Customer Reviews

Belly of the Beast: A POW's Inspiring True Story of Faith, Courage, and Survival Aboard the Infamous WWII Japanese Hellship, the Oryoku Maru

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

The deeper I got into this book, the more involved I became with the men who suffered so horribly. I have done my own research and asked many questions about the POW experience under the Imperial Army, because my father suffered along with Estel Myer and the others. Belly of the Beast is an accurate portrayal of part of my father's journey. He survived the Bataan Death March, imprisonment in the Philippines, the 3 hell ships mentioned in the book, and further imprisonment in Japan and Manchuria. He came back to the United States, only to succumb to the ravages caused to his body several years later. This is riveting, unvarnished truth, and only one story of many which prove to us that freedom comes with a steep price. One very good way to honor these men, who suffered so much, is to remember their stories and share them with others, so no one forgets --- ever!

Belly of the Beast is a good history lesson for those who never knew how the p.o.w.s suffered at the hands of the enemy. I was happy to see the author stated facts from information she obtained and now the truth about the war is out and not sugar coated . Although this is a great tribute to my father, I pray that people will realize that our freedoms are not free. That my father and other great men paid a high price for our country and for us. This author did a great justice to all the men and women of WW2!

Author Judith Pearson has written a riveting tale about the improsonment and ultimate mistreatment of American POWs by the Japanese. The story centers around Estel Myers, a young man who joins the Army as a corpsman. After serving a tour in China, Myers was assigned to the Philippines shortly before the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. The Japanese invaded in mid-December, 1941, and Myers was taken prisoner by the Japanese.

Myers suffered for two years in a Japanese prison camp with very little food or water, but his ultimate punishment was soon to follow. The Americans had turned the tide against the Japanese,and were fighting their way back to re-capture the Philippines. Realizing this, the Japanese began loading their POWs on "Hell Ships"; grossly overloaded freighters; for the long voyage to prison camps in Japan. Myers was loaded aboard the ship Oryuku Maru with approximately 1,600 other POWs. Only about 400 arrived in Japan alive. Myers survived the sinking of the Oryuku Maru as well as transfers from two other Hell Ships before reaching Japan.

The conditions on the ships were much worse than in the camps. Each man was allotted approximately 1/4 cup of rotten rice per day, along with a tiny amount of water. Men were unable to sit or lay down in the holds of the ships due to the massive overcrowding. Sanitary facilities amounted to a bucket lowered by the Japanese. The death rate was astounding. In the later stages of the voyage, as many as fifty men were dying per day.

Upon reaching Japan, many of the men were put to work on docks, in coal mines, or building defense shelters. Many died, but some, including Myers, managed to survive to be liberated by the Americans. Myers eventually succumbed years later due to the toll taken on his body by the Japanese.

This is an eye-opening book. The atrocities committed by the Japanese are unbelievable, and it is a miracle that Myers managed to survive for so long. Read this fine book and live the life of a POW.

So compelling, I couldn't put it down! In these hard times, Belly of the Beast is a wonderful testament to the enduring human spirit. This is a riveting account of a horrific ordeal suffered by many, yet made personal by the author as she follows one man, Estel Myers, through his capture and barbaric treatment as a POW. It's a great history lesson, as well as a gut-wrenching read.

the best book i have read so far on this subject.i felt i was living every moment, but so glad i was not. a true testimony to the spirit of human courage and endurance. and a valuable insight to the inhumanities of mankind.

For such clever monkeys, we humans do have our stumbling blocks. War, for one. When will we ever learn to stop torturing and killing ourselves over which end of the egg to crack? BELLY is a tremendously moving account of the reality of war. The book tells us of the experiences of one Estel Myers, a very ordinary young man from a very ordinary small town in the very ordinary mid-west.

BELLY begins when Estel enlists in the Navy, where he becomes a pharmacists mate. Initially stationed in China, he was sent to the Phillipines in time for Pearl Harbor and the Japanese onslaught in the Pacific. When MacArthur pulled his infamous scarper, abandoning tens of thousands of U.S. soldiers, nurses and civilians, Estel was captured by the Japanese. He spent two hellacious years as a POW in various camps in the Philippines, lived thorugh the Bataan Death March, survived internment on 3 slave ships and further imprisonment in Japan and Manchuria.

This is tough book to read. The treatment of the GIs is so horrific and their suffering is so painful,it needs to be taken in small doses. The Japanese, a people of such remarkable sensitivity and unbending codes of conduct lowered themselves to the level of jackals. How do you justify that kind of brutality? Is war an infection that strips us of humanity? How else do we explain Auschwitz? Mai Lai? Rwanda? Every nationality, every race, every tribe has succumbed to the poison. No one is innocent or immune, and only an exceptional man could keep a standard of decency when surrounded by that level of bestiality.

Estel Meyers' heroism had no grandiosity. All around him, desperate men were fighting to the death over a mouthful of water, a bite of rice, a cigarette. Estel never lost his humanity. His small mercies...throwing his shirt to a guy blistered raw in the sun, sharing a precious sip of water...were daily events. He didn't give up, he didn't give in. He figured out how to make things better, scrounged and pilfered first aid supplies, food, medicine, and he shared them. He worked out better food distribution so weaker prisoners could get a share. He went up against Japanese soldiers and officers of his own military. He refused to stop being the decent guy he was, no matter the circumstances. No grandstand plays, no adrenaline fueled savagery. Estel Myers was a man in full. He went through a hell most of us could never imagine and he came out with his head high and without losing a shred of his compassion and humanity. Compared to him, Rambo is a candy-ass in petticoats.

One or two reviewers take issue with "Belly," saying that author Judith Pearson doesn't get all her facts right. I think her focus was on the humanity, not the dates of battle. If there are mistakes, my ignorance made me oblivious. Okay, so it's not Baedeker's Guide to WWII. Read it for the humanity, not the battle zone topography.

(Interesting factoid: The slave ships used to transport POWs were used to transport Japanese troops. Japanese soldiers underwent the same suffocating, shoulder-to-shoulder confinement. They also received minimal food and water, although of course, their rations were infinitely better than the below-starvation level slops given Allied prisoners. Treatment and conditions that I thought unbearably cruel (and which drove American prisoners to madness)were accepted by the fatalistic Japanese soldiers with equanimity...an almost mindless stoicism. I'm gonna have to more reading about the WWII experiences from a Japanese soldier's POV.)

Judith Pearson does another excellent job of describing in detail the trials and tribulations of some 1600 POWs who survived Bataan only to be placed eventually in ships bound for Japan as slave laborers. The abuse they faced with the lack of food, water, and basic hygiene needs had a tremendous impact upon these men who perish each day aboard these ships. This is the story of one survivor, a naval corpsman, and the heroic measures he and his other medical team members took to try to save their dying group. It is obvious that Ms. Pearson did extensive research in telling this story of American heroes during WWII in the Pacific.

To start with the title might lead you to believe this is a 'POW's true story" except the POW passed away in 1973 and never wrote this story. It is nothing more than using a mans name to lend some authenticity to the "based upon a true story" concept. The dialogue is completely made up by the author and it reads like a 1950's television show... "Gee fellas... those japs sure are nasty". In my opinion this should be listed as fiction. The author claims in her opening that she did not want to distract the reader with footnotes. I can see why because there wouldn't be any. Overall this 'novel' could have been put together with a dozen or so Wikipedia searches and some overly cheesy dialogue. If you are looking for a true accounts similiar to Night by Elie Weisel this isn't it! Ghost Soldiers and Baa Baa Black Sheep are two that come to mind that give a much better treatment of the subject. If you are only interested in the glossed over Ladies Home Journal version this might do, but barely.

While Mrs. Pearson crafts an engaging tale and a gut-wrenching tribute to POWs during World War Two, the way this book is packaged tarnishes the story. On the cover is written, "A POW's inspiring true story of faith, courage, and survival aboard the infamous WWII Japanese hell ship Oryoku Maru." A picture of the Oryoku Maru adorns the top of the front cover. In fact, the protagonist spends 10 pages of the narrative onboard the Oryoku Maru, out of a 265-page story.

Furthermore, on the back cover: "On December 13, 1944, POW Estel Myers was herded aboard the Japanese prison ship Oryoku Maru with more than 1,600 other American captives. Almost 1,300 of them would be dead by journey's end...." Again, this sounds as if 1,300 prisoners perished aboard the Oryoku Maru, but this is not what Mrs. Pearson details inside the book! Included in this figure of 1,300 are deaths in the Philippines, on another Japanese vessel, and in Japan. Horribly misleading.

One final note. Skip pages 200 and 201 of this book which state that during World War Two Emperor Hirohito chose "not to be involved in his government's actions or decisions." For the truth behind Hirohito's role during and leading up to World War Two, read Herbert P. Bix's Pulitzer Prize-winning "Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan."

This false advertising from Penguin Putnam prevents Mrs. Pearson's book from receiving the 4 stars it deserves. Shame on you, publisher!

The book was advertised as new, but though it may have not been read, the pages are darkened and there is a black marker line on bottom of book. As I bought it for a Christmas present, I am disappointed. It should have given details of these things and displayed as "used" - good to very good.