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By Michael Norman
Picador
Released: 2010-03-02
Paperback (496 pages)
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For the first four months of 1942, American, Filipino, and Japanese soldiers fought America's first major land battle of World War II: the battle for the tiny Philippine peninsula of Bataan. It ended with the single largest defeat in American military history. This was only the beginning. Until the Japanese surrendered in August 1945, the prisoners of war suffered forty-one months of unparalleled cruelty and savagery. Michael and Elizabeth Norman bring to the story remarkable feats of reportage and literary empathy. Their protagonist, Ben Steele, is a young cowboy and aspiring sketch artist from Montana who joins the army to see the world and ends up on a death march. Juxtaposed against Steele’s story are the heretofore untold accounts of Japanese soldiers who struggled to maintain their humanity while carrying out their superiors’ inhuman commands. Tears in the Darkness is an altogether new look at World War II that exposes the myths of war and shows the extent of suffering and loss on both sides. Michael Norman, a former reporter for The New York Times and a Marine Corps combat veteran of Vietnam, is now a professor of journalism at New York University. He is the author of These Good Men: Friendships Forged from War, a memoir.
Elizabeth M. Norman, the author of Women at War: The Story of Fifty Military Nurses Who Served in Vietnam and We Band of Angels: The Untold Story of American Nurses Trapped on Bataan by the Japanese, is a professor of humanities at New York University’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development. For the first four months of 1942, American, Filipino, and Japanese soldiers fought America's first major land battle of World War II: the battle for the tiny Philippine peninsula of Bataan. It ended with the single largest defeat in American military history. From then until the Japanese surrendered in August 1945, the prisoners of war suffered forty-one months of unparalleled cruelty and savagery, far from the machinations of General Douglas MacArthur.
Michael and Elizabeth Norman bring to the story remarkable feats of reportage and literary empathy. Their protagonist, Ben Steele, is a young cowboy and aspiring sketch artist from Montana who joins the army to see the world and ends up on a death march. Juxtaposed against Steele’s story are the heretofore untold accounts of Japanese soldiers who struggled to maintain their humanity while carrying out their superiors’ inhuman commands.
Tears in the Darkness is an altogether new look at World War II that exposes the myths of war and shows the extent of suffering and loss on both sides. Tears in the Darkness is an altogether new look at World War II that exposes the myths of war and shows the extent of suffering and loss on both sides. "The Bataan Death March has been written about before, and well, by a number of historians . . . But then you pick up Michael Norman and Elizabeth M. Norman’s calm, stirring and humane Tears in the Darkness: The Story of the Bataan Death March and Its Aftermath, and you think: yes, we needed another . . . Tears in the Darkness is authoritative history. Ten years in the making, it is based on hundreds of interviews with American, Filipino and Japanese combatants. But it is also a narrative achievement. The book seamlessly blends a wide-angle view with the stories of many individual participants. And at this book’s beating emotional heart is the tale of just one American soldier, a young cowboy and aspiring artist out of Montana named Ben Steele . . . What is now known as the Bataan Death March began on April 10, 1942. Some 76,000 soldiers, many already close to death, were forced to walk 66 miles during the hottest season of the yearthere were almost no buildings along the way, no trees, no shadewith little food and almost no water. It was called a death march for a simple reason: if you stopped marching, you were killed, by bayonet or rifle. There were many other ways to die during the Bataan Death March; it was a spree of arbitrary brutality. For sport, Japanese soldiers fractured skulls with their rifle butts. Japanese tanks ran over men who fell. Good Samaritans who tried to help fallen comrades were beaten or stabbed. Men were forced to bury others alive. To be on this march, one soldier said, was what it must feel like to 'come to the end of civilization' . . . What’s remarkable about this story, for Ben Steele and many others, was that it was just the beginning of the horrors that awaited them as Japanese prisoners of war . . . There are many Japanese voices in Tears in the Darkness. Mr. and Ms. Norman don't excuse Japan’s actions, but place them in careful context. Japanese soldiers, they write, were the products of 'a closed world of violence where men were subjected to the most brutal system of army discipline in the world.' These soldiers 'had been savaged to produce an army of savage intent' . . . In the end, though, Tears in the Darkness is a book about heroism and survival. All along you are glued, out of the corner of your eye, to one story, Ben Steele’s. If you aren't weeping openly by the book’s final scenes, when he is at last able to call home and let his family know that he is still alive after more than three years 'missing in action,' during which time this thin young man lost 50 pounds, then you have a hard crust of salt around your soul." Dwight Gardener, The New York Times"Balanced, beautifully written . . . Many books have examined World War II in the Philippines, but none of them pack the punch of, or are as beautifully written as, this compelling volume . . . A superb book about the unspeakable tragedy of war and the triumph of the human spirit." Terry Hartle, The Christian Science Monitor"For Americans the Death March was a first encounter with the brutality that would define Japan's military behavior, and the fact that the story has been told many times before does not dissuade Michael and Elizabeth Norman, both professors at New York University, from another effort. The result is an extremely detailed and thoroughly chilling treatment that, given the passage of time and thinning of ranks, could serve as popular history's final say on the subject. The Normans spent a decade in research and writing, interviewing more than 100 surviving American veterans and relatives of scores of others, and traveling to Japan to track down the most elusive and difficult sources some 20 former soldiers who were involved in the march and a guard from one of the miserable camps where more captives died from sickness, torture or starvation. The authors also find an ideal protagonist in Ben Steele, a former Montana cowboy who in 1940, at 22, joined the Army Air Corps and was sent to the Philippines. Steele survived the Death March and prison camp, and his personal story is the thread by which the authors spin their harrowing narrative, also using Steele's sketches to illustrate it . . . They have little admiration for Gen. Douglas MacArthur, the U.S. commander in the Philippines who was being glorified at home in 1942 as the greatest American military hero since Ulysses S. Grant. On Jan. 15, the authors report, MacArthur sent his beleaguered troops on Bataan a would-be morale booster, promising them that reinforcements in the form of troops and planes were on the way from the United States. 'It was a lie, a Judas kiss,' they write. 'The Philippines was cut off. Washington knew it and so did MacArthur.'" Richard Pyle, Associated Press
"Deeply researched and finely documented, Tears in Darkness is written brilliantly in lucid prose . . . A model of excellence in historical bookmaking . . . I couldn't put it down."Philip Kopper, The Washington Times
"Tears in the Darkness should be required reading for students learning about World War II. Michael and Elizabeth Norman have written a lean, moving account about the infamous Bataan Death March. They describe what happened to the 76,000 American and Filipino soldiers who surrendered to the Japanese in 1942. Many books have described the atrocities. Prisoners were starved, beaten and killed. This is different. It's told from the perspective of an ordinary American soldier named Ben Steele, whose drawings illustrate the book. The authors also interview Filipino and Japanese soldiers. The story they all tell has nothing to do with Hollywood heroics. It's about what men do to survive. Powerful."Deirdre Donahue, USA Today
"Tears in the Darkness is a valuable addition to the literature on the war. It is the best single volume on Bataan now available. Through a hard-driving narrative interspersed with numerous flashbacks, the Normans retell the painful saga of the battle to control the Philippines, which occurred in late 1941 and early 1942; the 66-mile Death March that followed the surrender; the atrocities that took place in the Japanese POW camps; and the Japanese 'Hell Ships' that transported thousands of POWs to the home islands for slave labor. Although the authors weave the stories of many people in and out of the narrative, they focus largely on Ben Steele, a young Montana cowboy who endured 41 months of agonizing captivity. During this ordeal Steele discovered his artistic talentshe would later become an art professorand quietly began to sketch his surroundings. Since we have minimal visual documentation of Philippine POW camp life, Steele's many pen-and-ink drawings, recrea... |
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By Elizabeth M. Norman
Atria
Paperback (352 pages)
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Hailed by The New York Times Book Review as a "grippingly told" story of "power and relevance," here is the true, untold account of the first American women to prove their mettle under combat conditions. Later, during three years of brutal captivity at the hands of the Japanese, they also demonstrated their ability to survive. Filled with the thoughts and impressions of the women who lived it, "every page of this history is fascinating" (The Washington Post). We Band of Angels In the fall of 1941, the Philippines was a gardenia-scented paradise for the American Army and Navy nurses stationed there. War was a distant rumor, life a routine of easy shifts and evenings of dinner and dancing under the stars. On December 8 all that changed, as Japanese bombs rained on American bases in Luzon, and the women's paradise became a fiery hell. Caught in the raging battle, the nurses set up field hospitals in the jungles of Bataan and the tunnels of Corregidor, where they saw the most devastating injuries of war, and suffered the terrors of shells and shrapnel. But the worst was yet to come. As Bataan and Corregidor fell, a few nurses escaped, but most were herded into internment camps enduring three years of fear and starvation. Once liberated, they returned to an America that at first celebrated them, but later refused to honor their leaders with the medals they clearly deserved. Here, in letters, diaries, and firsthand accounts, is the story of what really happened during those dark days, woven together in a compelling saga of women in war. |
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By Lester I. Tenney
Potomac Books Inc.
Paperback (240 pages)
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Captured by the Japanese after the Philippines fell, Lester Tenney was among the few to survive the legendary Bataan Death March. He witnessed fellow POWs die by the hundreds from thirst, wounds, disease, and the Japanese guards' savage mistreatment. Armed only with his sense of humor, sharp mind, and fierce determination, Tenney then endured three and a half years as a slave laborer in miserable Japanese POW camps. My Hitch in Hell is an inspiring survivor's epic about the triumph of human will despite unimaginable suffering. |
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By Manny Lawton
Algonquin Books
Paperback (320 pages)
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Manny Lawton was a twenty-three-year-old Army captain on April 8, 1942, when orders came to surrender to the Japanese forces invading the Philippine Islands. The next day, he and his fellow American and Filipino prisoners set out on the infamous Bataan Death March--a forced six-day, sixty-mile trek under a broiling tropical sun during which approximately eleven thousand men died or were bayoneted, clubbed, or shot to death by the Japanese. Yet terrible as the Death March was, for Manny Lawton and his comrades it was only the beginning. When the war ended in August 1945, it is estimated that some 57 percent of the American troops who had surrendered on Bataan had perished.
But this is not a chronicle of despair. It is, instead, the story of how men can suffer even the most desperate conditions and, in their will to retain their humanity, triumph over appalling adversity. An epic of quiet heroism, Some Survived is a harrowing, poignant, and inspiring tale that lifts the heart. |
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By Chris Schaefer
Riverview Publishing
Paperback (434 pages)
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With Pearl Harbor in shambles, the United States Army surrendered to the Japanese on Bataan, and 70,000 American and Filipino servicemen became prisoners of war. However, about 200 Americans slipped into the jungle to continue the fight and await the return of General Douglas MacArthur. For three years the Japanese hunted these men down, capturing or killing more than half of them. Bataan Diary is the true story of Frank R. Loyd and a small group of men who refused to surrender to the Japanese. They endured terrible diseases, starvation, and a Japanese manhunt to capture them. Aided by Filipino farmers, they lived by their wits and their survival skills, and they ultimately joined the guerrilla band of Corporal John Boone to help defeat the Japanese. It is also the story of their families at home in the United States who supported the war effort, worked in government jobs, and raised their families alone, not knowing if their men were dead or alive. Frank Loyd, kept a personal diary throughout his three year ordeal. His wife, Evelyn, kept her own diary and correspondence at home. Bataan Diary follows the stories of Frank and Evelyn Loyd as a central theme, while telling the intriguing story of the prisoners, the evaders, and the guerrillas—the men and women who fought America’s first battle of World War II. |
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Yucca Tree Pr
Hardcover (230 pages)
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Originally published in 1946 to honor American military men and women who were captured by the Japanese in the Philippines during World War II, HEROES OF BATAAN contains over 1,000 photographs with a short biographical comment for each. This second edition contains additional photographs and an index by name and unit. An excellet genealogy source. |
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By Mike Guardia
Casemate Pub
Hardcover (240 pages)
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A main selection of the Military Book Club and a selection of the History Book Club.With his parting words "I shall return," General Douglas MacArthur sealed the fate of the last American forces on Bataan. Yet one young Army Captain named Russell Volckmann refused to surrender. He disappeared into the jungles of north Luzon where he raised a Filipino army of over 22,000 men. For the next three years he led a guerrilla war against the Japanese, killing over 50,000 enemy soldiers. At the same time he established radio contact with MacArthur's HQ in Australia and directed Allied forces to key enemy positions. When General Yamashita finally surrendered, he made his initial overtures not to MacArthur, but to Volckmann.This book establishes how Volckmann's leadership was critical to the outcome of the war in the Philippines. His ability to synthesize the realities and potential of guerrilla warfare led to a campaign that rendered Yamashita's forces incapable of repelling the Allied invasion. Had it not been for Volckmann, the Americans would have gone in "blind" during their counter-invasion, reducing their efforts to a trial-and-error campaign that would undoubtedly have cost more lives, materiel, and potentially stalled the pace of the entire Pacific War. Second, this book establishes Volckmann as the progenitor of modern counterinsurgency doctrine and the true "Father" of Army Special Forces- a title that history has erroneously awarded to Colonel Aaron Bank of the ETO. In 1950, Volckmann wrote two Army field manuals: Operations Against Guerrilla Forces and Organization and Conduct of Guerrilla Warfare, though today few realize he was their author. Together, they became the Army's first handbooks outlining the precepts for both special warfare and counter-guerrilla operations. Taking his argument directly to the Army Chief of Staff, Volckmann outlined the concept for Army Special Forces. At a time when U.S. military doctrine was conventional in outlook, he marketed the ideas of guerrilla warfare as a critical force multiplier for any future conflict, ultimately securing the establishment of the Army's first special operations unit-the 10th Special Forces Group. Volckmann himself remains a shadowy figure in modern military history, his name absent from every major biography on MacArthur, and in much of the Special Forces literature. Yet as modest, even secretive, as Volckmann was during his career, it is difficult to imagine a man whose heroic initiative had more impact on World War II. This long overdue book not only chronicles the dramatic military exploits of Russell Volckmann, but analyzes how his leadership paved the way for modern special warfare doctrine. |
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By Donald J. Young
McFarland
Paperback (296 pages)
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Fought with obsolete and discarded equipment by an army made up of mostly untrained Filipinos, the Battle of Bataan has truly become the "forgotten battle" of World War II despite the fact that it represents the single largest surrender in American and Filipino military history. This book provides a complete history of the battle by also looking at the events which led up to the fall of Bataan. It begins with an overview of the Philippine, American, and Japanese forces which fought on Bataan, followed by chapters looking at the military buildup, the counterattack in the II Corps and the withdrawal from Abucay, the Japanese invasion, the Battle for the Points, the Battle of the Pockets, and, finally, the surrender and death march. The book contains dozens of period and modern photographs and several maps. |
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By Wallace B. Black
Crestwood House
Library Binding (48 pages; 1)
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Describes the Japanese invasion of the Philippine Islands and their defeat of the American forces under Gen. Douglas MacArthur early in World War II. |
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By Robert Greenberger
Snapshots in History
Hardcover (96 pages; 1)
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Bataan Death March is a Capstone Press publication.
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