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Summary: What Price Freedom?
Review: In my view, this book (and "Black Hawk Down") should be on everyone's must read. How else can we know, or teach our children, that America's unique place in the world comes at a cost.Ghost Soldiers isn't just a re-cap of the Bataan Death March. It's the years that followed and the belief that American POWs held-to that America would win, and they would be free. And its the story of why our military requires their elite units and the heavy investment needed to support them and their mission. To be complete, each service must have a place where special men can serve. No where is that story better told than when the idea of the now famous U.S. Army Rangers was only that...and idea. But one that became real, quickly. When no one else could fill the mission requirements. Those requirements are the little known story chronicled in this fast-paced book. Don't miss it.
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Summary: RIVETING audio book
Review: I listened to this book on tape while driving across country, and I didn't even notice the hours or the miles flying by because this book was SO good. I didn't have to stop and stretch or use the rest areas. You can read the other reviews for the contents of the book itself, but if you are looking for a book on tape to listen to - I HIGHLY recommend Ghost Soldiers. It's a well-written book and it's very well read on the tape. My only caution would be to have some kleenex handy for the end of the book. After I listened to the book on tape, I took a look at the hardcover book in the store just to see the pictures and the maps, but I was able to follow everything in the story without them.
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Summary: Didn't want it to end
Review: If you like a well-told, well-researched true story, this is it. The tension was built throughout the story, I couldn't wait for the raid. Makes me want to go meet Mr. Prince and shake his hand.
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Summary: A Mission to remember
Review: The very touching and captivating description of the lives of the Cabanatuan POW's followed by the details of the remarkable rescue mission is truly well brought out in this book. The author has superbly managed to capture details of the mission. Right from the beginning it grips the reader with the horrors of war and the lives of POW's in Japanese POW camps bringing to light the sacrifice by the earlier generations in order for us to enjoy the peace of today.
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Summary: Inspiration in Survival; Heroism in Rescue
Review: In many respects, World War II was the defining act of the 20th century, and there are many ways to conceptualize and write about it. There is the one-sentence version: The evil Axis of Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, and imperial Japan attempted to conquer the world, and was defeated by the United States, Great Britain, the Soviet Union and their allies. Many wonderful books have been written about the major, turning-point campaigns and battles. And there now are many individual stories of heroism and sacrifice, which make up what might be characterized as the micro-history of the conflict. Hampton Sides's Ghost Soldiers is of the latter variety. In chronological order, it begins with the defeat of the American forces in the Philippines in 1942, which resulted in the largest surrender in U.S. military history, takes the prisoners of war through the brutal Bataan "death march," follows them through nearly three years of insufferable captivity in prisoner of war camps, reports that the Japanese were preparing to slaughter the surviving prisoners as they retreated, and narrates the fascinating and stirring story of the liberation of about 500 American and British POWS by a small force of American Rangers and Filipino guerrillas in January 1945. In Sides's view, several factors accounted for the near-unspeakably harsh conditions to which Allied prisoners of war in the Pacific were subjected. Sides ably demonstrates that, for cultural reasons, the Japanese generally held their prisoners in contempt. According to their Military Field Code, Japanese soldiers who fell into enemy hands "brought irrevocable shame" to themselves and their families. That attitude could not be expunged when Japanese soldiers were assigned to prison camps, and this explains, but certainly does not excuse, the harsh discipline, which included beatings, torture, and occasionally random acts of murder, imposed by the Japanese. The camps, themselves, often were poorly equipped with medical and sanitary facilities, and exposure to the elements and natural pathogens made tropical diseases rampant. For instance, the camp where most of the Bataan POWS were marched was planned for about 25,000 troops, but the actual number of prisoners held there began at closer to 100,000. It is nearly miraculous that anyone survived. By late 1944, most of the Allied POWS held at Cabanatuan had died or had been taken to Japan to serve as slave laborers, and only about 500, mostly men with severe psychiatric disorders, dysentery, and tuberculosis, survived. When the American military command obtained reports that the Japanese were in the process of annihilating the remaining prisoners, a plan was rapidly improvised to send about 200 American Rangers and Filipino guerrillas to Cabanatuan to rescue the POWS. This may not have been, as the subtitle asserts, "World War II's Most Dramatic Mission" (I consider that merely publisher's hyperbole), but the story of the indomitable prisoners is inspiring, and the chapters devoted to the rescue mission are very exciting. Books of this type are not without their critics. An example of the most serious criticism recently appeared in The New York Times, where the reviewer wrote that that "Sides's effort to expand gratuitously a brief chapter in Army history is an egregious of the recent trend to milk every drop of drama from World War II, a conflict whose realities are heroic enough unembellished." If Sides exaggerated or "embellished" the drama of the Ranger raid on the Cabanatuan prison camp, he committed a serious error of judgment and reportorial ethics. But the suggestion that this "brief chapter in Army history" does not deserve book-length attention strikes me as ungenerous and short-sighted. It is true that the events at Cabanatuan in January 1945 did not determine the outcome of the war in the Pacific, but they did illustrate some of the conflict's principal themes. I have read that American veterans of World War II are dying at the rate of 1,000 per day. In 20 years, practically all of them will be dead. And then, the stories of this great generation quite literally will pass into history. I am in complete favor of the publication of every possible book about World War II, especially first-person accounts and those in which the participants tell their stories to professional writers. Only in that way will succeeding generations have the fullest possible record of what happened during this horrific conflict. In one hundred years, students will still ask: Why did 50 million people die in the world war of the 1930s and 1940s? Hampton Sides's Ghost Soldiers offers a partial answer to that question, and that is why books such as this are so valuable.
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Summary: Can't put me down!
Review: Great Book! This is one of those books you don't want to put down. Well written and researched. I think books like "ghost soldiers" need to be written to document how American soldiers were treated in POW camps in WWII. I certainly have a better appreciation for the men who fought in the Pacific. This raid is what every Ranger dreams of participating in. Almost everything went right and luck was on their side. This is one book that anyone can enjoy!
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Summary: Heroes Rescuing Heroes, a Magnificent Story, Superbly Told.
Review: Hampton Sides has brought history to life with a dazzling combination of detail, gut wrenching action, and the soldiers' own words in the story of the remnants of the soldiers in the Bataan Death March. Some descriptions are very hard to read as in the beginning where he details the slaughter of American prisoners on Palawan as the war nears its end. Details of prison life alternate from the horrifying diseases picked up by the prisoners to the sublime moment when the captives steal food and futons from the Japanese side of the prison camp. The nail biting rescue against impossible odds (about 200 American and Filipino soldiers against several thousand Japanese in the area)is a fitting climax to an enthralling, suspenseful story of heroes rescuing heroes. Let not anyone forget these men, and let not anyone forget our brave comrades-in-arms, the Filipino guerrillas who fought tenaciously to cover the withdrawal of the prisoners and U.S. Rangers from the prison camp. Hampton Sides deserves a Pulitzer Prize for this magnificent tale.
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Summary: Compelling rendering of an amazing mission.
Review: The story of the liberation of the American POWs in Cabanatuan is wonderfully recounted by Hampton Sides. Sides has clearly done excellent research, both looking at the documentary records and conducting interviews of key participants. While the book is about the liberation of these survivors of the Bataan Death March, Hampton does an excellent job of including the history of the surrender of Bataan, the March and the harrowing years the in the POW camps. Chapters focusing on a horrifying element of the POWs' internment alternate with chapters about the Rangers plotting their amazing plan to free them. As you learn more about the blight of the POWs, you increasingly feel the same urgency the Rangers must have felt about achieving a successful raid. Throughout the book, Sides shows the heroism of the POWs and the Rangers. No reader will come away from this book without a profound sense admiration for the surviving POWs, an enormous respect for the bravery and skill of their rescuers and overwhelming sympathy and grief for those who did not return. One word of caution: the prologue tells the story of the gruesome massacre of American POWs by the Japanese at Palawan. I think this is an important part of the book not only because this story should be told, but also because it explains the urgency of the Ranger's mission to liberate the camp at Cabanatuan. Nevertheless, the details of this massacre are so astoundingly cruel and gruesome that they may seriously disturb some readers. I gave the book to a friend who was so upset by the prolouge that he was unable to finish the book. I do think it's important to read the story of Palawan, but if you are that sensitive, skip the prolouge and go straight into the main text. Unfortunately, there will be plenty of horrifying episodes in the text, but none as gruesome as the massacre at Palawan.
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Summary: Moving, Heroic and Interesting War Story
Review: This is a great war story that is moving for both the depravity of Japanese treatment of American POW's and our soldier's struggle to survive. Ghost Soldiers traces American GI's from the Bataan Death March through their internment in the Japanese prison system and the eventual liberation of several hundred during a daring raid on the prison at Cabanatuan by an army Ranger unit. It is a gripping and well written story that will keep you fixed to the pages of this fine book. The first chapter is searing and just about the saddest piece of history I've ever read. The massacre of American prisoners at Palawan tipped the US Army to the danger faced by other POW's operating under a Japanese policy of prisoner annihilation as the Empire's prospects faded late in the war. Knowing that 500 prisoners were at the Phillipine camp Cabanatuan ahead of the US Sixth Army unleashed what is perhaps the war's most dramatic rescue mission in early 1945. Hampton Sides is a good writer who knows how to keep a story moving. He weaves back and forth between the prisoners and their Ranger rescuers withoug breaking the story pace. He also traces the history of the prisoner's experiences under Japanese authority. The sadistic barbarity with which the captors treated American prisoners is amazing for its uniformity. Sides brings enough of Japanese culture and military training into the story to show how almost everyone from top commanders to lowly prison guards were perhaps predisposed to the atrocities that visited our soldiers with stunning regularity through their long months of starvation and neglect. The threads of the story come together nicely with a climatic battle scene that will glue your attention to the pages. This is a well written story that deserves to be remembered both as a testament to the barbarity of the war-era Japanese army and the heroics of POW survival and American arms.
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Summary: A PROBLEM WITH THE SUBTITLE
Review: A marvelous book, but, I believe the publishers couldn't have known the following when arriving at their subtitle: During the Battle of Manila in February 1945, units of the American 11th Airborne were pulled off the line where they were fighting the Japanese, literally, room to room for control of Manila. They lived without sleep or sufficient food and death waited for them around any corner. But, at last, they were pulled off the line. They were being relieved. Then, they were told the truth. They had orders to rescue 2,147 civilian American and Allied prisoners-of-war held 30 miles behind the Japanese lines, south of Manila, in a place called Los Banos. Los Banos was surrounded by 60,000 battle-hardened Japanese. There were no American troops there. The mission was suicide. Word reached General MacArthur that the Japanese were beginning to slaughter surviving Americans held captive since the weeks following Pearl Harbor. In one case, while American troops fought to free Manila, American prisoners at Palawan, also in the Philippines, were locked in a church; the Japanese set fire to the church and machine-gunned anyone managing to break out a door or window. That story reached MacArthur because a single survivor, his clothes burning, broke out a window, leapt off a cliff into the sea and was saved by Filipino fishermen. Then MacArthur received this intelligence: the Japanese were digging a mass grave at Los Banos. The rescue moved to the top of his list. The 2,147 American prisoners-of-war at Los Banos were starving, weak with untreated tropical disease, and mostly shoeless. Even if rescued, they couldn't march. They were not soldiers who understood the elements of combat. They could not help their rescuers. It was a logistical nightmare. Whatever hasty plan they created had to work. Failure meant the waste of 3,000 lives in a single morning. The subtitle of "Ghost Soldiers" is "The Forgotten Epic Story of World War II's Most Dramatic Mission." I think the publishers can't know about Los Banos. And the reason only a handful of people know the story is about the date: The rescue took place on February 23, 1945. A few hours later, that same morning, the marines raised the flag on Mt. Suribachi at Iwo Jima. That glorious photograph justifiably became page one. Los Banos had no photograph. The story appeared with other international news and went unnoticed. If the term "hero" is not yet threadbare from use by the media to describe someone speaking against a resolution at a city counsel meeting, then "hero" in its mythical and classical sense describes the men of the 11th Airborne at Los Banos. Those brash young kids are now in their 80s. The men of the "Ghost Soldiers" or the men of the 11th Airborne will not be depicted in a movie. They will not be so honored or remembered because there is no commerce in a film without "love interest." "Pearl Harbor," in order to be a viable project, had to be told in light of a fictional "love interest" which took three-quarters of the film. It says a great deal about us as a people. The story of the rescue at Los Banos was published in "Deliverance at Los Banos" by Anthony Arthur, St. Martin's Press. The book is available at the library and but is now out-of-print. Read it. The "Ghost Soldiers" would applaud and understand.
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