Abstract:
The powerful storyline woven throughout Beyond Pearl Harbor details a civilian prison-camp experi-ence that may call to mind Kantor’s Andersonville for its frank description of the day-to-day experience—lines, bedbugs, dysentery, lassitude, beriberi, and starvation. However, the message grows consistently positive and uplifting as the account progresses. Clio Mathews Wetmore provides more than merely a record of wartime deprivation and cruelty. She hands us a study in human tenacity and grit, a peek at personal courage, and a close look at love, trust, faith, and gradual recovery from hardship and grief.