28 May Ghost Soldiers

Ghost Soldiers, WWII Book

Another remarkable distraction from my study of the war in Europe to the war in the Pacific.

When I drove to Columbia to visit the Colonel last week I took the audio book “Ghost Soldiers” by Hampton Sides. This book is about the January 30th, 1945, raid by allied forces on the POW camp at Cabanatuan in the Philippines. There were over 500 men there who had somehow survived the Bataan Death March three years earlier and who were now suffering from various injuries and tropical diseases, many due to starvation/nutritional deficiencies. The Japanese had already shipped out thousands of the more able-bodied survivors to various locations where they were destined for slave labor and even worse conditions … if that were possible.

I am learning how much the Japanese culture under Imperial rule influenced the seemingly casual brutality often inflicted on the prisoners.  Death was more honorable than being captured. The Japanese soldiers were taught that to be a prisoner meant disgrace not only for themselves but for their families. So, it seemed easy for the guards to be heartless to their prisoners … after all, wouldn’t they would be better off dead anyhow?

Even though I quickly researched what happened there and I know how the adventure ends, I still can’t wait to get to the finale. I turn on the CD’s every time I am alone in the car, and now I am on #11 of 12. The Rangers have stormed their way into the camp and are feverishly rounding up the prisoners who are surprisingly (but perhaps not so surprising) suspicious. “Who are you? You don’t look like a GI! I never saw that type of gun before!” Many of them are so weak they have to be carried out the gate.

As I said, I know how it ends, but I can’t wait to hear every detail. God bless them for what they endured, those who lived through it and those who did not.

Ghost Soldiers: The Epic Account of World War II’s Greatest Rescue Mission, on amazon.com

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