By Eastern Windows: The Story of a Battle of Souls and Minds in the Prison Camps of Sumatra

By Eastern Windows, first published in 1949, is the fascinating, inspirational account of correspondent William McDougall, captured by the Japanese while reporting from Sumatra during World War II. McDougall would spend the next 3-1/2 years in various internment camps, and was able to secretly record his experiences and thoughts in a diary. His reports of Japanese cruelty, severe hunger and starvation, diseases such as malaria, dysentery, and beri-beri, and the death of many internees are chilling testaments to the struggle to survive the brutal conditions of the camps. His book also details the activities of the men to survive, both the good-the compassion, medical care, and sharing of food, for example-and the bad such as stealing, usury, and beatings. Following the war, his faith strengthened by surviving a war-time ship sinking and the internment camps, McDougall would go on to become a Catholic priest (later monsignor). He worked on many community issues in Salt Lake City until his death in 1988.