Jack Leemon (1910–1962)

This book actually consists of two separate parts, both interesting but very different.

The first part is a narrative memoir of Jack Leemon's service with 26 Australian Graves Registration Unit in the Second World War, first in New Guinea recovering Australian and American dead at Buna, and later at Lae, Markham Valley and surrounds. Back in Australia his unit was tasked with dealing with casualties and mass suicides of Japanese prisoners of war from the Cowra Breakout. At the war's end he was deployed to the Thai-Burma Railway to identify and recover remains of Allied prisoners of war. A tough job, but essential for morale on the home front, as well as for the troops in the field. This part of the book was written in the early 1960's just before the author's death and contains many interesting recollections. Be warned, however, Jack is a man of his times who didn't hesitate to write down the truth as he saw it, and some of his observations are a little confronting in this day and age.

Part two covers the wartime memoir's of Jack's wife Betsy (she served as a driver in the Australian Women's Army Service), and their married postwar life together when Jack was appointed to manage the establishment of the Commonwealth War Cemetery at Yokahama, Japan. It's very different to the first part of the book, but very interesting in its own way, especially the four years spent in Japan immediately postwar, which relies on letters and diaries Betsy made at the time.

The book was definitely a worthwhile read, and something a bit different, covering stories and ground that was new to me.

Recommended.

Copy purchased secondhand by the Reviewer from Time Booksellers, Somerville.… (más)