81032 Melbourne, [The Author, 1945]. Small octavo, [32] pages with 29 pages of illustrations (mainly two to a page) and plans plus a double-page map tipped in before the title page. Pictorial card covers lightly marked; an excellent copy. The booklet contains a 'collection of drawings and sketches, prepared under difficult conditions and with poor materials ... It covers the period from the time the "Japan Party" left Changi Camp, Singapore, in 1942, up to the finish of the War in 1945' (from the author's preface, dated October 1945). Wilkinson and about 1000 Australian and British prisoners (including members of the Loyal North Lancashire Regiment) left Changi on 16 August 1942 and travelled aboard the 'Fukkai Maru', arriving at Fusan on the south Korean coast on 22 September. The party was then split in two and sent to either Keijo or Jinsen. The sketches cover a wide variety of aspects of the hard life of the POWs, so it is heartening to read the following caption: 'Some of the crates we carried were very heavy and had to be carried long distances. We upset the Japs' calculations at times by changing destination labels'. This copy is signed in ink on the title page by John Wilkinson. $450.00AUD
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