ONCE A FOOL! - From Japan to Alaska by Amphibious Jeep!

ONCE A FOOL—From Japan to Alaska by Amphibious Jeep, by Boyé Lafayette De Mente. Phoenix Books/Publishers. ISBN: 0-914778-04-8.   Trade paperback. 6x9 format. 168 pages. $12.95. Distributors to the trade: Ingram Book Company; Baker & Taylor. Available to consumers from Amazon.com, Borders, Barnes & Noble, etc.   An Incredible Real-Life Adventure!   This is the story of the author’s experience aboard the globe-circling amphibious jeep dubbed “Half-Safe” by Australian adventurer Ben Carlin, its owner and “captain”—who turned out to be a modern-day Captain Bligh of Mutiny on the Bounty fame.    During the 4-month long journey from Tokyo to Anchorage, Alaska the two adventurers encountered Russians, Japanese fishing nets, sea lions, technical problems, the frigid waters of the North Pacific and Bering Sea—and each other!      The crossing made news worldwide, and The Guinness Book of World Records , as well as Car and Driver’s Amazing Stories.      In 1957, prior to beginning the trip, De Mente was a journalist employed by The Japan Times in Tokyo, who said he agreed to join the captain of the Half-Safe on his perilous voyage because he was being underpaid by the newspaper, because he had two girl friends who had just accidentally met, and he needed a quick and cheap way out of town.      The voyage was cheap but it was not quick, and came close to being fatal for the two unlikely jeep-mates. On their very first night at sea, crossing from Japan’s Honshu Island to Hokkaido Island, the jeep sprung a leak, forcing them to spend the night pumping water out of the bilge.      De Mente reveals in exact detail the unexpected threats the two wayfarers encountered, including the precise conversations between them.      In his words, once they set off into the North Pacific the confines and noises of the jeep induced a kind of semi-coma that they came out of only when the daily 24-hour routine of “four on four off” was broken.      Their encounter with Japanese fishing nets and Carlin’s behavior following the last incident is high drama of the most absurd kind.        On another memorable occasion, De Mente stands on the tiny prow of the jeep for several hours in a cold rain and high seas pumping air into a torpedo-shaped yellow tank holding 660 gallons of gasoline to force gas into inboard tanks, with the tank jumping and rearing like a wild animal.      What is perhaps the most remarkable of all, the author hung in with Carlin until they reached Anchorage, where he “jumped jeep” and parted company with his strange companion, flying to Phoenix, Arizona to see his family and recuperate.      And in yet another believe-it-or-not episode, 10 years after De Mente left the jeep in Anchorage, had spent another six years working in Tokyo and moved back to Phoenix, one of   his friends spotted Carlin driving Half-Safe down Van Buren Avenue in the center of the city.   If you are up for a tale that is tall but true, this book will make your day.      [Carlin eventually ended up in his hometown of Perth, Australia where he died in the 1980s, and where Half-Safe is on permanent display at his old school.   De Mente went on to have an extraordinary career as the author of more than 60 books on the business cultures and languages of Japan, Korea, and China. He now makes his home in Paradise Valley, Arizona.] Available from Amazon.com. ____________________ Boyé Lafayette De Mente is a graduate of Jōchi University in Tokyo and Thunderbird School of Global Management in Glendale, Arizona. He is the author of more than 50 books on the business practices, cultures and languages of China, Japan, Korea and Mexico. For a list and synopses of his books go to: www.boyedemente.com .

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