Courtney McGrailA Doctor’s Sword: How
an Irish Doctor Survived War, Captivity, and the Atomic Bomb
by Bob Jackson
(Collins Press, € 22.99)
Joe Carroll
The extraordinary story of how Dr Aidan MacCarthy from Castletownbere survived World War Two as an RAF doctor in Japanese prisoner-of-war camps and the dropping of the atomic bomb on Nagasaki was first told in his own words in A Doctor’s War in 1979. But it was not the whole story.
Bob Jackson, a lecturer in the Institute of Technology, Tralee, has now produced a fuller, more revealing version of Dr MacCarthy’s incredible story, filling in the gaps through interviews with relatives and excellent research in World War Two archives.
He was inspired in his quest by coming across the samurai sword in the MacCarthy family bar in Castletownbere which explains the title given to his book.
McCarthy, who died in October 1995 aged 82, had brought the sword back from Japan following his release. His family assumed it was an interesting souvenir, but never guessed the fascinating story behind it which Bob Jackson unearthed.
MacCarthy had rarely talked about his dreadful experiences even to his family and it was only 25 years after the war ended that he was urged to write them down, for personal therapy as much as for posterity.
The sword had a most interesting story to tell also. It belonged to 2nd Lieutenant Isao Kusuno, the Commandant of the last POW camp where McCarthy had been held. This followed his transfer from the camp where he had experienced the destruction of Nagasaki at close but not too close quarters.
When the Japanese surrender was announced on August 15, 1945, Kusuno and other prison guards fled the camp, but he was soon captured and brought back. MacCarthy was the senior officer and he intervened when some of the prisoners, especially the Australians, were determined to hang Kusono.
It was to show his gratitude for saving his life that Kusuno presented his sword to MacCarthy along with a photograph of himself on the back of which he had written in Japanese: “To my dear friend Dr MacCarthy, this is my parting gift to you on this day the arrival of peace, August 1945. Kusuno.”
The sword inspired Bob Jackson on the difficult quest to find the Kusuno family, if they still existed, to tell them how it had ended up thousands of miles away in a town on the western seaboard of Ireland. This took several years and is part of the acclaimed feature film, A Doctor’s Sword, which he has also made.
With the help of the Japanese press, which was intrigued by the story of the Irish POW and the samurai sword, the author made contact with Isao’s grandson, Satoshi.
There is a photograph in the well-illustrated book of Satoshi standing at the graveside of Isao Kusuno with Nicola MacCarthy, daughter of his onetime prisoner and saviour.
How Dr MacCarthy would have been proud of his daughter’s reconciliation with the Kusuno family. He himself used to say he felt little bitterness towards the Japanese which is saint-like when you read about the appalling treatment he and his comrades experienced at their hands.
He acknowledged that it was thanks to the atomic bomb on Nagasaki that he probably owed his life as his captors were preparing to execute all POWs before the expected American invasion of Japan.
But he considered it a horrible weapon and wished it had never been invented.