From faribaultcountyregister.com
Jim Pollard’s new book reveals POW Hinkle’s concealed Pacific War diaries
Imprisonment, a world at war, parted lovers and a mysterious wooden leg…
This is the story of Lieutenant Walter J. Hinkle, which was nearly lost to the ravages of time.
When Blue Earth resident Jim Pollard obtained Hinkle’s diary in 2017, he recognized he had stumbled upon a treasure. Now, that treasure is revealed to the public in The Secret POW Diary of Walter J. Hinkle, a book researched and edited by Pollard.
The diaries, which are presented, unedited, in Pollard’s book, detail Hinkle’s experience as a prisoner of war at the Daveo Penal Colony in Japan.
Hinkle was stationed in the Philippines in the spring of 1941. His leg was severely injured that December, leaving him an invalid when the Philippines fell to Japan in May of 1942.
Bedridden and imprisoned by the Japanese army, Hinkle pieced together a diary on scraps of paper and cigarette wrappers.
According to Pollard, it is very lucky that he did so.
“It’s extremely rare to have a Pacific War diary,” Pollard says. “There were fewer soldiers fighting in the Pacific, and keeping a diary was very low on your list.”
Unusual circumstances enabled Hinkle to keep his 136,000-word diary safely hidden from the scrutiny of the prison guards.
When Hinkle’s injured leg was amputated, it was replaced with a wooden leg containing a false compartment – perfect for concealing a contraband document.
The carefully-kept diary details one of the longest periods of Japanese military captivity experienced by any American during the Second World War.
Hinkle updated his diary faithfully, sometimes bartering food for paper. Pollard believes Hinkle hoped to craft an accurate portrayal of his experiences for the benefit of the outside world.
Unfortunately, Hinkle was often unable to document specific details for fear of implicating the people around him. Instead, he reported important bits of news as ‘camp rumors.’
Hinkle’s experiences themselves were also limited.
“The problem with Hinkle’s diary is that he spends the entire war in a (prisoner of war) hospital bed,” Pollard notes. “Part of camp life was missing from the story.”
Pollard wanted to flesh out Hinkle’s experiences with additional perspectives in his book. So, he supplemented Hinkle’s diary entries with the diaries of other individuals with whom Hinkle crossed paths.
“He (Hinkle) is the hubbub of the wheel around which the story turns,” Pollard explains. “The other five stories have completed the wheel.”
Pollard wove five supplemental perspectives throughout the book. They include the diaries of a Japanese soldier, a Filipino local, a Bataan Death March survivor and a Davao Penal Colony escapee. Pollard identified them as the best stories to compliment Hinkle’s after two years of painstaking research.
The endeavor required a combination of dedication and serendipity, as do many aspects of Pollard’s hobby.
“In a way, discovering things is a form of adventure,” he considers. “(When doing research) you have to be sort of dogged and obsessive. It’s a trail, and it leads you where it leads you.”
Pollard’s book, for example, is a product of chance and relentless patience. It is luck, after all, that led Pollard to Hinkle’s diary in the first place.
The diary traveled between four owners before landing in Pollard’s possession.
Eileen Hinkle initially owned the diary after her husband’s death. However, when Eileen died, she willed the Hinkle estate, and the diary along with it, to the family lawyer, Camilla Broderick. Broderick sold the diary to her hairdresser, who had an interest in antiques, and the hairdresser listed Hinkle’s diary for sale on eBay.
Eventually, the artifact was purchased by Rob Morgan, a friend of Pollard’s and a big-time collector of diaries.
It just so happened that Pollard was on the lookout for a new research project when Morgan acquired the diary. Morgan suggested the unusual document might be just what Pollard was searching for.
“That began a five-year odyssey that concluded, this week, with Schiffer Publishing’s release of my book, The Secret POW Diary of Walter J. Hinkle,” Pollard says.
The book’s publication was nearly as complicated as its research.
Pollard considered offers from three different publishers before settling with Schiffer Publishing, who agreed to publish the book using Pollard’s own design.
Pollard wanted an atypical layout for the book: two columns to a page, with a smattering of supplemental diary entries throughout and a variety of photographs.
“I wanted that because of the types of photographs I had,” Pollard says, adding, “I wanted the book to be small: diary-size.”
Pollard also insisted that Hinkle’s diaries be published unedited.
“The way I like to read history is through a first-hand account,” Pollard explains. “I insisted the book be printed as-is. My voice is not in there.”
As such, Hinkle’s original diary entries are now available on Amazon, Schiffer Publishing’s website, and at Barnes & Noble. The book will also be available through booksellers in Germany and England.
You might say Pollard’s long journey to authorship ended just as satisfactorily as Walter J. Hinkle’s journey to freedom.
During his imprisonment, Hinkle found solace in memories of the Minnesota Boundary Waters, where he had once traveled with his dad on a fishing trip.
“At his worst moment, that place was magical,” Pollard says.
Hinkle returned to the Boundary Waters after he was liberated in 1945, an experience which was captured in a photograph appearing on the last page of Pollard’s book.
In the photograph, honeymooners Hinkle and Eileen grin from a small, white fishing boat, the Boundary Waters and distant woods at their backs.
“The story is essentially a love story,” Pollard says. “They met before the war on a cruise ship. They kept in touch, married after the war and had their honeymoon in the place he dreamed of.”
Pollard compares the story’s poetic symmetry to that of a Hollywood screenplay.
And yet, Hinkle’s story was very nearly lost to history, as are the words of so many people when nobody takes the time to read them.
“What’s curious about diaries is if you see them at auctions, they sell for almost nothing,” Pollard says. “Diaries are more ephemeral. They just sit in the drawer. You have to be the type of person who can enjoy seeing the experience vicariously through the words of other people.”
No comments:
Post a Comment