Thief of Glory by Sigmund Brouwer is a novel but very much based on factual events that happened in the author's grandpa's life and others who lived with him or helped the people survive as a Japanese concentration camp survivor during the Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies now know as the Island of Java. The story is also told of the heroics which happened as every day life in the Jappenkamp. It tells of those who were thought of as traitors who it is later found were actually saviors of the many Dutch and American women and children forced to live and many to die in the camp. The men and older male children had already been taken into forced labor and many died in that fashion either worked or starved to death. The story follows the life of Jeremiah and his family. Jeremiah and his little brother Pietje were the only survivors of this very large Dutch family. This story does not tell a pretty story. The survivors had to do many things for which they were later ashamed in order to survive. This book tells of great sacrifice as well as the corruption that happens during war. It is a difficult read but one must know history or we will be descended to repeat it.
Most of history and even novels tell the story of World War II as if the entire war was fought in Europe. This novel tells the story of the war fought in Burma. I am grateful to this author for telling this story. My father in law fought in the Burma part of World War II and he says that most don't even know of all that happened there. It is the forgotten part of the war. This story needs to be read by all. Most of us do not know why the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and this tells in part of why it was so important to them to destroy our military.
This book was provided for this review by Waterbrook Press.
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