When There Were Tigers In Singapore
Edmund M. Schirmer
Marshall Cavendish International (Asia) Pte. Ltd.

Japan invades and captures the British colony of Singapore in 1942. All Europeans on the island are being interned. Edward Schirmer faces a dilemma – he is German, but 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 friendly German national. Only Yamashita knows otherwise. For a time, 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.

Based on the true story of the Schirmer family, When There Were Tigers In Singapore is also a tale of one six year-old boy’s survival, alone on the streets of a war-torn, vanquished nation. Where everyone is hungry and racial tension is rife; where martial law allows the Occupiers to summarily execute at will. Amid the horror of war, this young boy learns to live, while witnessing an epic moment in history.

Read Excerpt