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About the Author
Japan invades and captures the British colony of Singapore in 1942. All Europeans on the island are being interned. Edward Schirmer, the author's grandfather, faces a dilemma - he is German bu born as a British subject. in a strange stroke of fortune, he finds himself friends with General Tomoyuki Yamashita, the famed 'Tiger of Malaya'. Seeing the fate of the other Europeans, Edward reluctantly lets the Japanese assume he is a friend German national - only Yamashita knows otherwise. The secret of his true identity remains between the two men only but when politics removes the protective Yamashita from the [picture, betrayal ensues and Edward finds himself in prison, his family scattered.
The autobiography then moves on to the true-life account of Edward's son and the author's father, Hans Schirmer - a hellish tale of a six year-old boy's quest of survival, alone on the streets of a war-torn vanquished nation, where everyone is hungry and racial tension in rife, where martial law allows the occupiers to summarily execute at will. Amid the horrors of the post-war years, a young boy learns to live, while witnessing an epic moment in history.
About the Author
Edmund M. Schirmer is an up and coming writer. Born in Singapore in 1970, he attended the prestigious Saint Joseph Institution there before moving to the United States at the age of 21. Today, he resides in the Tri-Cities area of southeastern Washington. Always an avid writer, his main interest lies in World War II history and they effects of that epoch on individuals and societies. The passing of his father cemented i him a desire to chronicle the momentous events of World War II as seen through his father's eyes, to document the experiences of a passing generation, before they are lost and forgotten. Extensively researched to corroborate his father's account, When There Were Tigers In Singapore is Schirmer's first novel.
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