Sacrificial Pawn Being a Memoir of His War Experiences Part- icularly of His Time as Prisoner of the Japanese 1942-1945

A Sacrificial Pawn is a story of survival. Peter Jackson was young and recently married when he was drafted into the army at the start of World War II. He had no wish to be there but like most of his generation he was given no choice. Peter arrived in Singapore just as the city was being evacuated and within days he was a prisoner of the Imperial Japanese Army. Peter was lucky to survive the brutality that followed. Like so many he was forced to work for the Japanese, first in Singapore and then on the infamous Thai-Burma railway. While there he escaped with seven other soldiers and when re-captured he was treated harshly. His memoir brings alive the characters of the various soldiers and also of the Japanese whom he encountered. Some of the Japanese he met treated their prisoners more humanely and Peter was able to form a relationship with them. But throughout his memoir there is a sense of hopefulness that as young men they would survive and get back to their homes; this was despite the despair many of them felt at losing four years of their lives as prisoners. Author Biography: Peter R. Jackson, who is now in his nineties, served with the Suffolk Regiment in World War II. He wrote this memoir for his second wife Aileen to show her what had happened in his life. He arrived in New Zealand in the 1950s as an employee of Fletcher's and has lived here ever since. He has always written but this is his first published book.

Featured in the 9 May 2011 New Zealand newsletter.
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