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From "Santo Tomas" by Frederic H. Stevens, page 511: David Scott Hamilton Mary Scott Hamilton Samuel Weir Hamilton, Sr. Samuel Weir Hamilton, Jr. William Reese Hamilton July 13, 2010 Do kids see war differently? The novella, “Fireworks,” just published in Eclectica Magazine, is based on deadly historic events of WW2, but fifteen-year-old Johnny Oldfield’s account is for me also a vigorous celebration of life. 1945 was the year I turned nine, so I was not quite so actively involved as Johnny in all the action of those last months leading up to our liberation from Japanese Internment Camp Number One. The combination of starvation and living at ground zero in the battle for Manila had produced in me a peculiar vibration. I felt like a tuning fork. Bombing, strafing, aerial combat, huge explosions, artillery, mortars and the imminent threat of death at the heart of a city in flames, all on a diet equal to a slice of bread a day, caused this unique physiological effect. Manila, once proudly named the Pearl of the Orient, was laid waste. Over 100,000 Filipino civilians were massacred. Now, sixty-five years later, in a world erupting in new conflagrations, it seems a good time for “Fireworks” to see the light of day. Click below to enter "Firworks" at Eclectica Magazine: http://www.eclectica.org/v14n3/feature.html Sam Hamilton E-mail OROHAM@aol.com  or if you would like to be added to my POW/Internee e-mail distribution list, please let me, Tom Moore, know. Thanks! |