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.