"The Story of the Bataan Death March and it's Aftermath"
I read a review of this book a several months ago in the NY Times and it was a very positive and intriguing review. I knew very little about the Bataan Death March, an infamous chapter in the war in the Pacific in WW II.
After the Japanese captured the Batann peninusula in 1942, about 76,000 American and Filipino prisoners were sent on a forced march north to prison camps. Thousands died, and there were numerous atrocities as well as one massacre of prisoners.
The authors follow Ben Steele, a 23 year old cowboy who'd enlisted in the Army Air Force. The book is not only about him by any means, but his story is the thread that runs through the entire book. He made the march, spent time in several camps in the Philippines; at one point he was so sick with Beriberi that he was triaged into the "cannot survive" section of a prison hospital. However he recovered and was eventually sent on a "Hell ship" – the name given to prison ships transferring prisoners to Japan for slave labor – and finished the war working in a japanese mine with other prisoners.
Ben Steele is ninety when this book was published, he was interviewed by Don Imus on the Imus radio program. Steele is still very much on the ball, and after surviving and returning to the U.S. he became an artist and college art teacher. The book uses many of his drawings as illustrations.
It's a terrific read. The authors, Michael and Elizabeth Norman, are a husband and wife team. She had already written a book about the American nurses trapped on Bataan, They went through all the extensive literature written in English about the March, and also interviewed quite a number of surviving Japanese soldiers. This gives an additional perspective.
And of course, much of the story is horrible and grim. The Death March itself, massacres of prisoners in the jungle, men dying in the bowels of overcrowded prison ships – or being inadvertently killed by allied airplanes (the estimate is that 22,000 Allied prisoners died from Allied bombers and submarine attacks), since the prisoners were sent to Japan in unmarked cargo ships. Horrific sickness in overcrowded and gross prison camps.
The bright spots – the sacrificial heroism of some of the prisoners. There's an interesting story about a Maryknoll priest on a prison ship – William Cummings, the man who coined the phrase "There are no atheists in foxholes." He had enlisted in Bataan, to stay with the troops – he could have been evacuated as a missionary priest. Fr. Cummings died the day before his prison ship arrived in Japan. In summing up his service, including on the prison ship, the authors noted (p. 417n) "It was our general impression, from scores of interviews that every man who'd met "Father Bill" remembered him."
Also of great interest – the discussions about the Japanese soldiers. And in fact their own reminiscences. They themselves were frequently brutalized in their own training and military service – you can see why many of them thought nothing of brutalizing their prisoners. At times, you almost feel sorry for them. When you consider the atrocities, it's hard to believe you might feel that way, but true.
One last point - I know very little about Douglas MacArthur. But he comes off very badly in this narrative. Mishandled the defense of the Philippines, manipulative with the press, and after the war, vindictive toward the Japanese commanders who defeated him. If the book is accurate, the execution of the Japanese general in the Phillipines after the war was almost a show trial, with the verdict and sentencing virtually pre-determined by MacArthur.
All in all, a great and moving narrative.
Here is a brief video interview with 90 year old Ben Steele, posted by amazon.com on their page for this book –
Leave a Reply