Friday, June 03, 2011

One Special Pacific Swede

The subtitle translates as "The Swedish American that survived Pearl Harbor".

In six months it will be 70 years since Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. Because a relative of mine was there and almost went down with his ship I have since childhood had a special relationship to Pearl Harbor. This fall a book will appear about Emery "Swede" Lundquist who was there and afterwards even experienced Arctic war, but lived to tell.

In fact, Emery "Swede" Lundquist lives to this day. The coming Swedish book Swede is the result of Mr. Lundquist's meetings with an experienced Swedish journalist, Thomas Tynander. Thanks to Mr. Lundquist's wartime diary his memories are extra credible and detailed.

Swede is not Mr. Tynander's first bok about a Swedish American fate, Tynander's biography about the hockey legend Pelle Lindbergh was released also in English in 2009.

"Swede" Lundquist experienced not only all major naval battles against Japan, he was also in the extreme but rather unknown fight for the Aleutian Islands, those 200 islands between Alaska and Russia.

I was given a sneek peak and can testify that Swede will be appreciated by many, both WWII buffs and all Swedes interested in their American family branch(es). Hopefully, some US publisher will also want to publish Swede.

2 comments:

  1. This is exciting news and I can't wait to read it. Mr. Swede taught me how to swim as a youngster, he's a great man and a true American hero.

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  2. Uncle Swede married my Mom's (Anna Ruth Keating) sister, Katie (Catherine Keating). He told me about the events on that December 7 attack.

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