Proceedings, Naval Institute Press

June 2009, Page 74

   Remember Pearl Harbor" remains the best-known slogan of World War II. But for many, especially after the Dyess Re­port of 1944 (the joint Army and Navy testimony of officers who survived capture and imprisonment on Bataan and Corregidor) the phrase evolved into  "Remember Pearl Harbor and Bataan." Yet the Bataan story does not resonate with most American as do the major battles of the European theater. Thus, 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 talents—he would later become an art professor—and quietly began to sketch his surroundings. Since we have minimal visual documentation of Philippine POW camp life, Steele's many pen-and-ink drawings, recreated from now-lost originals, are especially welcome.
   The strength of this volume lies less with a radical reinterpretation than with a masterful compilation of new and fascinat­ing individual stories. The Normans present the dramas of battle and captivity from a variety of perspectives, including the views of the average Japanese soldier. Their dis­cussion of the impact of the Japanese code of honor on the various levels of the Japanese military is very well drawn. The authors are especially critical of General Douglas MacArthur, noting his lack of foresight, his failure to ensure adequate provisions, his decision in the Masaharu Homma war crimes trial, and his overall pomposity. "Dugout Doug," as the enlisted men scornfully referred to him, departed for Australia under President Franklin D. Roosevelt's orders, which left Generals Jonathan Wain­wright and Ned King to oversee the surren­der of 76,000 American and Filipino troops on 9 April 1942—still the worst defeat in American military history.
   Tears in the Darkness revolves around three themes: brutality, suffering, and the power of human endurance. The un­speakable cruelty that infused the Death March, the POW camps, and the Hell Ships seems to have stemmed from Ja­pan's refusal to sign the 1929 Geneva Convention, the harsh discipline accorded the average Japanese soldier, which he was eager to pass along to the disgraced "non-persons" who had surrendered; and the fact that Japanese command ex­pected to deal with about 40,000 POWs hut faced almost twice that number. The anonymous, kind-hearted Filipinos who handed out food and water to the end­less stream of marchers emerge as un­sung heroes.
   How Ben Steele survived his excruci­ating ordeal is almost beyond compre­hension. That he and others did make it back can be credited to chance encoun­ters with physicians or medicine (espe­cially quinine, so crucial to combating the ever-present malaria), the concern of fellow prisoners, and just plain luck. Perhaps as many as 9,000 Americans and about 45,000 Filipinos were not so for­tunate. In addition, although this is only hinted at here, many of those who did return were so weakened that they did not long survive.
   Based on ten years of research and 400 interviews, including several with former Japanese soldiers, the Normans conclude that in warfare, "nothing runs true to plan." Still, amid the atroci­ties, one can catch glimpses of basic human decency: the Soldier who se­cretly slipped quinine pills into the slop he fed his comrade; the physician who ran out of paregoric to treat dysentery and created homemade remedies (clay and water and powdered charcoal); and Father Bill Cummings on a Hell Ship who said that he hoped to work with street children in Tokyo after the war. "The bastards are hopeless," one Soldier protested. "Son,' Cummings replied, "no one is hopeless." Unfortunately, Father Bill did not make it back.
   If one plans to read but one volume on the Bataan story, it should be Tears in the Darkness.
      --Dr. Szasz is Regents' Professor of History at the Uni­versity of New Mexico and the author of The Day the Sun Rose Twice: The Story of the Trinity Site Nuclear Explosion, July 16, 1945 (University of New Mexico Press, 1984) and Abraham Lincoln and Robert Burns: Connected Lives and Legends (Southern Illinois Uni­versity Press, 2008).