Club Lunch: The Good War of Consul Reeves
2Book synopsis: The Good War of Consul Reeves tells the story of Macau during WWII through the eyes of the British Consul there at the time. When Japan declared war in 1941 with the attacks on Pearl Harbor, Hong Kong, and Singapore, it soon occupied all of Southeast Asia. But when they got to Macau, they stopped, and for the duration of the war Macau was a sort of Asian Casablanca with a Portuguese Governor and a British and Japanese Consul.
John Reeves, the British consul, had been sent to Macau a few months before the war in the anticipation he would be a figurehead with little to do. Suddenly, he found himself the only Allied representative in the middle of thousands of miles of Japanese-occupied Asia. He ran spy rings, took care of British refugees, arranged for hundreds to escape to Free China and thence to freedom in India, and was in danger of assassination.
The book is a work of historical fiction, based on three years of research in archives and libraries in London, Hong Kong, Macau, Canberra, New York, Washington, and Miami. Q&A moderated by FCC First Vice President Jennifer Jett.