Media: BOOK - paperback, 214 pages
Author: H. Cockerill, P. Monteath & Y. Nagata
Year: 2022
ISBN: 9781743058961
Other: b&w photos
Publisher: Wakefield Press

Before the Japanese Imperial Navy Air Service staged its surprise strike on Pearl Harbor, Miyakatsu Koike lived the privileged life of a Japanese expatriate in the Dutch East Indies. Through the working week he was a conscientious employee of the Yokohama Specie Bank in Surabaya. The rest of his time he could devote to playing golf and tennis, to indulging his hobby photography, and to exploring Java with his wife Fumiko. When his countrymen committed themselves to the 'Greater East Asia War', however, that world came to an abrupt and painful end.

The Loveday Internment Camp in South Australia's Riverland region was established during World War II. It was used to confine predominantly German, Italian and Japanese internees. The first internees were received in June 1941, and the last were released in February 1946.

'Four Years in a Red Coat' presents for the first time in English translation Miyakatsu Koike's wartime diary from WWII. It is a keenly observed record of his arrest, his hellish voyage to distant South Australia, his endurance of years in the Loveday Internment Camp, and his return ultimately to a war-ravaged homeland. More than that, it is a testament to one man's calmly stoic triumph over sustained adversity. The scars of his war are indelible, yet Koike emerges from it with his humanity not just intact but enhanced.

Contents:
Acknowledgements
Introduction: Four Years in a Red Coat
A Note on the Text
Preface
1. Before Detention
2. Memoir of Detention by the Dutch East Indies Authorities
3. Sumowono Detention Camp Diary
4. Memoir of the Voyage on board the 'Cremer'
5. Loveday Internment Camp Diary Part 1: From 31 January to 15 August 1942
6. Loveday Internment Camp Diary Part 2: From 16 August 1942 to 15 August 1945
7. Repatriation to Japan on the 'Koei maru'
Afterword