Customer Reviews

Some Survived: An Eyewitness Account of the Bataan Death March and the Men Who Lived Through It

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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.

This is an amazing report of an American soldier held captive by the Japaese in the Phippines and the island of Japan itself for three and one-half years after his capture in World War II.
How he could remember the details of brutal beatings, starvation and resulting illnesses is almost beyond belief. His experiences with fellow prisoners runs the gamut from the highest heroism to utter selfishness. Every day he looked forward to freedom, only to be repeatedly disappointed until that memorable day when he met the invading U.S. forces and he knew that he was free ,atlast! The dscription of his home coming is heart wrenching as it was for all of us on our return. This book's contents are enough to make almost anyone swear to never buy another Japanese produced article.

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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

This account is the best I've read of many books on the POWs of the Japanese. It puts the reader in the gruesome reality of the Bataan Death March and all that followed in Camp O'Donnell and the hellships. The lesson learned is one of survival through almost unsurmountable horrors. Anyone who reads this account will have nothing to complain about. Judy Garofano (garofano@mail.idt.net), Queens, NY

The author, Manny Lawton, was among the small percentage of survivors of the Bataan Death March. He tells the story not just of the last days before the Japanese takeover of Corregidor and of the walk itself, but also of the years of tribulations that the remaining survivors somehow endured. The book is an outstanding account of the little-known story about what took place subsequent the Death March, and is a tribute to the human spirit.

I've read many books on the War in the Pacific, and particularly, on the Bataan Death March. This is absolutely the best in the memoir category. It should be required reading for anyone interested in what WWII was like for those who were forced to surrender the Philippines to the Japanese.

Manny Lawton survived all of it - starving and fighting in the jungle after the American forces pulled out, the Bataan Death March, over three years in prison camps, and two ill-fated voyages on Japanese prisoner transport ships, including the infamous Oryoku Maru.

What's astonishing is how Lawton conveys the unbelievably shocking details of his three-and-a-half years at the hands of the Japanese in a quiet, imminently readable style. He went to journalism school after the war, just to be able to tell this story, and it shows.

The writing perfectly captures the desperation and horror without sensationalism or extravagance. The very facts *are* lurid (thirst-crazed prisoners drinking blood in the Oryoku Maru, for example); it takes a masterful writer to make such details readable and compassionate.

I just wish he were still alive to read this review - thank you for getting this all down on paper, Manny, wherever you are.

Amazing details and a true story of survival! This is a first hand account of the cruelty of the Japanese Army! As I read about the beatings, lack of food, and cruel conditions they were put through I wonder if I would have given up and died or struggled on. Great details of how man can turn into animals under any circumstances! Try living off a spoon of water and a handful of rice for 4 days at a time then you will know how they lived.The stories of prisoners on transport ships is AMAZING! The cruel treatment from the Japanese Army and the Joy the Japanese army had in watching prisoners die can raise a little bit of hatred and resentment to the Japanese army after reading this book.

If you want to know about POW survival under Japanese rule during WW II then read this book!

On April 8, 1942, Manny Lawton was a 23 year old army captain stationed on Bataan when orders came down to surrender to the Japanese who had invaded and captured the Philippine Islands in the opening months of World War II in the Pacific Theatre. Lawton and his fellow U.S. troops and their Filipino allies were compelled to endure a six-day, sixty-mile trek forever after known as the Bataan Death March, during which approximately eleven thousand men died of exhaustion or were murdered by the Japanese by bayoneting, clubbing, or simply shooting their prisoners outright. By the time the war ended in August 1945, about 57 percent of the American troops who surrendered to the Japanese on Bataan had died in confinement at the hands of the enemy. Some Survived: An Eyewitness Account Of The Bataan Death March And The Men Who Lived Through It is an important historical documentation and seminal contribution to World War II Pacific Theatre reference collections.

What an amazing book! While the topic can certainly lend itself to sadness and/or anger at what these men endured, the main purpose of the book is to show not how inhuman the Japanese were, but to show how professional, selfless, determined and humane that men can be. While I never met the author, as a fellow Clemson alum and South Carolinian, it made the story hit home even more hearing of places and towns that I not only know of, but know well. The author was someone no different than me - as were his fellow captives. These were ordinary men thrust into extraordinary circumstances. Yet few buckled and caved to the Japanese pressure. The book is inspiring and encouraging, in spite of the many recollections of horror. These men stayed firm to their duties - whether corpsmen, doctors, chaplains or officers. The conducted themselves with dignity when they were at their most undignified. They behaved with honor when they were treated with the utmost of dishonor. This book will at once make you sick of what man's inhumanity to men can do, yet simultaneously make you proud to be an American. Highly recommended - an incredible group of men with incredible honor and courage.

One note, the book is somewhat inaccurately named. It is not only about the Bataan Death March, but rather the full journey of the men who took part in that march and endured much more and much worse - in forced marches, barbaric camps, cramped rail cars, and "hell ships" that were frequent targets of American attacks. It is the full journey of a POW in the Pacific. The Death March is but one chapter, and one early in the narrative.

This is one of those books that just makes you churn inside. The abuses and suffering are never ending during the length of the book. The detail provided could only have come from someone that was there. Mr. Lawton explains in vivid detail the degree of torment these guys endured. YOU NEED TO READ THIS!