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From June 1942 to October 1943, more than 100,000 Allied POWs who had been forced into slave labor by the Japanese died building the infamous Burma-Thailand Death Railway, an undertaking immortalized in the film "The Bridge on the River Kwai." One of the few who survived was American Marine H. Robert Charles, who describes the ordeal in vivid and harrowing detail in Last Man Out. The story mixes the unimaginable brutality of the camps with the inspiring courage of the men, including a Dutch Colonial Army doctor whose skill and knowledge of the medicinal value of wild jungle herbs saved the lives of hundreds of his fellow POWs, including the author.
- Sales Rank: #1272036 in Books
- Brand: Brand: Zenith Press
- Published on: 2006-11-15
- Ingredients: Example Ingredients
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 9.00" h x .56" w x 6.00" l, .51 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 240 pages
From the Back Cover
“A remarkable story, long overdue, of the treatment of POWs captured by Japan.”
—Arthur L. Maher, Rear Admiral, USN, Senior officer to survive sinking of the USS Houston, POW of the Japanese in World War II
“In World War II, to move materials and troops from Japan to Burma by avoiding the perilous sea route around the Malay Peninsula, the Japanese military built a railroad through the jungles of Thailand and Burma at great human cost to its prisoner laborers. Last Man Out is an effective addition to the history of this tragedy.”
—Library Journal
From June 1942 to October 1943, more than one hundred thousand Allied POWs who had been forced into slave labor by the Japanese died building the infamous Burma-Thailand Death Railway, an undertaking immortalized in the 1957 film Bridge on the River Kwai. One of the few who survived was American H. Robert Charles, who describes the ordeal in vivid and harrowing detail in Last Man Out: Surviving the Burma–Thailand Death Railway. The story mixes the unimaginable brutality of the camps with the inspiring courage of the men, including a Dutch Colonial Army doctor whose skill and knowledge of the medicinal value of wild jungle herbs saved the lives of hundreds of his fellow POWs, including the author.
About the Author
H. Robert Charles was born in Pitcher, Oklahoma, Charles grew up on a wheat farm and cattle ranch near Hutchinson, Kansas, and enlisted in the Marine Corps in June 1940. He was a machine gunner aboard the USS Houston at the time it was sunk by the Japanese in Sunda Strait, March 1, 1942. He swam nine hours, was picked up off the coast of Java by the Japanese, and held forty-three months in slave labor camps in Burma, Thailand, and Saigon.
Repatriated at the end of the war by British paratroopers and Office of Strategic Services personnel, Charles spent time at a hospital in Calcutta before returning home.
After graduating from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, Charles later joined Parents Magazine in New York, serving as family home editor.
Most helpful customer reviews
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
One of the best memoirs of WWII
By Kelly Howard
This was a very well-written book that depicts much of life in the camps for the unfortunate men who were forced to build the Burma-Thailand RR. The author was a writer, & it shows*. He tried for years to suppress the horrors he & the others endured, but eventually was convinced to write about them.
I said "life in the camps" because that's the primary focus of the book, particularly the fascinating & brave character & history of the Dutch doctor who worked so hard to help the others, despite a near total lack of medicines, medical supplies, & while they were on starvation rations. Interestingly, Dr Hekking was able to employ his knowledge of herbal medicines, tho the more "traditional" American & British doctors thought he was nuts &/or incompetent for using these "weeds", thinking him more of a witch doctor.
Charles also describes the unbelievably horrifying conditions on the ships which were used to transport the unfortunates to Japan...rather like what the Africans endured in the original slave trade, with the added piquancy of possibly getting torpedoed by your own side because the Japanese didn't, say, put a Red Cross on the transport ships.
At the risk of sounding ghoulish, I sort of wish he'd talked a bit more about the actual work on the railroad, but it doesn't detract from the book. I think it would've been useful to counter the mis-impression most people have, especially if all they know on the subject is from the movie "Bridge on the River Kwai," which makes it sound as if the prisoners were determined to do the best darned job on that bridge they possibly could, to prove they were better engineers than the Japanese (or something). The truth is, the prisoners did everything they could to sabotage or slow down the building of the railway & the bridge, which was incredibly dangerous as the Japanese would beat them mercilessly if they noticed the prisoners lagging.
*In the preface, James Hornfischer mentions that this book could stand alongside of William Manchester's memoir, "Goodbye Darkness; A Memoir of the Pacific War." I agree with this encomium & would say it also stands with EB Sledge's memoir. Manchester's incredible book gets my vote for one of the best books of all time, regardless of subject...I've read hundreds of books on the World Wars --& probably hundreds of thousands on other subjects....I go through 3-10 books a week, & have done so since the 1960s. In other words, this book is in very impressive company.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful.
Great story about special doctor in terrible conditions
By Tom Betz
H. Robert Charles does an excellent job of describing the terrible conditions of being a prisoner of war in World War II, and being forced to work for the Japanese in building the Thailand-Burma railroad.
He singles out the efforts of Dutch Doctor Henri Hekking who worked to save many American, British, Australian and Dutch prisoners during the three years of captivity in Burma and Thailand.
Charles was one of the few Americans who were prisoners working on the railroad. He was a Marine from the USS Houston sunk in Februray 1942 off Java.
Certainly one of the best books about the experiences of that terrible time I have read.
Recently was in Thailand and spent a couple of days along the River Kwai and traveled a small section of the Thai portion of the railroad operating today. It was that experience that got me looking fo books about the Thai-Burma railroad.
I will admit I had a fascination about the events going back to when I was a young man and watched the 1957 British movie "Bridge on the River Kwai." When I walked on the bridge in May I found myself whistling the "Colonel Bogey March" which was used as the theme song for the movie. An elderly Thai gentleman was playing a violin, and when I started whisteling he played the march as well. I wondered how many times a day he heard the march being whisteled, and I did give him some money for his effort.
The War Cemetery at Kanchanaburi and the Death Railway Museum were beautiful and very instructive about the events. It was at the Death Railway Museum I first understood about the USS Houston and the Texas artiliary unit captured in Java and how they became part of the railway work force.
Well worth the read, and I hope to return to the River Kwai someday for another visit to reflect on what these prisoners experienced.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful.
Fascinating!
By Fierce & Fond Reader
The Bridge on the River Kwai (Two-Disc Collector's Edition) was the last movie my Dad ever saw when it premiered in London. He insisted on getting out of his sick bed & that we all attend with him. I watch the movie every now & again, just to remember him & the walking stick he had that had been made by one of his friends who'd been there.
LAST MAN OUT is H. Robert Charles' memories as a young naval gunner whose ship, the USS HOUSTON, was sunk in the Sunda Strait off Java in one of the earliest PTO battles in March '42. He was hauled out of the sea by an enemy who abhorred surrender. They shipped him & other survivors off to a life of building a railway under starvation conditions with jungle illnesses from Burma to Thailand upon which the Japanese intended to ship men & materiel in its quest to conquer all of Asia.
It's 1978 & Robert Charles is the epitome of the successful American business & family man... except he's falling apart: the same nightmare robs him of sleep, he's drinking like a fish & has so many terrors he's at the end of his rope... & as before, to combat all this he's just sold one company & taken on a whole new one, working in conditions & a location that, for some reason, give him the sweats.
During a rare phone call with one of his wartime buddies he's told that the VA, since the Vietnam War, is open to all sorts of new doctoring & he really ought to get himself to a therapist. There his memories start surfacing, & in doing so relieve him enough to begin unraveling the story of the one person every POW he's kept in touch with says helped keep 'em alive: a Dutchman familiar with the plants of the Burmese jungle, called Dr. Hekking.
Of course, there are never enough B&W photos or maps as I study the young lads who stepped into that storm. Never having been in combat cuz I'm the "wrong" gender, I've been gathering women's memoirs of their POW & camp years. This, written by a man, focuses on what matters to men: what they remember & how, what they opined & why.
One of the best memoirs about someone other than the writer!
An afterthought: Recently major news stations showed a few seconds of a ceremony of remembrance for the dropping of the bombs on Japan where some 100+ thousand civilians were incinerated & even more terribly wounded. The news anchors stressed how remarkable this year was cuz it's the first time American & European representatives have attended... no mention of the 100+ thousands of Allied POWs: killed & alive. It wasn't until 1995 that a memorial in Huston was created for the lads who perished all those decades ago.
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