Customer Reviews

Give Us This Day

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I first read this book over 30 years ago and still remembered it quite well. Having read the book again when re-published it fascinated me in much the same way it did when I was a teenager. This amazing account of Stewart's experiences as a prisoner of the Japanese during virtually the entire period of our involvement in the war is am incredible testimony to the will of one person to survive. In the begining of the book it is quite clear that our forces were woefuuly unprepared for war, making it inevitable that the Philippines where Stewart was stationed would fall to the Japanese. Although conditions were never good during Stewart's confinement they became unbearable toward the end of the war. His accounting of the slow loss of his friends to the rigor's of confimement and of his own perseverance to survive make this one of the very best books of its kind. It should be read by evey American so a truer picture of the horrors of war can be fully appreciated by all.

This is truly a heartbreaking book. Mr. Stewart straightforwardly and unemotionally retells his personal story of survival through the Bataan Death March and subsequent captivity, in which he (and his fellow prisoners) experienced extremes of treatment and torture that you and I should be thankful we will never have to endure, an experience every bit as brutal and dehumanizing, as sad and desperate as any experience of World War II (including the brutality of the Holocaust). On top of barbarous treatment by the Japanese they were even bombed (accidentally) by American bombers while being transported in a Japanese warship to a new prison location as the war was drawing to a close. I cannot think of another book I have ever read that humbled me as much as this book and its recounted experiences of Mr. Stewart and his fellow prisoners. If some of these described incidents were given a fictional treatment, I would probably have laughed at their unlikeness (particularly the incident that gave the book its title--one of the most amazing things I have ever read), and yet it is all true. Truth really is stranger than fiction. I really encourage you to read this so we don't forget what the men who fought this war this in sacrifice for their country. I don't think anyone sacrificed more than the men who were captured at Bataan did. All of us should never forget how much they gave for us.

This is a classic book pointing up the capacity of humans to persevere in the face of unconscionable deprivation. Sydney Stewart was one of the gallant American soldiers trapped on the Philippine Islands at the outset of World War II. Under-manned, under-armed and under-fed, Stewart and his friends fall into the hands of the conquering Japanese. He survives the Bataan Death March, but his long, arduous odyssey as a prisoner of war is just beginning.

Stewart is an eloquent writer and he presents a heart-rending account of his horrific ordeal. That he survived at all is a miracle; that he survived well enough to produced for posterity such a powerful memior is astonishing. Highly recommended.

I first read this book about 35 years ago when I found in my summer camp's library. Turns out my father, who survived Bataan and spent the rest of the war as a POW, knew the author while imprisoned. He said it was as accurate a portrayal as he had seen.

I cannot recommend this book more highly if, for no other reason, than to help us value freedom and recognize what has been..and is being...lost to preserve it. This is an astounding story.

Mr. Stewart describes his experiences after the fall of Bataan in prose that I could not. He was...calm, objective, fair. The torture, starvation, suffering, and gross and endless inhumanity were beyond my capacity for such rational treatment.

When you read a chapter, you go, "My God, that was unbelievable." Then the next chapter exceeds the previous. This goes on throughout the book and that is why I could not put it down.

I didn't get the sense Mr. Stewart had any agenda in writing this book, but there are very powerful lessons to be learned. First, de-emphasize your problems and consider yourself very blessed - it's a matter of perspective and if you don't get it from this book, you never will. Second, freedom is not free and the price becomes infinite if you wait for the bad guys to act first.

In 1967 a friend gave me a worn out copy of this book. The front page was missing and it was falling apart. It was several months before I picked it up and started reading it. If found out that you cannot judge a book by a missing cover. (The first two chapters starts off slow,... but WOW, after that you cannot put it down!) I have since read this book over five times. I'm a shift captain on Winter Haven Fire Department and I let everyone on my shift read it. When I think I have a bad day,...I think of Sidney Stewart. It also has a Christian theme that is very powerful. My prayer for Sidney Stewart and all those on this horrendous event: I PRAY THAT SOMEONE WILL ENCOURAGE GEORGE LUCUS TO MAKE A MOVIE ON THIS BOOK!!!!! AMERICANS NEED TO KNOW THE TRUTH AND HORRORS THAT THESE SOLDIERS ENDURED. IT WILL BE A THOUSAND TIMES BETTER "THAN SAVING PRIVATE RYAN."

Sidney Stewart is/was my great uncle and i didn't even know about him until i asked my mother if we had any relatives living in Europe. She told me all she remembered from reading this book but she didn't tell me that there was a book. Finally one day my grandma brought the book to my mom and i happened to pick it up first. Being someone who can't go a day w/out something to read and knowing that a relative wrote it i started to read. I read this book in two days and cried most of the way through. I had never even heard of the happenings in Bataan and then to find out a relative went through such horror was shocking. It is an amazing story and has renewed my faith in God. I can't imagine having to go through such and ordeal and to survive it. I don't know if i could. It is amazing how this man could forgive the people who did these things to him but he did and it shows the capability of human understanding and it also shows the capability of human compassion.

The story told in this book is almost unbelievable. It is a testament to the extremes of the human condition - the indomitable nature of the human spirit and the nightmarish brutality of which humanity is capable. I found myself gasping out loud while reading this book. Stewart's will to live in the face of undescribable conditions is remarkable. Just when you think the situation can not get any worse - it does and it usually gets much worse.

The writing style is simple but not simplistic. The other prisoners become very real and the reader develops interest in them as well as Stewart. My only complaint is that with so much horror in the book, it would have been nice to know more of the story of how Stewart returned to the States, how his recovery went, how he adapted back to regular life, did he visit his friends families, how his experiences affected the rest of his life. I have found that most prisoner of war books like this are lacking in this respect.

There are two groups of people who need to read this book: 1) those who think their lives are rough or unlucky, and 2) those who think the use of the atomic bomb against Hiroshima and Nagasaki was uncalled for.

Stewart's memoir of the appalling horrors of the Bataan Death March are a testimony to the heights and depths of humanity. His gripping description of the battle and experiences of captivity continue to inspire and shock sixty years later. Every student of World War II and history should read this story. I've often wondered what became of Mr. Stewart after the war and what the families of his comrades who did not survive their ordeal thought of their loved ones' heroism. Father Cummings should have been canonized or beatified. A must read.

Sidney was a soldier on Bataan who fought for months and was finally taken after the Japanese captured a key artillery position. The artillery had run out of shells. The men were ordered to fall back but were overrun by tanks. Stewart goes from death march to death camp and toward the end of the war is moved about by ship to prevent his liberation by Americans. During this entire time he struggles with the major questions of God and man, trying to reconcile his faith with what he sees around him. By accident the men, who are protestant, find themselves being ministered by a catholic priest, Father Cummings. For example, they are stuffed into a cargo hold and begin to kill each other over air, space and water when the Americans bomb the ship. The voice of Father Cummings is heard "Listen to me men ... then ... he began to pray...I felt that God cared...." Father Cummings was still praying at his own death later from dysentery. The title of the book relates his very last words. Later, emaciated by starvation and disease, Sidney is counted for dead. As he lies recovering the great answer is given to him: "Men I had never liked came to mind also... Creation's goodness burned in all men... most were eaten by selfishness...besieged by fears...yet the flame was there, like a pilot light waiting for the right touch...men would always respond like tuning forks... great indeed was the human dignity of God's image."