DRAGON OF THE MANGROVES

About the Book

It was no time to fear animals when the possibility of the enemy counteroffensive was increasing. It didn't suit a soldier to lose nerve in the presence of a mere crocodile

At the end of World War II, a garrison of the Twenty-eighth Japanese Army is deployed to Ramree Island, off the coast of Burma, to fight the Allies' severe counteroffensive. While on the island, Superior Private Minoru Kasuga questions a local villager about the terrible smell coming from the saltwater creek. To his horror, the old man tells him it is the stench of death from the breath of man-eating crocodiles that inhabit Myinkhon Creek.

Fierce fighting drives the battalion to the island's east coast, and they must evacuate to Burma by crossing the creek. Just before they embark, Kasuga smells the same putrid odor that he'd questioned the villager about and warns his commanding officer of the underwater danger. His sergeant ignores him, thinking Kasuga is obsessed with wild stories from the villagers, and he tells the soldiers to cross the creek.

Ordered to save the penned-in garrison, Second Lieutenant Yoshihisa Sumi arrives on Ramree Island. But what awaits him at Myinkhon Creek is a sight too horrible to contemplate

About the Author

Yasuyuki Kasai was born in Tokushima, Japan. His great-great-grandfather was a samurai dispatched as a coastguardsman against the first U.S. fleet to sail to Japan, and his father was an army artilleryman during World War II. Educated at Musashino Art University, Kasai now lives in Mima, Tokushima, and works as an illustrator.