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from http://www.japantoday.com/ __________ The stuff heroes are made of Ghost Soldiers By Hampton Sides Review by Charles Lewis World War II is coming to a close. The Japanese are keen to cover up atrocities they have committed against prisoners of war in the Philippines. Most prisoners, survivors of the Bataan Death March, who are in any semblance of good health have already been shipped off to Japan, Taiwan or mainland China to work as slave labor. At the Puerto Princesa prison camp on Palawan, Japanese prison guards begin killing American and allied POWs as the American army prepares to retake the Philippines. A few POWs are able to escape the massacre and their stories eventually reach the American High Command. A decision is made to rescue the long suffering, doomed prisoners at the Cabanatuan prison camp on the main island of Luzon. The army has been training a group of former mule skinners in New Guinea. The army doesn't need to use mules to haul equipment anymore, and these big, tough farm boys seem like a good choice to use as a new elite force; Army Rangers. The Rangers get their first assignment; rescue what is left of the prisoners at Cabanatuan before they are killed by the retreating Japanese. In "Ghost Soldiers, The Forgotten Epic Story Of World War II's Most Dramatic Mission," Hampton Sides has provided us with a well written, thoroughly researched hitherto relatively unknown story that should have been told long ago. He does a good job attempting to explain the brutality of the prison guards. They are not good enough to be the regular army, they are the dregs, they wish they were at the front. The Japanese Imperial Army uses physical violence as a form of punishment within its own ranks. Since the guards, who are often Korean or Taiwanese, are the lowest of the low, they cannot resist beating the POWs, who are even lower than themselves. The book jumps between details of the last stand on the Bataan peninsula, life in the Cabanatuan prison camp and details of the raid. At times there are too many details about the prison camp and Bataan, and not enough about the raid. I found myself looking to see how many more pages I had to go before I got back to the raid more than once. Personal histories of the soldiers taking part in the raid and some of the POWs are very detailed but redundant on more than one occasion. More information about how some of the lower ranking Rangers felt during the build-up to the raid would have been a welcome addition. Descriptions of living conditions for the defenders of Bataan and the POWs are vivid and realistic. There are, however, too many descriptions of grotesque food. One passage about monkey hands in stew would be enough. I would also have liked to have heard a little more about the nurses who cared for the wounded on Bataan and were eventually transferred to Corregidor. I was left wondering where they were imprisoned and how they were treated. Something lacking in other books about the Death March, the opinions and feelings of regular Philippine people, are most welcome here in Sides' book. The reasons for the Filipinos' empathy for the Americans and their deep hated of the Japanese are explained quite well. After witnessing years of murder, torture and brutality being committed by the Japanese Imperial Army, the Americans have arrived to liberate the islands. Add to this the humanity and natural hospitality of the Philippine people. Acts of selfless compassion towards the prisoners, often at great personal risk, are heart rendering. The Japanese occupation of the Philippines was brutal. In addition, Sides explains, to slap a Filipino in the face is to "create a deadly enemy for life." The Japanese have a propensity to slap. There is, however, a complete lack of information regarding the fate of the Philippine soldiers who were part of the Death March. In the beginning of the book, we are told that the Philippine army fought tooth and nail defending Bataan and that after the surrender, they joined the Americans on the Death March. No other mention of what became of them is made. Sides informs us that Shigeji Mori, the Cabanatuan commandant, and Camp O'Donnell commandant Yoshio Tsuneyoshi were sentenced to "life at hard labor." We are left to wonder, however, how much of their sentences they actually served. The man believed responsible for many of the worst atrocities of the Death March, Colonel Masanobu Tsuji, escaped prosecution. After being liberated, the former prisoners gather strength at an evacuation hospital where they are paid a visit by General Douglas MacArthur. When they finally head back to the U.S., the ship that carries them takes a zigzag route to avoid Japanese submarines. After a month at sea, the boat finally pulls into San Francisco bay. Thousands of people lining the Golden Gate Bridge shower trinkets on the boat; "flowers, money, tickets to movies and musical shows, bras and lingerie." It is reported that "there wasn't a dry eye on that ship." A telephone call from President Roosevelt is broadcast live over loudspeakers. The heroes are quickly forgotten, however. "The months following V-J day were a time to celebrate the war's end, not examine the dark asterisks of victory." Thanks to Mr Sides, these heroes are no longer just a small footnote in history books. "Ghost Soldiers" is not a novel, but it reads like one. It is fast paced, exciting and full of authoritative facts. A welcome addition to the bookshelf of anyone interested in World War II, Japan, the Pacific or human nature in general. April 19, 2002 Ghost Soldiers by Hampton Sides Published by Doubleday $24.95 (Hardcover) 0-385-49564-1 ____________________ Click the link below to view this article and related discussions on Japan Today http://www.japantoday.com/e/?content=book&id=112 ____________________ ===== Lake Merritt Neighbors Organized for Peace. Weekly peace walks around Lake Merritt in Oakland. Starts & ends at the colonnade between Grand & Lakeshore Avenues, 3 P.M., every Sunday. Info: (510)763-8712, <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> or http://www.webwm.com/LMNOP __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! 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