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A novelised account of the war crimes trials held on the islands of Ambon and Morotai following the end of World War II.
Notes
Based on Brian A. Williams and Denis Whitburn's screenplay for the film, Blood Oath (1990). Williams' fascination with the real life events which make up the narrative dates back to his discovery at the age of twelve of the transcripts and photographs kept by his father, one of the men charged with prosecuting the Japanese.
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Dedication: Dedicated to my father, John Williams Q.C. - the inspiration; my mother, Dorothy Williams - the true believer; and Ursula Kolbe - the catalyst.
Author's note and acknowledgements: This book is based on a series of war crimes trials of the Japanese on Ambon and Morotai, Indonesia, in early 1946. What follows is a dramatic synthesis of those events. It in no way purports to reveal the 'truth' of what happened. Rather, it seeks to illuminate the kinds of forces that were to shape the post war world, forces that still have direct effect on the present. ...
Pymble,Turramurra - Pymble - St Ives area,Sydney Northern Suburbs,Sydney,New South Wales,:HarperCollins Australia,2002.
Extent:viii, 279p.p.
Note/s:
Dedication: Dedicated to my father, John Williams Q.C. - the inspiration; my mother, Dorothy Williams - the true believer; Ursula Kolbe - the catalyst; and to Toshi Shioya, Don Ball and Peter Ninomiya - who helped build our bridge of reconciliation between Australia and Japan out of Blood Oath.
Based on the true story of an Australian Army captain who, in 1946, was assigned by the Australian Army Legal Corps to prosecute Japanese soldiers for their role in the Laha Massacre (1942) and other incidents at Ambon Island POW camp between the fall of Ambon to the Japanese in 1942 and the end of the war.
Set against the background of international power politics, the script attempts to portray the perplexing issue of war guilt through the rhetoric of courtroom drama. It can usefully be compared with the Japanese documentary The Tokyo Trial (1984), the second half of which deals with the trial of twenty-eight alleged war criminals.