No copyright retained or credit required for all text below.
Newspaper Article Inspires War Novel
Black Sun, Red Moon will shatter
assumptions over Japan’s surrender in 1945!
Publication date: 15th AUGUST 2013
‘Victory Over Japan’, VJ-Day 68th Anniversary tie-in.
• Within weeks of Japan’s surrender in August 1945 British and Japanese troops were fighting side-by-side against Indonesian revolutionaries.
• Over internees, mainly 80,000 European women and children became hostages in a clash between Asian self-determination and white colonial power.
• Japanese invader became unexpected protector and ally amidst a whirlwind of revolutionary terror and slaughter. In November 1945 a Japanese officer was recommended for a British Distinguished Service Order (DSO)….
• Hundreds of British, Indian, Gurkha and Japanese servicemen and thousands of internees died in this, the first of the ‘savage wars of peace’.
Inspired by an article in the Daily Telegraph newspaper, Black Sun, Red Moon is an ambitious interpretation of the remarkable and tragic events in Java in 1945-46. The factual basis of Rory Marron’s story is astonishing, even explosive. His great achievement is the weaving of historical and cultural detail in an enthralling adventure of revolution, forced prostitution, betrayal and murder.
‘An ambitious, unconventional, mesmerising, ultimately compelling saga of men at war, prisoners, forced prostitution, political dirty tricks and mob terror in Japanese-occupied and revolutionary Indonesia. Marron gives us an almost tangible glimpse of the mayhem that was Java in 1945. His writing, infused with imaginative speculation, is sweeping, poignant, passionate and unflinching.’ Publishers Catalogue.
AUGUST 1945
Japan’s surrender ends the Second World War but triggers revolution in Java. In a chaotic, mistrustful ‘peace’, Britain orders the Japanese to defend the white colonial order. Sworn enemies become allies…of a kind. British troops, veterans of the Burma campaign, arrive in Java anticipating a warm welcome and easy duties. Soon both their mission and motives are questioned, as they face a new, unexpected enemy. Amidst the mayhem of siege and slaughter, former foes must stand shoulder to shoulder. Yet even as new bonds of comradeship are formed older loyalties demand a deadly finale.
MEDIA RESOURCES
available at www.rorymarron.com include:
Reproduction of the original Daily Telegraph article (‘Old Soldier Returns Surrender Sword’) that inspired Black Sun, Red Moon: A Novel of Java.
‘Historical Background’ to Java in 1945 prior to the arrival of British.
High definition cover photograph for download.
ABOUT RORY MARRON
‘Rory Marron’ (a pseudonym) is an unrepentant ‘flags and gunsmoke’ historian. He was born in Lancashire, England. When he was 15 he emigrated to Canada with his family. Rory’s doctoral thesis (taken in the UK) examined British foreign policy in Southeast Asia after the Second World War. He lived in Japan for several years, working in the international sales department of a large company in Tokyo. His interests include Iyengar yoga and tai-chi. Rory works for much of the year in Portugal. Black Sun, Red Moon is his first novel.
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News Release 2 (September 2013)
Seventh Citadel Press Release. No copyright retained or credit required for text below.
Victor and Vanquished in an Uneasy Alliance in 1945 Southeast Asia
In October and November 1945, just weeks after the Japanese surrender, British, Indiand, Gurkha and Japanese troops were fighting side-by-side in Java protecting Europeans (previously interned by the Japanese) from slaughter by heavily armed Indonesian nationalists mobs. Over 1,000 Japanese died in Java and Sumatra up to January 1946 as the British rearmed surrendered Japanese forces (arguably in contravention of the Geneva Convention) to maintain the white (ie, Dutch) colonial order. One Japanese officer was even recommended for a British Distinguished Service Order (DSO). This astonishing but little known 'alliance' serves as the backdrop to the provocative and controversial novel, BLACK SUN, RED MOON: A NOVEL OF JAVA by Rory Marron, which reverses the familiar roles of captor and captive in war-torn Southeast Asia.
With the cinema release of The Railway Man, a film dramatisation of Eric Lomax's harrowing memoir of his years as a prisoner-of-war of the Japanese, there is certain to be considerable public comment about Japanese war crimes in Southeast Asia. (The film, scheduled for release in the UK in January 2014, stars Colin Firth, Nicole Kidman, Jeremy Irvine and Tanroh Ishida.) BLACK SUN, RED MOON presents a startlingly different perspective of Anglo-Japanese relations in war-torn Asia. Yet the story pulls no punches and begins during the Japanese Occupation of Java, describing internment, torture, forced white prostitution as well as Indonesian grievances and aspirations via a core of intriguing characters. The Japanese surrender is the catalyst for revolution, tragedy and sacrifice…. While not a memoir and first and foremost an action and adventure novel, BLACK SUN, RED MOON is heavily based on fact and years of academic research. As one very positive reviewer has commented, the story takes western readers 'out of their moral comfort zone' and, through a jarring 'role reversal', takes them into unfamiliar and thought-provoking territory.
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