Bread and Rice: An American Woman's Fight to Survive in the Jungles and Prison Camps of the WWII Philippines

Doris (Rubens-Johnston) Macauley

ISBN 10: 1592284132 / ISBN 13: 9781592284139

Published by The Lyons Press, Guilford, CT, 2004

About this Item

The Lyons Press, Guilford, CT. 2004. Softcover/Trade Wraps. First Printing by Line Number. Reprint of the 1947 original by Thurston Mccauley Associates. Book is tight, square, and unmarked. Book Condition: Fine. No DJ. Pictorial card stock wraps. Wraps are not bent or folded; spine is not creased or split; text is secure in binding. 239 pp 8vo. This book is the moving WWII account by Doris Macauley (aka Doris Rubens) of her life on the run in the Philippines and her eventual capture and imprisonment by the Japanese. She came to Manila in early 1941 to join her husband where she was an English teacher at the University of the Philippines when the war broke out in the Philippines. For a year and a half, she and her husband (Ron Johnson) lived in the mountains and jungles of Luzon, hiding with reclusive mountain tribes who sheltered and helped them in their daily struggle to evade the Japanese. Due to ever-roving Japanese patrols, they were forced to move constantly to avoid discovery?spending a week here, a month there. When they were finally captured, they were first kept in horrific Japanese prisons before being transferred to the internment camp at Santo Tomas, and, later, to Los Banos. The descriptions of hardship and the will-to-survive portrayed in Bread and Rice are a timeless story of individual courage and inspiration. A clean very presentable copy.

Seller Inventory # 015219

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Bread and Rice: An American Woman's Fight to Survive in the Jungles and Prison Camps of the WWII Philippines
• Publisher: The Lyons Press, Guilford, CT
• Publication Date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1592284132
• ISBN 13: 9781592284139
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Printing: 1st Printing
• Condition: Fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: No Jacket
• Seller catalogs:
  • Autobiography
  • Prisoner of War
  • World War II

About this title

Synopsis

Shortly after the war in the Pacific broke out in December of 1941, the author and her husband crammed enough clothes, foodstuffs, and supplies to last them six months into three suitcases, and headed into the choking bamboo jungles of Luzon. Unfortunately, the war was to last another four years.

For a year and a half, they lived from day to day, hiding among the little-known mountain people who sheltered and helped them in their grim struggle for existence. Always just a step ahead of the Japanese army, they were forced to move constantly, a week here, a month there. The refugees faced monsoon rains and the fear of malaria; they lived on dwindling stores of food; traded even their most precious possessions with Filipino villagers who wouldn't betray their hideout-and a few who were not so trustworthy-and assisted the bands of young guerrillas whenever possible.

Macauley's narrative is rich in characterization: Spalding, the American weakling who shared a part of the journey before surrendering to the Japanese; Placido, the always-opportunistic head of his tribe, who nonetheless protected the refugees and provided them with a home; and especially Fabian, the simple and courageous tao, who time and again risked his own life to help the Americans, until finally they were faced with the choice to surrender to the Japanese or see all of Fabian's family killed. What followed were the horrifying weeks in primitive Japanese prisons until they were finally taken to the internment camp at Santo Tomas, and, later, Los Banos.

Written with profound depth and immediacy, BREAD AND RICE is a young woman's stirring account of those grueling, terrifying days on the run.

About the Author

DORIS MACAULEY was a reporter in China and later a university teacher and radio commentator in Manila. She received the War Department Award for bravery in the face of the enemy while in the Philippines.