The Sumatra railroad : : final destination Pakan Baroe, 1943-1945 / / Henk Hovinga.

• Author: Hovinga, Henk.
• Place / Publishing House: Leiden : : KITLV Press,, 2010.
• Year of Publication: 2010
• Edition: 1st English ed.
• Language: English; Dutch
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (391 p.)
• Notes: "Fifth revised edition including historical facts never ever published".

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.

Table of 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.