by Hill, David
And I’ll try to be dauntless. For Mum and Dad. For my friends. For Ito.
Historical Note
In 1942, three years after World War II started, the British Empire (including New Zealand) and the United States were at war with Germany, Italy and Japan.
The Japanese had invaded Malaya, Thailand and Burma (now Myanmar), and had captured Singapore. They also occupied many Pacific islands, invaded New Guinea, and bombed towns in northern Australia. It seemed as though New Zealand might also be attacked, so coastal defences were built, with barbed wire and concrete pillboxes.
A growing number of Japanese prisoners were brought to New Zealand. An old World War I training camp, just outside Featherston in the Wairarapa, was quickly turned into a prisoner-of-war camp. Soldiers from the Home Guard (men too old, too young or too unfit to fight overseas) provided security. At one stage, the camp held over eight hundred prisoners.
In World War II, Japanese troops believed it was shameful and cowardly to be a prisoner. Many felt it was better to die. Problems began to grow inside the Featherston camp: the sorts of problems described in this story. On 25 February 1943, after angry arguments over working parties and other issues, the Japanese prisoners charged some guards, who began shooting. About fifty Japanese died, and many were wounded. Because of wartime secrecy, the exact numbers are unknown.
The site of the camp is now a small, quiet roadside park on State Highway 2, a few kilometres north of Featherston. On a stone are carved words from a seventeenth-century Japanese haiku:
Behold the summer grass;
All that remains
Of the dreams of warriors.
Glossary
BBC British Broadcasting Corporation — the British government radio network which broadcast news to many countries in the world
BLACKOUT CURTAINS thick, dark curtains drawn to stop any light from shining out (in case it helped enemy planes)
BOB a shilling (ten cents)
BONZER really good or enjoyable
BRITISH EMPIRE the countries once ruled by Great Britain. From around 1950, the name gradually changed to British Commonwealth
CHARLIE CHAPLIN a famous early-twentieth-century film actor
CHOP CHOP! hurry up!
COMPOUND part of an army camp or prison, usually surrounded by high walls or fences
CO commanding officer or conscientious objector
CORKER really good
CROOK sick (or broken) or cross or criminal
DIXIES big cooking pots
DO MY/YOUR BUN get angry
EMPIRE GAMES since 1950 these have been called the Commonwealth Games
FLAT-OUT very busy (or very fast)
THE GREAT WAR also called World War I or the First War, it lasted from 1914 to 1918. Around 100,000 New Zealanders fought in the war and 18,000 were killed
GROCER a shop (or a person working in it) like a dairy
HOME GUARD see Historical Note
JAPS during World War II, enemy troops were called various names: ‘Japs’ and ‘Nips’ for Japanese; ‘Nazis’, ‘Huns’ and ‘Jerries’ for Germans. These names are mostly insulting and are not used now
JOKERS men or boys
MILK MONITOR the student responsible for handing out milk to the class. From 1937 to 1967, all primary-school children in New Zealand received free milk at school, to improve their health. Pupils took it in turns to be milk monitors, giving out the little bottles of milk and the straws to pupils
NCO non-commissioned officer (usually a sergeant or a corporal)
NEGRO a widely accepted term for an African-American in the 1940s
OFF-COLOUR unwell
PILLBOXES roofed gun emplacements made of concrete
PIPS an officer’s shoulder badges. Also the little ‘beeps’ on a radio to announce the time (e.g. nine o’clock)
SHOUTED US bought something for us
STROPPY cheeky, noisy, badly behaved
TOJO (slang) insulting name for a Japanese soldier. Hideki Tojo was a World War II Japanese general and prime minister
TOMMY-GUN a sub-machine-gun
TUCKER food
UNION JACK the flag of Great Britain. Many countries of the British Empire flew it
YANKS (slang) Americans
My Brother’s War
My Dear Mother,
Well, I’ve gone and done it. I’ve joined the Army!
Don’t be angry at me, Mother dear. I know you were glad when I wasn’t chosen in the ballot. But some of my friends were, and since they will be fighting for King and Country, I want to do the same.
It’s New Zealand, 1914, and the biggest war the world has known has just broken out in Europe.
William eagerly enlists for the army but his younger brother, Edmund, is a conscientious objector and refuses to fight. While William trains to be a soldier, Edmund is arrested.
Both brothers will end up on the bloody battlefields of France, but their journeys there are very different. And what they experience at the front line will challenge the beliefs that led them there.
Winner of the Best Junior Fiction and Children’s Choice Junior Fiction awards, New Zealand Post Book Awards for Children and Young Adults 2013
Brave Company
Something in the water, a hundred yards or so away.
Russell jerked the binoculars back, trying to find it again.
He had to be sure; mustn’t make a fool of himself.
Where was it? Then he saw it through the lenses once more.
His voice rang along the deck.
‘Mine! Bearing 290 degrees. 100 yards. Mine!’
Sixteen-year-old Boy Seaman Russell Purchas is stationed on HMNZS Taupo, which has just entered hostile waters off the coast of Korea. It’s 1951, and his ship is part of the United Nations force fighting in the Korean War. Russell is determined to prove himself against the communists — not just because he wants to be brave, but because he wants to escape the shadow of his Uncle Trevor, killed in World War II. Everyone thinks Trevor was a hero, but Russell knows the shameful truth.
But can Russell keep himself together when the shells start falling? And does he really know what courage means?
New Zealand Listener’s 50 Best Children’s Books List 2013 Finalist Esther Glen Junior Fiction Award, LIANZA Children’s Book Awards 2014
The Deadly Sky
The plane bucked sideways, flinging Darryl against the cabin wall. It plunged vertically, jolted so hard that his teeth clacked together, then started skidding downwards through the sky. The screams rose to a frenzy. Then Darryl felt the aircraft turning, swinging towards the right. They were heading towards Mururoa. And towards the nuclear bomb waiting there. The bomb due to explode in fifty-seven minutes.
It’s 1974, and a dark, cold New Zealand winter. So when Darryl’s mum announces she is going to the remote Pacific island of Mangareva for work, and she’s taking him with her, he is thrilled.
But even as Darryl soaks up the warmth and peaceful beauty of French Polynesia, his holiday is darkened by violent anti-nuclear protests. Plus there’s Alicia, with her furious outbursts against all Pacific nuclear tests. Darryl knows she’s talking rubbish.
What he doesn’t know is that when he boards Flight 766 to fly home, his life and the lives of others will be changed forever.
No Safe Harbour
The bells stopped, so suddenly that their sound quivered in the air. For the first time in an hour, the loudspeakers spoke, but this time the words were different.
‘We are about to abandon ship. All passengers proceed immediately to the starboard side. We are about to abandon ship.’
Stuart and his twin sister Sandra are coming home to Wellington on the ferry. Stuart knows he’ll enjoy the trip — he’s a good sailor. But it’s April 1968 and the ship is the Wahine.
As tragic events unwind Stuart and Sandra battle to stay alive.
A vivid and compelling picture of the Wahine’s last hours.
See Ya, Simon
; Simon is a typical teenager — in every way except one. Simon likes girls, weekends and enjoys mucking about and playing practical jokes. But what’s different is that Simon has muscular dystrophy — he is in a wheelchair and doesn’t have long to live. See Ya, Simon is told by Simon’s best friend, Nathan. Funny, moving and devastatingly honest, it tells of their last year together.
Winner of the Times Educational Supplement Nasen Award
THE BEGINNING
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First published by Penguin Random House New Zealand, 2016
Text © David Hill, 2016
Cover and text design by Sam Bunny © Penguin Random House New Zealand
The moral right of the author has been asserted.
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-743-48716-7