White Coolie
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Edition: First Edition Thus
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Chipped and worn with some minor damage
Pages: Tanning and foxing
Few survival accounts capture the full horror and resilience of the human spirit quite like White Coolie — a searing firsthand memoir of one man's ordeal as a prisoner of war under the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II. Ronald Hastain chronicles his harrowing years of captivity in Southeast Asia, forced into brutal slave labour alongside thousands of fellow prisoners, stripped of dignity, health, and hope, yet clinging fiercely to the will to survive. The narrative unfolds across the sweltering jungles and merciless work camps of the Pacific theatre, painting a visceral portrait of suffering, camaraderie, and the darkest depths of wartime captivity. Hastain writes with a raw, unflinching authority that transforms personal testimony into a document of profound historical importance, placing White Coolie firmly within the canon of essential POW literature alongside works by Eric Lomax and Russell Braddon. The memoir argues, above all, that human endurance is boundless — that even under conditions designed to extinguish every last flicker of individuality, the spirit refuses to capitulate. Decades after its first publication, this account retains its power to shock, to move, and to remind readers of a chapter of history that must never be forgotten — leaving one to wonder how any man could emerge from such an abyss and still find the words to tell the tale.
Author: Ronald Hastain
Format: Hardback
Published: 1947, Hodder & Stoughton
Genre: Biography
Edition: First Edition Thus
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Chipped and worn with some minor damage
Pages: Tanning and foxing
Few survival accounts capture the full horror and resilience of the human spirit quite like White Coolie — a searing firsthand memoir of one man's ordeal as a prisoner of war under the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II. Ronald Hastain chronicles his harrowing years of captivity in Southeast Asia, forced into brutal slave labour alongside thousands of fellow prisoners, stripped of dignity, health, and hope, yet clinging fiercely to the will to survive. The narrative unfolds across the sweltering jungles and merciless work camps of the Pacific theatre, painting a visceral portrait of suffering, camaraderie, and the darkest depths of wartime captivity. Hastain writes with a raw, unflinching authority that transforms personal testimony into a document of profound historical importance, placing White Coolie firmly within the canon of essential POW literature alongside works by Eric Lomax and Russell Braddon. The memoir argues, above all, that human endurance is boundless — that even under conditions designed to extinguish every last flicker of individuality, the spirit refuses to capitulate. Decades after its first publication, this account retains its power to shock, to move, and to remind readers of a chapter of history that must never be forgotten — leaving one to wonder how any man could emerge from such an abyss and still find the words to tell the tale.