 camp. President Roosevelt is dead, and Sadie is all smiles. Perhaps the new President, Ha a-Tsu-ma-n, will spare Japan these horrible B-29 raids. Sadie is a member of The Unholy Threesome, which also includes the mad Dr. Matsui and the elfin maniac, Mabel the Queer. Pitted against this torture-minded trio is what might be called The Semper Fi Four, a quartet of rock-souled Marines captured on Guam during the first weeks of WWII. They are professional soldiers, and this is the true story of how they kept their prit polished for nearly four years of internment. Probably their best luck was being interned right in Japan itself, for Osaka was stockpiled sky high with the provisions of life. The Marines were used as ""longshoremen"" to unload at the docks and, just as back home, whatever the longshoremen unloaded, they loaded up on. Author Boyle disclaims much which has become standard lore about POW camps--men defecting to the enemy for food and cigarettes, the use of a stool-pigeon system among the prisoners, men cracking under the strain. Most of this is centered upon a rank-pulling prisoner Rankin, who likes to torture his comrades by saving his cigarettes and then smoking them when everyone else's are gone. The account is told in bluff, cliche-bubbling language with plenty of Old Salt, and the prisoners' first riotous days of freedom are extremely funny.

Pub Date: July 16, 1963

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Geis (distr. by Random House)

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1963

Categories: NONFICTION