Emerita professor of American Studies Judy Yung will discuss her new book The Adventures of Eddie Fung at the Capitola Book Cafe on December 10, at 7:30 p.m., as part of the independent bookstore's ongoing author series.
Yung's book is a compelling memoir of the life of Eddie Fung, the only Chinese American soldier to be captured by the Japanese during World War II. He was sent to Burma to work on the Burma-Siam railroad, made famous by the film The Bridge on the River Kwai.
Working under brutal slave-labor conditions, the men completed the railroad in 14 months, at the cost of 12,500 prisoners of war and 70,000 Asian lives. In Yung's book, Fung describes how his background helped him endure 42 months of humiliation and cruelty and how his experiences as the sole Chinese member of the most decorated Texan unit of any war shaped his later life.
Yung taught at UCSC from 1990 until her retirement in 2004. She is the author of Unbound Feet: A Social History of Chinese Women in San Francisco and co-author of Island: Poetry and History of Chinese Immigrants on Angel Island, 1910-1940. (Source: Scott Rappaport, UC Santa Cruz News, Dec 3, 20-07).