Rangoon, prior to World War II, was known as the "Pearl of the Orient," with its golden pagodas, well-planned streets, fine university, and bucolic suburbs. The war and its tumultuous aftermath would leave Burma scarred and devastated, led by men who eventually marched the country into isolation and ruin. Through the characters in Rangoon 1941 you will meet the people and events that created Burma as a British colonial outpost with a diverse population and cosmopolitan life-and will see World War II from their perspective. Never before has a novel explored this country and era through the eyes of Burma's ordinary peoples, communicating the hopes and fears and pathos of those whose lives were forever changed by colonialism, the Japanese occupation, independence, and military rule. Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, and other former British colonial cities have since recovered and are now thriving modern cities. Rangoon, with its pockmarked streets and crumbling buildings, still looks battered and broken. This book provides insight not only into the city but also into the plight of the country and all of it peoples.