The three most interesting books I have read recently concerned occupation forces during WWII, two about the German occupation of France and this one about the Japanese occupation of Malaya.  This particular novel pushes two of my buttons, an interest in southeast Asia since reading Somerset Maughan stories decades ago and a longing to know more about the world into which I was born (1940) and which killed my father in the Pacific Theater of war.  The basic theme of this novel also hits another of my reading interests, the intersection or clash of cultures.