Rating: 
Summary: Dramatic, compelling, history at its best
Review: "Ghost Soldiers" is a dramatic and exciting World War II rescue story. But it is even more important as a story of the human will to survive. In the face of years of unimaginable deprivation and suffering, many US prisoners of Bataan lived. They are the heroes of this book as much as their rescuers. The prisoners had to survive disease, malnurishment, acts of brutality, tedium, and tortuous weather. Moreover, they hade to witness the loss of many of their comrades. Just read the first chapter. The horrific slaughter that led to the rescue, along with the amazing survival of a handful will keep you reading to the book's end. Sides is a remarkable writer, who makes sure not to demonize the Japanese. Also he does not tell us of bravery, he shows it. This is a tale that needs no editorializing and Sides has the sense to let the events and the particpants speak for themselves. He doesn't tell us this generation is the "greatest" he shows us what it did. Sides has done a great service by placing these events into the historical record, but to me, the real signficance of his work is to show how humans can perservere against horrible odds.
Rating:
Summary: Reliving the past, once again.
Review: Our American World War II veterans are dying at the rate of more than 1,500 a day. This was the generation that fought in the most destructive war of the 20th century. These, too, were the Americans that suffered humiliation and defeat in the early days of the war with Japan. After the fall of Baatan, more than 8,000 prisoners-of-war passed through the Cabanatuan prison complex. This is the story of several of those men, their rescuers (6th Ranger Battalion and Filipino guerillas), and one American spy that assisted them. It reads quickly, is well documented, and worth reading. Of the many books now on the bookshelves, choose this one for inspiration of our American fighting man's resolve to live despite the squalor, deprivation, and dismal condtions of their captivity. Read it for the committment we have to return every service man to our own shores.
Rating:
Summary: Valor and Hardship
Review: Another great tale of the heroism of World War II soldiers. No wonder one national periodical named their hero of the 20th Century the Common American Soldier.This book intertwines the history of the fight for the Phillipines with the rescue of the remaining soldiers. After a bloody battle against odds, the Americans run out of supplies and are forced to surrender only to be marched for miles, "The Bataan Death March" to the prison, and for most death. As Allied forces prepare to retake the island, plans are made to rescue the remaining prisoners on a very risky mission. This book tells this story in great detail and switches back from the Death March to the March to Free the Prisoners. But the story does not end with the recapture as the soldiers must now march a great distance back to Allied forces. There is great detail and much sadness and suffering. But it ends with the great will of the soldiers to endure their burden and the rescuers overjoyed with the success of their mission. I strongly recommend this book if you like books of adventure or patriotism.
Rating:
Summary: A great read about a little known mission
Review: This is an extremely well written book, fast paced and accurate. What really makes it shine though is the use anecdotes and memories from actual participants. The only caveat I could have with the book is that the author occasionally takes an apologist stance regarding Japanese atrocities. Knowing several Bataan Death March survivors and scores of Filipinos who survived Japanese occupation and listening to their experiences, all one can say is that the book doesn't begin to expose the horror visited on the Filipino People or on the prisoners of war --- but then, how could it, words can never convey what it is like to suffer through the atrocities that the Japanese routinely committed all through Asia. The book is an excellent read and I would recommend it to anyone.
Rating: 
Summary: What could have been
Review: Ghost soliders vividly recounts the ardorous, brutal and, at times, surreal lives of the Bataan deathmarch survivors through their rescue in early 1945. Unfortunately, the book reads like a long magazine article from a post-war Saturday Evening Post weekly. I found Sides creating suspenseful and climatic situations unnecessarily--the tense lives of these prisoners and valor of their rescuers (with a huge and essential assist from the local Filipino villagers and warriors) need no written artifices to convey the fearful and horrific circumstances of their daily existence. I also found the editing sloppy, with sub-stories that did not mesh, lost fragments without conclusion and redundancies (the pet monkey, the introduction of two chaplains, repeating a soldier's hometown and background on the same page, to name a few.) Read any WWII book by Stephen Ambrose to see how straigtforward, tell it like it happened prose can be profound and awe-inspiring. A sharp editor's pencil and eye could have turned this incredible story into a fabulous book. All in all, still a worthy read, though I would have also liked more pictures, esp. since 4 professional photographers accompanied the rescuers!!
Rating:
Summary: Excellent account!
Review: Hampton Sides does an excellent job narrating not only the daring rescue but the background events - the Fall of Bataan and the Death March. His accounting struck a personal cord. My father, Virgilio "Totoy" Celis, Jr. was with the Philippine Army's Cavalry Division at Bataan and in that infamous Death March to Capas. He used to tell us stories: about being in a fox hole for so long, yet not daring to even light a cigarette for fear of snipers; of hearing bullets whizzing by in the dark nights... He described the 'road' to Capas - the starving prisoners ate anything green along the way, so that not a blade of grass, not a single leaf remained; of thirst crazed men lapping the muddy water from tadpole filled potholes... of carrying pick-a-back his CO - Enrique Zobel, Sr. - who was so weakened w dysentery, the Japanese soldiers would surely have bayonetted him if he lagged behind or slowed the march's pace ... of my grandmother (leaving her eight younger children, including a baby - in occupied Manila)bribing her way into the camp to bring food and medicine to my father. My father also said, as brutally cruel as the Japanese were to the Filipinos, they were ten times more so to the Americans! (After the surrender, the Japanese immediately separated the Americans from the Filipinos). Thanks, Mr. Sides, for telling this particular "story" and keeping us from forgetting these heroes!
Rating:
Summary: A STORY FORGOTTEN
Review: At Fort Benning's Parachute School in 1947 West Pointer Col. Zero Wilson ('24) told me how he had hid his ring from the Death March's Japanese guards. During the day he said he put it where the sun doesn't shine. I'd forgotten that incident until author Sides reminded me on pg. 82 how a guard ordered another West Point officer to hand over his ring. Because beriberi had so swollen the man's hand, he couldn't remove it. The Japanese guard also struggled with it. Failing that he just chopped off the American's finger and took the ring. The Death March's tremendous loss of life can be attributed in part to inept Japanese logistical planning. They believed they must incarcerate and feed 18,000 prisoners but instead there were 78,000. The simplistic solution was to atrociously eliminate prisoners and they effected this with devilish barbarism...750 Americans died on the march along with 5000 Philippine Scouts. On one occasion 350 of the Scouts, their hands tied with telephone wire, were beheaded en masse. There was random bayoneting of stragglers "The guard would drive his blade in deep and give it a jagged twist twist twist in the shape of a `Z' to scramble the bowels (Pg. 89)." A pregnant Filipina was caught giving a roasted chicken to the prisoners and as she screamed her fetus was cut from her body. Staff officer Masanobu Tsuji advocated eating the flesh of the enemy to build fighting spirit; he dined on the sautéed liver of a downed pilot (pg. 95). Maniacal? Japan's freakish soldiers set the pace for the most depraved possible barbarism of the war. Little wonder most of Asia is currently angered by Japan's revised history books for young Japanese; none of the above or Nanjing's Rape appears on their revisionist pages. Author Hampton Sides crafts a masterful job and captures the bestiality of the animals that posed as Japanese Army regulars. Also, by cleverly alternating each chapter between the earlier march and Mucci's (USMA '36) famous liberating raid, Sides made his evocative story a page-turner. He has also performed a major historical service. Liberal revisionist historians have so corrupted our own American history that most young Americans are not even aware that there ever was a Death March or a Liberation of Cabanatuan prison. While attending graduate school at Berkeley I elected (at no credit) a history of Modern Japan. I avidly looked forward to this course because we would definitely review what started the Great War between America and Japan. The professor would be impelled to march the class through New Guinea, Guadalcanal, Tarawa, Kwajalein, Iwo Jima and Okinawa. Unfortunately the class was a crashing disappointment. The professor had closed his eyes to that most vibrant part of American-Japanese history; he'd obviously never had a palpable interest in those indelible events. For example, he announced to the class that only Marines fought in the Pacific during WWII when the force preponderance was Army: Three U.S. Armies totaling 30 Army divisions! I could hardly believe my ears. On the 24th of April 1997, I Xeroxed™ that day's New York Times obituary of Col. Henry Mucci and took several to class. I handed one to the history major next to me and asked if she'd ever heard of Mucci's raid or of Cabanatuan. She'd never even heard of the Death March itself! I wondered how it was possible for young Americans to be so shielded from the sacrifices of our Greatest Generation that had made our freedom possible. The professor made no mention of the above battles, of our great legacy in the Pacific, but he was intensely interested that we read Hersey's book "Hiroshima" and how Hersey portrayed that event. Nothing from the lectern made us proud to be Americans; it was liberalistic revisionist history at its worst and, not at a community college but at a flagship university. Consequently, I'm gratified that we have young authors like Hampton Sides who has produced his outstanding book "Ghost Soldiers." One that has no sociological or political axe to grind, just the unvarnished truth of those dastardly events that occurred in the Philippines. Sides also makes it perfectly clear this was not just an American show. Very important to Mucci's success were Filipino heroes like guerilla Captain Joson who during the raid provided 80 men as Mucci's flank and rear guard. Vital to the raid was Captain Juan Pajota and his force of 200 Filipino warriors (pg. 250). Soldiers from each Filipino force lost their lives so that Mucci's liberating raid would be successful. Terrific book!
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Journalism
Review: Prior to reading this book, I had never heard of this event. The author did an excellent job in providing background information that kept the reader squarely in the middle of the happenings. The material was presented in such a logical and orderly fashion that it was easy for the reader to move smoothly with the events as they unfolded. The author did an outstanding job in graphically describing the horrific treatment of the prisoners; so much so that some scenes described in the book continued to be recalled in my mind for weeks! This book was hard to lay aside! Outstanding material and the presentation thereof!!
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding history of a virtually unknown rescue of POWS.
Review: Hampton Sides has crafted an excellent story of the Bataan Death March and the POW camps and the rescue of one camp. This history is very readable and will hold your attention. Though I was born during WWII and thought I knew most of the stories. I had never heard of the rescue attempt and it's total success. Excellent read!
Rating:
Summary: Family treasure
Review: My father, Raymond Glasgow, was not on this raid, but he was on other Ranger liberations. I wanted so much to have some means to convey to our children what it was like in the South Pacific in WWII. This book is excellent for a family heritage. Like most vets who were there, my dad recalled events for us only rarely, and those disclosures were few. This book depicts for our children and grandchildren what it was like. Thanks so much to Mr. Sides for providing us a family treasure.
|
