The Sumatra Railroad : final destination Pakan Baroe 1943-1945 / Henk Hovinga ; [translated from the Dutch by Robert Rouveroy and Bernard J. Wolters].

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hovinga, Henk.

Standardized Title:

Op dood spoor. English

Language:

Dutch

English

Subjects (All):

World War, 1939-1945--Atrocities.

World War, 1939-1945.

World War, 1939-1945--Transportation.

World War, 1939-1945--Conscript labor--Indonesia--Sumatra.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (391 p.)

Edition:

1st English ed.

Place of Publication:

Leiden : KITLV Press, 2010.

Summary:

This is the gripping historical tragedy of the 220 km railroad that bored its way through the hot, humid Sumatran jungle during World War II. The railway was commissioned by Japan and built with the blood and tears of Allied prisoners of war and press-ganged Javanese romushas. Henk Hovinga interviewed nearly one hundred former railroad workers and did painstaking archival research. The result is a moving book, richly illustrated with numerous authentic drawings of life in the internment camps, charts and photographs. The original Dutch version of The Sumatra Railroad has become the standard work on the crime of the Japanese railroad construction in Indonesia. Unfortunately this indescribable human catastrophe has always been overshadowed by the drama of the notorious Birma Railroad. This work is first and foremost a posthumous tribute to the thousands of slave workers who lost their lives for the Pakan Baroe Railroad. At the same time, it is a homage to the survivors, for whom the war traumas would never end.

Contents:

Preliminary Material / Henk Hovinga

Introduction: The forgotten drama / Henk Hovinga

Chapter I: The road to oblivion / Henk Hovinga

Chapter II: Railway through the mud / Henk Hovinga

Chapter III: Beatings and starch / Henk Hovinga

Chapter IV: Maggots with sambal / Henk Hovinga

Chapter V: The shadow of death / Henk Hovinga

Chapter VI: Slaving in the gorge / Henk Hovinga

Chapter VII: The golden spike / Henk Hovinga

Chapter VIII: Waiting for freedom / Henk Hovinga

Chapter IX: Silent witnesses / Henk Hovinga

A word of thanks / Henk Hovinga

Note from the translator / Henk Hovinga

Notes / Henk Hovinga

Bibliography / Henk Hovinga

War Memoirs / Henk Hovinga

Chronology / Henk Hovinga

Abbreviations / Henk Hovinga

Nomenclature / Henk Hovinga

Index of personal names / Henk Hovinga

List of illustrations / Henk Hovinga

About the author / Henk Hovinga.

Notes:

At head of T.p. : Koninklijk Instituut voor taal- land- en Volkenkunde.

"Fifth revised edition including historical facts never ever published."

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

90-04-25371-8

OCLC:

855895562

Publisher Number:

10.1163/9789004253711 DOI