Was he a spy, a traitor?

…or merely an idealist?

Did he sell his soul for his country?

…Friends and family wondered

 A very different type unravels the story of one of the last of the old Asia hands.  John Holland bucked authority in Australia and raised the eyebrows of the British in Asia in the 1930s.  When war broke out he broadcast news commentaries over the German-controlled radio station in Shanghai and Radio Tokyo in Japan.  His ego led to a falling-out with his Japanese employers which resulted in interrogation by the Kempeitai and incarceration in appalling conditions in a Hokkaido jail.  On his release from prison he was arrested by the Allied authorities along with the notorious Tokyo Rose.  There followed a comic opera paper-chase over three continents in an attempt to pin a charge of collaboration on him.  When he resettled in Japan in the 1950s he remained ‘his own man’, a true free spirit.  His witty and incisive journalism attracted praise while his outrageous behaviour and style of living often shocked his colleagues.

Loreley A. Morling, a West Australian, met John Holland on her first trip to Asia in 1960.  Formerly a librarian, she is now a free-lance genealogical and historical researcher and writer.  She has spent ten years building a portrait of this recalcitrant Australian from letters, documents and reminiscences.

Available for sale for a cost of $25.00 plus P&H

A5, pb, vii, 188pp, b/w photos, bibliog., index

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