I stopped by the booth at Northwest Bookfest in November 1999 that the publisher of this book put on. Evelyn Whitfield was manning the booth that day. She had sold all the copies of her book, but she was such a warm personality and sold other people’s books so well, that I had to order a copy of her book.
She wrote the manuscript shortly after her release and return from three years spent in Japanese prisoner of war camps in the Philippines. This was not originally meant to be published as a book, but for some reason she has dusted it off and published it. I suspect the Premiere Editions is a vanity publisher, though I do not know for certain.
First off, I must get out of the way that the writing is somewhat amateurish. I might characterize it as something I would write.
She tends to write as I would expect someone of her generation who is not a writer would, with much respect for the sensibilities of the people like her. Everyone in her prisoner of war camp holds up rather well under the circumstances. She does not write much about disagreements, and the ones she does write about she laughs off as minor. While not having experienced the horror of a prisoner of war camp, my experience with living in close quarters with people is that arguments are much more serious that one would gather from the plucky crowd who inhabits her camps.
But several things do come through the story. The lack of contact with the outside world comes through so much in the story that I found myself wondering if they ever made it out alive. Having met the author, I know that she did. The absolute precariousness of their position shines through loud and clear as well. One never finds her in the exaggerated position where she is near death due to the capriciousness of a Japanese guard. No guns being pointed at her head. However, subtly she paints a canvas with arbitrary decisions regarding food, shelter, and bowing which show how much at the mercy of others they were.
The hope that the prisoners exhibit also is apparent. The internees attach themselves to any rumor that whips through the camp. Sightings of planes. Contact with former employees and acquaintances through camp fences. The disappointment shows when their camp translator is no longer allowed to translate in meetings with the Japanese authority, because she can understand the words they say in addition to the official translation.
Author: Evelyn Whitfield
Title: Three year picnic : an American woman’s life inside Japanese prison camps in the Philippines during WWII
Publisher: Premier Editions International
Format: Paperback
Length: 319 p.
Publication date: 1999
ISBN-10: 0-9633818-8-1
Subject: World War, 1939-1945 — Prisoners and prisons, Japanese
Subject: World War, 1939-1945 — Concentration camps — Philippines
Subject: Prisoners of war — United States — Biography
Subject: Prisoners of war — Philippines — Biography
Subject: World War, 1939-1945 — Personal narratives, American
Subject: Women — United States — Biography
LC classification: D805.P6 W39 1999
