Customer Reviews

Tears in the Darkness: The Story of the Bataan Death March and Its Aftermath

5 star:		(86)
4 star:		(22)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book may be history, but it reads like a novel. The authors have obviously done a lot of interviewing- more than 400- and it really shows. They have woven a story that's hard to put down. My only knowledge of the "Bataan Death March' was from the movies. This is some story. They take you to the Philippines before the battle and set the stage for it. Then they take you into the battle itself, right into the action. It's like you are there with the men. Then comes the surrender on April 9, 1942, 76,0000 men under American command, the biggest military defeat in our history. Then comes the death march. I think it's the longest chapter in the book. It was both hard to read and hard to stop reading. The details that these writers have accumulated are just unbelievable. You can see the work that went into this. Two things I especially like. First, although there must be literally more than a hundred characters in this book, they keep coming back to touch base with one character, a guy named Ben Steele, who was a young cowboy who grew up in Montana. His story really drew me in and I liked following him from the first page to the last. He became an artist after the war, and a many of his sketches, from that time in his life, are in the book. Surprisingly, I enjoyed reading about some of the Japenese soldiers. What's interesting is that you are angry at the Japanese and also feel for them at the same time. That's the way this book is written. Sometimes the good guys are bad and sometimes the bad guy are good. In the end, of course, the American and Filipino soldiers really suffered, so this is really a story of great courage and endurance. This is now my favorite war novel. Five stars all the way through the read.

In their book, "Tears in the Darkness," Michael and Elizabeth Norman, have taken a historical event, the American defeat and its horrific aftermath in the Philippines at the start of Word War II in 1942 and turned it into a spell-binding exploration of the human spirit. At the center of the tale, of course, is the Bataan Death March. But after ten years of incredibly detailed research on both sides of the Pacific, the authors are able to render its full reality from a variety of individual perspectives: American, Japanese and Filipino. The result is a revelation -- not merely a narrative of courage, sacrifice, cruelty and suffering, but also, ultimately, of the redemptive power of reflection and forgiveness. It may also be the most moving book ever written about those dark April days almost seven decades ago and men who experienced them.

I'm not usually inclined to read books about war, but I picked this up and couldn't put it down. It follows the story of a boy from Montana who ends up a soldier in the Bataan Death March. Even though the reader knows in the first few pages that the soldier, Ben Steele, survives, and is still alive in fact, I found myself on the edge of my seat and praying for him to make it. His story is heartbreaking, uplifting and compelling all at once. The book is not for the faint of heart and is harrowing in many places, but it's written with a kind of simplicity and grace that shows above all, the ambiguity of war. Tremendous.

Tears in the Darkness: The Story of the Bataan Death March and Its Aftermath by Michael and Elizabeth Norman, both professors, is one of the finest treatments of how American POW's were treated by the Japanese ever written. Tears in the Darkness is profoundly insightful and laboriously researched, and presents the reader with an honest view into both the American psyche as well as the Japanese victors.

As the son of a navy vet who served on an escort carrier in the Pacific and saw action at Macon Island, Tarawa, and later at Leyte Gulf, I found Tears in the Darkness very moving. I've read extensively about the Pacific war and in many ways still haven't forgiven the Japanese for what they caused. Political Correctness be-gone.

The Normans focus on a young American who happened to be serving in the Army Air Corps when the war began. Focusing on Ben Steele allows the authors to use his experiences to study the wider specifics of the Bataan death marches and the POWs later treatment in the camps. With information gleaned from more that 400 interviews and many of Steele's pen and ink drawings, they provide the readers of a later era a revealing glimpse into what true torture is. No water boarding here. Starved, deprived of water, beaten, and allowed to die of horrendous diseases, Americans and their Pilipino allies, suffered and died together.

By traveling to Japan to interview the few guards still alive, the Normans provide an authoritative element to the story they want to tell. Without allowing the Japanese an easy out, the authors do provide background that at least helps to explain the level of brutality suffered by the captives. No alibis here.....just facts about how the Japanese chain of command worked. Interesting.

I also recommend We Refused to Die by Gene S. Jacobsen as a companion read.

I highly recommend Tears in the Darkness.

Semper Fi!

The Normans' magisterial history of one of the darkest chapters of modern warfare is one of those rare books that transforms readers. Those who read this book will be affected in different ways; some by the inconceivable suffering and cruelty, and some by the courage and grace of those who suffered.

The authors have included not only the entire history of the death march and imprisonment, but also the consequences of these things on individuals, especially Montana's courageous Army Air Force enlistee Ben Steele, one of the few who survived.

There was one episode that was particularly telling. After the war Steele became an art professor, and the day came when a Japanese-American student entered his class, and all the horror and bitterness and desolation of his three years of imprisonment rushed back into Steele's mind. But then he learned that the student's Japanese-American family had been interned here in the States. Steele invited the student into his office for a heart-to-heart talk, and out of it came reconciliation. Ben Steele treated his Japanese student with all the fairness he could muster. Other readers will discover other treasures in this powerful and luminous history. But no reader will finish the book unchanged.

My name is Julie Jorgenson and I'm the daughter of Ben Steele who is the main character in this book. This book is about a man who survived the impossible and came home from the war and made a life for himself. He claims being a POW 1244 days has enhanced his life. Michael and Elizabeth Norman did a wonderful thing for our family by telling his great story for everyone to share.

My grandfather served in the Pacific in World War II and I had no idea what young men like him faced before I read this book, because he never really talks about it. Reading about the experiences of the main American character, Ben Steele, made me have conversations with my own grandfather that I never would have had. This is a must-read.

This extremely well-written and carefully researched book is the definitive study of the Bataan Death March and its aftermath. It is a must read for those interested in World War II in the Philippines. It also is a detailed and often shocking chronicle of the horrors of combat and the incredible inhumanity with which the victorious Japanese treated their prisoners.

The book serves as a monument to the courage of the Filipino and American soldiers whose courageous stand slowed the Japanese juggernaut sufficiently for the allied reinforcements to save Australia, which then would become the launching pad for the counter attack which eventually won the war in the Pacific.

Finally, it is a story of survival. The survival of Ben Steele and others who through both luck and determination lived through the years of abuse and deprivation to rejoin their families following the Japanese defeat.

The book relies on extensive interviews with Americans, Filipinos and Japanese who took part in the events described. It follows Ben Steele, a young cowboy and evolving artist, through the horrific events of combat, the Death March, prison camp, the Hell Ships, slave labor in Japan and liberation. The book is illustrated by sketches made by Steele of his experiences. Surviving the war, he would become a successful artist and university instructor.

J. Michael Houlahan
Historian, Philippine Scouts Heritage Society

It has been 65 years since the events depicted in "Tears of Darkness" took place. Yet they still tug at our heartstrings and make us ponder man's inherent inhumanity in war. The story of the abject cruelty of the Japanese military during World War II is still a very important one to tell, especially in an era when our national leaders are apologizing to our former enemies for defeating them in war and subordinating themselves to them (the Japanese Emperor) in public. I'm sure those images resonate negatively in the hearts and minds of the survivors of the Bataan Death March - men like Ben Steele.

It seems to be politically correct to laud "Tears in the Darkness" due mainly to it's subject matter and the human emotion it evokes from the depiction of the horrors perpetuated by the Japanese during the Battle of Bataan, the Bataan Death march, the Hell Ships and the Japanese Prisoner of War Camps. However, that is precisely the reason I'm criticizing it. All those subjects are covered but it is touted as the story of the Bataan Death March when that is only one of many things covered. In fact the Death March is almost an afterthought in the narrative. It is covered in only 56 pages out of the 430+ page book. Therefore the title is very misleading. The book was thoroughly researched and many of the participants, both victims and oppressors, were interviewed over a period of some ten years. However, there are a multitude of errors in detail which makes me suspect that they put aside accuracy in an intent to evoke emotion and advance an agenda. Most readers, who are not historians of the events, won't notice the errors so I'll focus on other aspects of the book.

I saw three main themes in the book. The first theme was very heart rendering. It was the biography of Ben Steele, a young man from Montana who found himself on Bataan and was thus was on the Death March and subsequently a Hell Ship and a prison camp in Japan. Apparently Mr. Steele was interviewed over a period of ten years. It was Mr. Steele's experiences that the story of Japanese atrocities was framed around. Again, the Death March was only a part of the story.

The second theme seemed to be a condemnation of MacArthur. The authors referenced the "Dugout Doug" mantra of his detractors and spoke of his escaping to safety in Australia leaving Generals Wainwright and King to suffer the ignobility of surrender and imprisonment. You can say what you want about his errors in judgment and his ego but he was NOT a coward. He received multiple awards for bravery during World War I and repeatedly exposed himself to enemy fire during World War II. While on Corregidor he lived in a house on the island not in the tunnel complex. Generals are not supposed to be killed in action - like it or not, they are more valuable than the common soldier. He has plenty to be criticized for but cowardice is NOT one of them.

The third theme seemed to be a veiled attempt to exonerate Homma for the actions of his troops. The book spent way too many pages on him and his trial. The background of his legal team has no place in a story of "the Death March" so the author's motives seem very suspect. Irrespective of what he saw and how much he saw, the principal of "Command Responsibility" holds true. It defeats logic to say he had absolutely no knowledge of or responsibility for the actions of his subordinates. True, Macarthur let the Japanese Emperor and others go free for political expediency but the way they portray Homma makes it seem like they're trying to set him up for a pardon. The whole emphasis on Homma seemed out of place in a biography of Mr. Steele and might have been better served in an appendix.

I rate the book a "3" for being well written and well researched. I am not an expert but do know something about the incidents described. My mother's family is from the Philippines and I have many friends and relatives who were on Corregidor and the Death March and on the Hell Ships and subsequent prison camps. My Grandfather smuggled sulfa drugs to the prison camps and testified in the Yamashita trial on the atrocities he witnessed. There have been discussions on "Command Responsibility" in the family since then. All the Japanese my family encountered during the War knew what was going on. I found it incredulous that Homma allegedly didn't. I bought the book thinking it would be on the Bataan Death March. It was basically a biography of Mr. Steele with the Battle of Bataan and subsequent Death March being mere props. I didn't like the flowery metaphors and poetic language. They padded the narrative, which sometimes made it difficult to follow the main story. There were some continuity problems and stories that didn't have closure, especially with other characters mentioned in the story but also including Mr. Steele. The story of Dr. Ashton and Bilibid was fascinating in that one of my Filipino relatives was tortured there and also treated by Dr. Ashton (and mentioned by name in his book). My mother and her cousins did volunteer work at the Japanese hospital that was in Malate school and also helped treat some of the Corregidor and Bataan POW's. However, nothing was mentioned about that facility. It made me feel that something was left out.

Overall, I recommend the book for people want to know about those events. But I also want to get away from the incessant plaudits and point out that there are issues with the book

The authors of this fantastic book have spent ten years researching and interviewed four hundred people who were partof one of the most tragic episodes of American history during WW2:The Bataan March.This horrible fight which took place in the Philippines ended with the largest defeat in American history when 76000 soldiers and officers surrendered to the Japanese.Once they did so, their lives became one big inferno.
The authors,who had access to never-before-published sources( both written and oral)describe the brutality and bestial acts which were inflicted upon the prisoners of war.Their unfortunate ordeal started in April 1942.They have gone through starvation, dehydration, torture,slave labour ,disease,murder and daily humiliation.
The central character in this book is Ben Steele, a young soldier who was interviewed by the authors and serves as the backbone of this horrible tale of human misery.It seems that the bestiality of the Japanese knew no limits.They have never recognized the prisoners-of-war as such and named them captives, thus they were not obliged under any circumstances to obey international law regarding the rights of these prisoners.
Abuse, malaria. thirst, beatings-all these were the daily dose of the unfortunate Americans.Steele's mother who was waiting for news from her son was informed in August 1942 that the Army had not the faintest idea what happened to her son.For her, life almost came to an end.
With the fate on the fronts of Asia turned against them( towards the middle of 1943),the Japanese have decided to evacuate their prisoners to Japan, where the American soldiers were destined for hard labour.This was done by transporting the prisones in hellish ships where they were kept in most horrendous conditions.They suffered from boiling heat, noxious air,vermin, short rations and little water.Some of the prisoners died but most of them got sick.As the autors claim, some had skins which looked like "raw hamburgers".
Another central character in the book is General Masaharu Homma, who was responsible for creating the Bataan March- a march which was sixty-six miles long along the Luzon peninsula.His ordeal and fate are described in detail by quoting from his prison diary and the testimonies of the various witnesses who appeared during his trial.
This is a very sad story about the beast whithin some of us, but it is also a story about human survival. After all, Ben Steele is still with us.
If you decide to read this wonderful book, you will not be able to stop doing so until you finish it.The book has also some rare photos as well paintings which were sketched by Steele.