The other day, during our meal times conversations here at THD, we talked about books that made us cry. I informed the group that I have read several books that made me cry, but the one that I will always remember is the Tears in Darkness- by the Normans. It is a true story of Ben Steale(a survivor of the March) personal experience of the Bataan Death March, during the Japanese- American war in the Philippines.
Death March Monument - Zero KM start of the 65 miles of Death March. Photo Credit: FB Page of Kyle Zimmermann- Becoming Filipino.
The "Death March" is a horrendous event that occurred after American and Filipino troops surrender to the Japanese. More than 70,000
prisoners of war were made to march 65 miles. They were beat, they were starved, and they had to deal with incredibly difficult elements. Thousands and thousands of them died. But there were survivors. And One of them Relayed his story to the Normans- authors of the Book " Tears of Darkness".
If you read this book, I guarantee you will need a box of Kleenex and the Book will make you realize that there are no winners in war. So here's my short review.
https://japanesewarinthephilippines.blogspot.com/2015/04/book-review-update-tears-in-darkness.html
For the first four months of 1942, U.S., Filipino, and Japanese soldiers fought what was America's first major land battle of World War II, the battle for the tiny Philippine peninsula of Bataan. It ended with the surrender of 76,000 Filipinos and Americans, the single largest defeat in American military history.
The defeat, though, was only the beginning, as Michael and Elizabeth M. Norman make dramatically clear in this powerfully original book. From then until the Japanese surrendered in August 1945, the prisoners of war suffered an ordeal of unparalleled cruelty and savagery: forty-one months of captivity, starvation rations, dehydration, hard labor, deadly disease, and torture--far from the machinations of General Douglas MacArthur.
The Normans bring to the story remarkable feats of reportage and literary empathy. Their protagonist, Ben Steele, is a figure out of Hemingway: a young cowboy turned sketch artist from Montana who joined the army to see
the world. Juxtaposed against Steele's story and the sobering tale of the
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