Escape to Pagan

The true story of a soldier who survived Japanese capture, a sinking hell ship, and the bombing of Nagasaki, all while his family fought their own battle in the Burmese jungle.

While leading an attack on Hong Kong's Golden Hill, Jack Devereux of the Royal Scots is shot through the head. Then a Japanese officer attempts to behead him in order to blood his samurai sword. Waking briefly, Devereux kills his would-be executioner, impressing his captors. Fascinated by their prisoner's grisly wounds, they allow him to live, but Devereux's trials are only beginning.


In a precarious physical state, the wounded soldier experiences the horrific sinking of the Japanese freighter LisbonMaru, in which hundreds of POWs drown; survives the shark-infested South China Sea; and burrows in the mines of Nagasaki as the atom bomb falls. Meanwhile, his family hides in Burma, hoping against hope that they will one day be reunited with Devereux.


Written by his son, Brian Devereux—whose mother carried him from Mandalay to the deserted medieval city known today as Bagan—this is an amazing account of the terrifying wartime journey of a soldier and his family.