Beyond Death & Dishonour by Michiharu Shinya

On the 13th of November 1942, the Japanese Destroyer Akatsuki was sunk off the coast of Guadalcanal. Torpedo officer Michiharu Shinya was captured and sent to the Featherston Prisoner-of-War Camp in New Zealand.

He arrives to a camp of 800 inmates, simmering with discontent. Tensions rise and snap; a riot breaks-out and 48 Japanese POWs are killed by gunfire from New Zealand guards.

Shinya's personal war continues, as he struggles with the ultimate crime against Japan: to die is honour; to live is to cease to exist.

Through the kindness of a New Zealand padre, Shinya confronts his ghosts and is changed forever.

[This memoir was originally published as The Path from Guadalcanal by Outrigger in 1979. Beyond Death and Dishonour is a revised and updated version of that original text comissioned by the author in 2001.]

ISBN: 0958212465

What They're Saying:

"Shinya's memoirs say it directly and frankly - a story of enduring interest"
- Vincent O'Sullivan (NZ Listener)

"This is a simply-told tale, powerful, moving, full of insight."
- Paul Freedman (NZ Catholic)