Description
The first edition of Prisoner of the Japs by Gwen Dew, the only female war correspondent to report on the Siege of Hong Kong.
Octavo, viii, 309pp, [1]. Blue cloth, title stamped on the spine. Stated “First Edition” on the copyright page. Fold-out map of Hong Kong, opposite the half-title. Top edge dyed red. Light wear along bottom edge of spine, solid binding, a near fine example. In the publisher’s scarce dust jacket, $3.00 on the front flap, light soiling to covers, chipping along top edge, a very good example.
Gwen Dew (1903-1993) was an American journalist and war correspondent during World War II. She graduated from the University of Michigan in 1924 with a degree in journalism. In the 1930s, she traveled extensively, writing for the Detroit News. In 1941 she was in Hong Kong during the Japanese invasion, becoming the only correspondent to film the siege and its fall. Captured and held in a Japanese concentration camp for over six months, she was released in 1942 and later published her experiences in the book Prisoner of the Japs (1943). Dew continued her journalism career post-war, becoming the first female foreign correspondent permitted into Allied-occupied Japan in 1946.
