Scott Osterman was at the end of his spiritual rope when he rescued Martha Shoop from a rioting mob in the streets of Shanghai. She, too, was drifting, trying desperately to cling to principles and ideals that were fatally undermined by the disintegration of the world around her under the onslaught of the Communist forces.
Their own shattered lives were reintegrated as Scott and Martha determined to shake off the immorality of their past and preserve what is decent in human life. Together they knew they had to act. Together they plunged into the turmoil. Their resolution led them to the thick of battle and into crises in which only their devotion to each other was the cause of freedom that sustained them. This inspiring, dramatic story of love and war is a tribute to the grandeur of the human spirit.
This story is a major publishing event, wherein through a tender and effecting love story, a theme of great consequence is unrolled for the American people-perhaps not too late to save us in the generally unrecognized war which shakes our world. The setting is the China civil war, which placed one fifth of the world's population in the Communist camp. The China War was the prototype of Cuba, the Congo, Laos, the first and greatest of the civil conflicts, the revolutions, the bush wars, through which the Reds have been conquering the world. This sets Last Plane to Shanghai apart from the many romance novels.
Author Biography:
After graduating from Harvard in 1938, cum laude, Richard Tregaskis was a journalist and a staff member of International News Service. He was sent as a correspondent to cover operations of the Pacific Fleet at the outbreak of World War II. His experiences in the South Pacific became his first book, Guadalcanal Diary. This book set the genre of war correspondence and still is considered essential reading by U.S. military personnel. Tregaskis was also in the European theatre following the Allies of the invasion of Italy, and then the American forces from Normandy into Germany, from which came Invasion Diary and Stronger Than Fear. In 1947 he journeyed for two years around the world. He spent most of that time observing the Nationalist-Communist war in China, from which he barely escaped. From those amazing experiences came Seven Leagues to Paradise, Last Plane to Shanghai, and China Bomb: A novel. R.T. felt compelled to pen X-15 Diary: The Story of America's First Space Ship, which describes the full story of the X-15 hypersonic manned rocket ship, first of its kind in the race to space. There are the many stories of the men and women who worked tirelessly in this great chapter of American history. Vietnam Diary, another seminal war correspondence book, was the first definitive eyewitness account of this new style of guerrilla combat. Tregaskis was on the frontlines for four months to share the compelling stories of courageous men fighting in these vicious battles. Due to his special skills and extensive travel in Vietnam, R.T. was contracted to write about one of the largest war-time construction efforts in history. His book, Southeast Asia: Building the Bases The History of Construction in Southeast Asia was an incredible undertaking which only he, with his talent and expertise could write. It covers every major construction by the U.S. Navy Construction Battalions (Navy SEABEES), and other military and civilian engineers and their stories as the events of the war evolved.Amidst writing for motion pictures and television, R.T. delved into fictional biographies. Warrior King: Hawaii's Kamehameha the Great was created out of his love of Hawaii after he made it his home. It is an exceptional historical story of the legendary leader of the Hawaiian Islands. Tregaskis transports the reader back in time to when the Hawaiian Islands were under the rule of many kings and the events that transpired to create a one Hawaiian Nation, governed by one ruler for the prosperity of all of the Hawaiian people. R.T. left behind a halfway finished love story, The Secret of the Taj, about Mumtaz Mahal who inspired the creation of the Taj Mahal. It was out of his passionate love of his wife, Moana, and their travels to and writing about India, that this manuscript came to fruition. In 1964, Richard Tregaskis was awarded the George Polk Award for reporting under hazardous conditions. The helmet he wore in 1943 in Sicily when a shell fragment pierced through it and into his skull is on display at the National Museum of the Marine Corps, along with a copy of Invasion Diary. Although R.T. had challenges with Type I diabetes, he never complained and it never stopped him from telling the important stories of the times as they were happening. Moana Tregaskis worked alongside her husband in many conflicts around the world. She photographed, edited, and wrote many articles and books with her husband, Richard Tregaksis. She wrote for the travel section of the New York Times newspaper for ten years. She lives in Honolulu with her hanai daughter, Ja-ne de Abreu. Ray E. Boomhower is senior editor at the Indiana Historical Society Press, where he serves as editor of the quarterly popular history magazine Traces of Indiana and Midwestern History. Boomhower has been with the Society since 1987, beginning work for the statewide, nonprofit organization as its public relations coordinator.A native of Mishawaka, Indiana, Boomhower graduated from Indiana University in 1982 with degrees in journalism and political science. He received his master's degree in U.S. history from Indiana University, Indianapolis, in 1995. Before joining the Society staff, he worked in public relations for the Indiana State Museum and as a reporter for two Indiana daily newspapers, the Rensselaer Republican and the Anderson Herald.In 1999 Boomhower received the Hoosier Historian award from the Indiana Historical Society. His book on Robert F. Kennedy and the 1968 Indiana Democratic presidential primary won the 2009 Best Books of Indiana competition in the nonfiction category sponsored by the Indiana Center for the Book, and his other works have been finalists in the annual Benjamin Franklin Awards from the Independent Book Publishers Association. In 2010 he was named as the winner of the Eugene and Marilyn Glick Indiana Authors Award in the regional category. Boomhower penned Richard Tregaskis: Reporting Under Fire From Guadalcanal to Vietnam which was published in 2021.
