13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Courage and the American spirit at its' best, November 25, 2006
This review is from: Some Survived: An Eyewitness Account of the Bataan Death March and the Men Who Lived Through It (Paperback)
I am reviewing the 1984 hardback edition of this book which was entitled "Some Survived. An Epic Account of Japanese Captivity During WWII."
Although this is not the first book on The Death March I have read, it is probably the best. It is well written and easy to read. The thing I liked best was the fact that not only did it give, in great detail, an eye witness account of the atrocities committed by the Japanese on American POW's in the Phillipines, it went on to describe life in the camps after the march, then on to a very detailed description of their treatment on the 'Hell Ships' that took the prisoners to prison camps in Japan.
This is not a book of despair only. It is also of faith, guts, determination, and final victory by Manny Lawton and a few others that survived this horrible period of time. It also prompts us to remember those that didn't. God Bless them.
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A testimony to the atrocities and murder of American soldiers by Japanese soldiers during World War II, June 16, 2009
This review is from: Some Survived: An Eyewitness Account of the Bataan Death March and the Men Who Lived Through It (Paperback)
The worst of the worst Japanese soldiers responsible for the horrific savagery inflicted upon allied soldiers and civilians during the Bataan Death March were tracked down, tried, and executed after the war. Still, one can't help but be deeply troubled by reading over and again, of the pleasure Japanese guards took in the starving, beating and killing of allied prisoners during World War II.
Ignoring even the most basic rules of international humanitarian law, Japanese soldiers behaved in as depraved, evil and barbaric manner as one can imagine. They slapped, kicked and brutalized prisoners on a daily basis, beheaded others at will, and - by war's end - they had enslaved, tortured, and killed thousands of civilians and defenseless allied soldiers.
The author, Manny Lawton, takes the reader back in time, back to the beginning of the Pacific Campaign. He is a 23-year-old Army Captain, a couple of years out of Clemson University's ROTC program and the U.S. Army's Infantry School. Assigned as a "battalion military advisor," to the 500-man, 1st Battalion, 31st Infantry of the Philippine Army, he is the only American in the battalion. Then, when the American forces are overrun in the Philippines - four months after Pearl Harbor - we see that he and the other soldiers are already shell-shocked, exhausted, starving, and suffering from malaria, beriberi and a host of other tropical maladies.
We follow Lawson, from the beginning when he is captured and joins the thousands of others as they are force-marched five to six days, on the notorious "Death March"; then we follow him as he is moved and marched from one prison to another, one ship to the next, through the Philippines, to Japan and then - by war's end - to a hard labor camp in Korea.
We meet his friends from his old units, from the ROTC program back home and then - as the years pass - from previous prison camps. We hear him, as he tells in his own words, his feelings of fear, anger, and then sheer determination, as he suffers and watches hundreds of others go through sheer hell. We read of the horrendous suffering and thousands of men who died aboard the Shinyo Maru, the Arisan Maru, the Oryoku Maru, the Enoura Maru and the Brazil Maru.
Lawson honors the dead by telling their story very effectively. With the guidance and assistance of William Emerson -- former editor of the Saturday Evening Post -- and the noted Southern scholar, and editor, Dr. Louis D. Rubin, Jr. his words flow easily. The reader can't help but feel that they "are there" in the bunk, in the foxhole in the ship's hold, there with him. He tells the story in a patient, painstaking way; the truth, and nothing but the truth -- allowing the reader to learn what really happened during those years, in a manner that is not exaggerated, not overly emotional or glossed over in any way, just the truth.
It is important that this story not be forgotten, that we honor the memory of all of the American, British and soldiers of other nationalities, who died so savagely at the hands of their murderous and truly evil Japanese captors during World War II.
Lawson's book is a testimonial - a story of sorrow and thanksgiving - it belongs on the bookshelf of every public library in America, the Philippines and Japan. Highly recommended.
Note: This review is written in memory of my old friend, Sgt. Pasquale S. DiGiacomo, of Brooklyn, New York. Captured as a Japanese prisoner of war at age 29 on Bataan on April 9, 1942, "Pat" participated in the "Death March," was imprisoned at Camp O'Donnell and then shipped to Japan where he was a slave-laborer in the Osaka Camp steel mill. Beaten almost daily, starved, and suffering from malaria and broken bones, by war's end he had worked 3-1/2 years of his life as a slave for the Japanese. Now deceased, Sgt. DiGiacomo never understood why he never received a penny of reparation or an apology of any kind from the Japanese government.
R. Neil Scott
Middle Tennessee State University
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