Dragons in the Forest: Alex Faure's own story of living through WWII in Japan

Born in Japan of a French father and White Russian mother, Alex Faure greeted news of war in the Pacific with schoolboy enthusiasm. That is until the hardships of being a gaijin and neutral foreigner in Japan during World War II became a stark reality for the Faure family.

Award winning author and screenwriter, Peter Yeldham masterfully tells Alex Faure’s own true story against the backdrop of real events in wartime Japan. Laced with excerpts from Alex’s diary, Dragons in the Forest is a riveting tale of life as a foreigner in a strange land at a very dangerous time.

ALEX'S DIARY - December 7th, 1941

Today the war began! I’ve just heard the news on the radio. I was trying to finish my homework in English, and at the same time listen to a talk to improve

my Japanese. I often use the radio for this purpose. The Marianist Brothers at St Joseph’s teach us in English and French, but speaking Japanese at school is

forbidden. Which is a pretty stupid rule, since this is where I was born and where my family lives, and on leaving school I want to get a job here …