The Last One Out: Yates McDaniel, World War II's Most Daring Reporter

(Hardback)

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When Yates McDaniel died in Florida in 1983, few outside his family paid much attention. The only hint of his fame came in a brief obituary buried on the inside pages of the New York Times. The obit suggested bravery and a past far more exciting than almost anyone knew. Even those who worked alongside him in the 1960s at the Associated Press were startled to learn what McDaniel had been, what he had done when he was a young man and the world was at war. Yet this remarkable reporter covered more of the Asian war than anyone else - from the savage Japanese assault on Nanking in 1937 to the fall of Singapore in 1942 to landing with US Marines on New Britain in 1943. He took risks no other reporter ever accepted, and colleagues joked that Japanese bombers followed him wherever he went. AUTHOR: Jack Torry is the former Washington bureau chief for the Columbus Dispatch. The Last One Out is his third book. SELLING POINTS: . This is an exciting story about a newspaper reporter who risked his life on countless occasions in Nanking, Singapore and Manila to provide people throughout the world with riveting coverage of the war in Asia. . Author Jack Torry spent two and one half years reading hundreds of the subject's newspaper articles, examining scores of letters written by Mcdaniel's parents and sister, going through personal letters he wrote during the war, and reviewing extensive interview notes in the Library of Congress. . McDaniel was the last reporter to leave Singapore before its fall to the Japanese in 1942. He escaped on one of the last ships leaving Singapore and when it was sunk by Japanese aircraft, he and 130 others had to survive on a deserted island. 16 b/w illustrations

Reviews

or thirteen years, from the fall of Shanghai to Japans surrender, Yates McDaniel was the best at telling the stories of the war in Asia and the Pacific as one of the few Western reporters on the ground. Now, veteran journalist Jack Torry comes to tell McDaniels story. Its a story worth telling even seven decades later and Torry tells it well. McDaniels blend of deep knowledge of Asia and personal courage put him on the front lines as a witness to the Nanking Massacre, the collapse of Singapores defense and the liberation of the Philippines. -- George E. Condon, Jr., White House correspondent for National Journal
ack Torry adds another name to the list of remarkable reporters of World War II by recovering the life of Yates McDaniel, an American raised in China whose articles chronicled the panorama of the Pacific theater: from the Rape of Nanking and the fall of Singapore to MacArthur's return to Manila. The Last One Out is a most welcome achievement. -- Elizabeth Becker, former New York Times correspondent and author of When the War Was Over: Cambodia and the Khmer Rouge Revolution
t a time when journalism is under attack, and ideology and opinion often trumps fact and reason in the first drafts of history, Jack Torry has come forth with an insightful and spell-binding book on the courage and persistence of a man who epitomized the best of American journalism during the most destructive war in history. Torry expertly tells McDaniel's story by weaving impressively researched facts - many of them unknown to those who worked years alongside McDaniel after the war - with prescient observation. It all adds up to a fascinating tale of tenacity, mystery and daring - a lesson for all aspiring journalists to the unmatched power of fact and truth, and for all Americans who love their 1st Amendment. -- Chuck Raasch, author of Imperfect Union: A Fathers Search for His Son in the Aftermath of the Battle of Gettysburg Hardcover
ack Torry tells the fascinating story of the APs self-effacing Yates McDaniel, whom he labels the wars most daring reporter for the courage and derring-do he displayed from Japans attack on China in 1937 to its surrender in 1945. A gripping read that will tell you a lot about that war you never knew. -- Carl Leubsdorf, Washington columnist for the Dallas Morning News and former AP national corresponden
just finished The Last One Out and think it is a worthy, enjoyable read. It brings to life the cruelties of the imperial Japanese forces in Nanking, Singapore and the Philippines during World War II and gives the modern-day reader a greater appreciation of the challenges and dangers AP reporters and other journalists and their families faced, and mostly overcame, covering the Pacific theater and the privations suffered by millions of victims of Japan's war machine.The biography by Jack Torry revives the story of the now little-remembered journalist Yates McDaniel of AP, the son of an American missionary in China who was the last reporter out of Nanking and Singapore after the Japanese conquests in China and the Pacific. McDaniel later organized and led AP's coverage of the Pacific war and was with Gen. MacArthur in Australia and the Philippines. He and his glamorous wife Natalie braved their many dangers in a modest, unassuming way. Celebrated in his day, McDaniel never wrote his post-war memoirs. Now that omission is corrected by Torry, an ex-writer for the Columbus Dispatch and the Dayton Daily News, who uses interviews, archival materials and McDaniel's own published articles to piece together a unique and exciting life and bring back the time when hardened reporters filed by typewriter and cable and might disappear for weeks traveling on broken-down scows and ferries in embattled seas to bring back the story for a news-hungry public half a world away. -- John Daniszewski, Associated Press Vice President and editor at large for standards, former co-chair of the Pulitzer committee

Author Bio

Jack Torry is the former Washington bureau chief for the Columbus Dispatch. The Last One Out is his third book.