Empire of the Sun by JG Ballard

"War violates every right of a child -- the right to life, the right to be with family and community, the right to health, the right to development of personality and the right to be nurtured and protected." - Graça Machel, Expert to the Secretary General of the United Nations
Empire of the Sun is a novel based on the events that JG Ballard witnessed during the Japanese occupation of Shanghai in WWII. The story depicts an eleven year old boy's psychological transformations during his imprisonment within the Lunghua internment camp. As an innocent, upper-middle class boy before the…