Additional information
by George a. Kulstad (Author)
Eric Hoffer Award 2019 Grand Prize ShortList, and First Horizon Award Finalist. When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, on December 7, 1941, it marked the beginning of the war in the Far East, as far as Western powers were concerned, and the expansion of World War II as a whole.The war, of course, had been raging between Japan and China since 1937, but the attack on the United States brought a new dimension to the scope and ferocity of the conflict and affected some who had no vested interest at all in its causes.One such person was George Kulstad - aged just six when the Japanese took over Shanghai, he remained outside the internment camps and witnessed the entire 4 years of the Japanese occupation, enduring all of its bloody horror through the eyes of a child.Now, in A Foreign Kid in World War II Shanghai, we are given a first-hand account of his life in the city, through the shortages of food and fuel and the hopelessness of the indigenous Chinese population, to the later American bombing raids and eventual liberation.It is a true story of survival that is as incredible as it is harrowing and one that continues long after the final defeat of the Japanese forces, with the Chinese civil war replacing one horror with another.
Author Biography
Growing up in China and having friends from many different countries gave the author an interest in living internationally. During his college years he also studied in Mexico City, and did graduate work in Geneva. He then worked internationally in Latin America, the Caribbean, Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. The website www.chinaww2.com contains an interview of the author, entitled "A Boy in Wartime Shanghai" which provides additional perspective on his experiences. Readers can use the e-mail address foreign.kid.war.shanghai@gmail.com to contact him.
