Night Train from Manchuria

About the Book

SYNOPSIS OF BOOK FOR WEBSITE: Night Train From Manchuria is a complex fictional story woven over little known compelling history of World War II in the Pacific. The story is plot driven and character driven. Army Major John Anders, an agent of the U.S. Office of Strategic Services and Army G 2 intelligence, works at the U.S. Embassy in Manila. In the 1941 attack on the Philippines, Japanese soldiers raped and murdered Anders’ wife. His young son was either killed or lost in the jungle. His hatred for the Japanese is unbounded and threatens his sanity. Captured, he escapes from the Bataan Death March and flees to Manchuria with the Chinese resistance leader, Han Yu Chi; he fights with the resistance and eventually returns to the OSS in Washington where, as chief of the China/Japan Desk, he follows Japan’s progress in its war with China and biological warfare preparations. The Japanese ability to wage biological and chemical warfare increased with their development of clay bombs to deliver live plague bacteria. A plague attack on the west coast of the U.S. using balloons on the Jet Stream from Northern Japan and mini submarines is imminent. (Factual) Major Anders begins manipulations to be assigned to a reconnaissance team and return to Manchuria to work with an old friend, who leads the resistance, to destroy the plague bacteria and clay bombs. The OSS assigns two Japanese/American officers to the team. Anders’ obsessive bias becomes a serious obstacle to his leadership and he is denied the mission command, but allowed to head the reconnaissance team. The reconnaissance team’s mission is to identify in which facility at Unit 731 the plague bacteria and bombs are stored and pass on the information to a larger special operations military team to follow. At the rendezvous in Manchuria, the OSS special operations team of paratroopers is thwarted by betrayal and has to return to base. Anders, his team and members of the resistance, including his old friend, Han Yu Chi, are captured and imprisoned at Unit 731. Major Anders begins immediately to plan their escape and the destruction of the plague bacteria and bombs which are on the same grounds where they are imprisoned. At the prison Anders bonds with the Japanese/American officers and with Han’s young daughter (also Japanese/English) He bonds as well with a victim of the Japanese experiments, a young boy two years older than Anders’ son when he was lost. Together the group makes plans to escape Unit 731 prison. Night Train From Manchuria is filled with-little known compelling history of World War II in the Pacific, and with historical figures, including Hideki Tojo, Prime Minster of Japan, Dr. Shiro Ishii, Director of Japan’s biological warfare program, Manuel Quezon, President of the Commonwealth of the Philippines, and Emperor Pu Yi, puppet of the Japanese as head of the Empire of Manchukuo, formerly Manchuria. Holding true to the known characters of the historical figures, history is dramatized and brought to life by the fictional story. The story is rich in drama, action, suspense, intrigue, triumph over adversity, redemption, friendship, and sacrifice. It moves from Manila to Tokyo, to Washington, D.C. and culminates in Manchuria.

About the Author

Retired Air Force Major J. Randolph Smith served in the military for twenty-four years as a psychotherapist during the Korean War, the Viet Nam Conflict and during the years of relative peace in Spain, Turkey, Colorado, Texas and France where he met and married his wife of fifty-three years. The couple resides in Austin, Texas where their two grown children also live with their families. Major Smith published Night Train from Manchuria in 2012, a historical novel based on World War II in the Pacific; he is writing his third novel, a historical suspense thriller. Jack has just finished his second novel, COUP D’ETAT, a political thriller and is currently working on his third novel, a historical suspense/thriller.