The Oriental Salt Collection
Some Called It Paradise: An American Saga
These are the twilight years of America's colonial experience in the Philippines; 1937-1942 leading to the outbreak of the Pacific War and its impact on the American community in Manila, the Pearl of the Orient. A furious seafaring adventure revolving around visits to Manila by the mystery ship of a quasi-privateer, and a hidebound widow desperate to acquit herself in a male-dominated business world; her bitter son and his doomed grandmother; a humorously sad British widower; and the tragedy of a young Marine and his island sweetheart.
Their idyllic life in paradise is shattered as war engulfs their country at the edge of the world, the only major U.S. territory seized and held by the Japanese during WW II. Here are the opening stages of the Pacific War, the Japanese invasion, the surrender, the atrocities of Manila and the Bataan Death March; torture and internment of allied civilians at the hands of frenzied conquerors, and a desperate 2000 mile escape and evasion of men, women, and children as Japanese forces encircle the archipelago. An unforgettably heroic story.
ORIENTAL SALT
Oriental Salt brings you a sweeping panorama of Asia in the explosive 20th Century. From mythical China of the 1930's to the nightmare of World War II's Bataan Death March, of innocent young love driven to desperate measures, of cruel treachery by greedy, cursed espionage agents, and scheming harlots in Honolulu's red light district.
It's all here: the brave and the cowardly; the engineers of treachery and deceit; masterminds of revenge and cold-blooded murder, hope and angst of bewildered souls, their punishment and salvation. Raw, unvarnished tales from Oriental Salt.
You'll laugh, cringe and weep and never forget these memorable characters...
MORE ORIENTAL SALT
As with the first volume of Oriental Salt, the lead off story here in More Oriental Salt, is Pittsburgh Go. As was Private Turner and his Woman in Oriental Salt, Pittsburgh Go is a novella, and continues the theme of Some Called it Paradise, itself a trilogy whose first volume is also published here.
"I’m in Frisco at the moment. Visited friends. At the Airport,
actually, awaiting a flight. I return to the States every few years. Mostly,
my old buddies visit me in Thailand. But they’re getting fewer every
year, either dying or just less able to get around than I can. Old farts.
Maybe I hop around to show them I can still hop, while they can’t.
Occasionally, I take a cutie or two with me. I have a stable back on
Phuket. If a small handful constitutes a stable. And while I’m on it; why
the hell do we call a collection of young beauties a stable?..."
Tales of the Inscrutable Oriental Salt 3
It’s the Old Salt talking here. When I returned to Thailand after my trip around the States–very likely my last given my old bones–I started this and another volume of remembrances. I had previous told you about Private Turner and his Woman in Oriental Salt, and about Pittsburgh Go in More Oriental Salt.
Anyhow, I've decided that with many of my old cronies kicking off, there was little reason for those damn endless flights across the Pacific. Folks visit me now, because aside from those who’ve served in the armed forces, not that many have really spent much time over here. Those who are married or otherwise entangled rarely bring their wives, and I suspect many of those old babes slip down to Jamaica for their own place in the sun.