Post-war careerīy 1946 Clavell had become a captain, but a motorcycle accident ended his military career. He also experienced bad dreams and a nervous stomach kept him awake at night. For a time he carried a can of sardines in his pocket at all times and fought an urge to forage for food in trash cans. Ĭlavell did not talk about his wartime experiences with anyone, even his wife, for 15 years after the war. Clavell believed that if atomic bombs had not been dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki he would not have survived the war. Prisoners were fed a quarter of a pound of rice per day, one egg per week and occasional vegetables. I studied and absorbed everything I could from physics to counterfeiting, but most of all I learned the art of surviving, the most important course of all.
Among the inmates there were experts in all walks of life-the high and the low roads. Ĭhangi became my university instead of my prison. Later he was transferred to Changi Prison in Singapore. Shot in the face, he was captured in Java in 1942 and sent to a Japanese prisoner of war camp on Java. The commander, described by Clavell years later as a "total twit", insisted that they be dropped off at the nearest port to fight the war despite having no weapons. The ship taking his unit was sunk en route to Singapore, and the survivors were picked up by a Dutch boat fleeing to India.
Though trained for desert warfare, after the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941 he was sent to Singapore to fight the Japanese. In 1940, Clavell joined the Royal Artillery. Clavell was educated at Portsmouth Grammar School. Richard Clavell was posted back to England when James was nine months old. Born in Australia, Clavell was the son of Commander Richard Charles Clavell, a Royal Navy officer who was stationed in Australia with the Royal Australian Navy from 1920 to 1922.
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