![]() ![]() So no, I doubt Shute was racist in the sense we think of racism today, but was a reflection of his times and situation. (And actually, the writer seemed to portray the situation as a "normal" aspect of war, however unpleasant it was.) In addition, I have read enough stories of WWII to know that the Japanese were often quite inhumane to their captives, so the attitudes in the writing are understandable. I can well remember the view of my family towards Japanese in years after WWII. ![]() The language used to refer to Japanese was troublesome to my modern sensibilities, but realistic for the time. But the Japanese officers were mostly shown in a very negative light, with more sympathy for the enlisted men who were accompanying the women on their treks. I loved the book, as a story, and did not think the aborigines were portrayed as poorly treated. And actually, I did not think too much about it myself, simply because I grew up in that era and recall how people spoke of minorities and particularly of the Japanese. In 1935, Douglas' brother-in-law, Arthur Paget, dies accidentally in Malaya and Douglas contacts his lawyers about changing his will to set up a trust for his widowed sister Jean and her minor children. I read it as a reflection of how a Brit of the immediate post-WWII period would write and think. Chapter 1 Summary James Macfadden dies in March 1905, leaving his money to son Douglas. ![]()
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