Masanobu Tsuji's 'underground escape' from Siam after the Japanese surrender / edited, with an introduction and annotations by Nigel Brailey.

• Author: Tsuji, Masanobu, 1902-
• TeilnehmendeR: Brailey, Nigel J.
• Year of Publication: 2012
• Language: English
• Series: Brill eBook titles
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (270 p.)
• Notes: "Original edition published 1952 in Tokyo by Robert Booth and Taro Fukuda as 'Underground Escape'."

First published in English in 1952, this is an account by the ‘notorious’ Colonel Tsuji of his escape through Thailand (Siam) – supposedly dressed as a Buddhist monk – following the Japanese surrender in Bangkok in August 1945; subsequently, Tsuji was to find his way into China via Hanoi before returning to Japan in 1948. It is a remarkable story, which includes significant analysis of Japan’s relationship with Thailand and the latter’s role in Asia, as well as Tsuji’s experiences in Kuomintang China. In his Introduction, Nigel Brailey states: ‘Tsuji Masanobu is at one and the same time one of the most interesting and preposterous figures of the entire Japanese war – which, if you rely on his own megalomaniac accounts, he waged “almost single-handed”…’ This is an important book which has been carefully edited with supporting annotations, and has its place in the military history of the period. Controversially, Colonel Tsuji who, according to Louis Allen, was responsible for ‘unspeakable atrocities’ in Singapore and elsewhere during the Pacific War, was never prosecuted for war crimes.

Table of Contents

Preliminary material / Nigel Brailey -- Chapter l: Man to Man – 1945 / Nigel Brailey -- Chapter 2: Into the Jaws of Death / Nigel Brailey -- Chapter 3: Annam in Ferment / Nigel Brailey -- Chapter 4: Proud Chungking / Nigel Brailey -- Chapter 5: Nanking, After the Return of the Government / Nigel Brailey -- Chapter 6: Aspects of a Changing China / Nigel Brailey -- Chapter 7: A Handful of Earth / Nigel Brailey.