1 comments about Old Man Thunder: Father of the Bullet Train.

1. In the decade when the United States was building its costly but convenient interstate highway system, Japan, after intense soul-searching, opted to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on a transportation technology that many believed to be outmoded.
   
   The result was Shinkansen, the Bullet Train system that stitches cities together with amazing efficiency, economy, and convenience. Today during rush hours on the original 320-mile segment of the Bullet System routes, the passenger equivalent of four fully loaded jumbo jetliners leaves Tokyo every six minutes for Osaka 320 miles away, and an equal number departs Osaka for Tokyo. Racing at speeds averaging more thatn 120 m.p.h., the Shinkansen requires only one-fifth the energy of aircraft to move an equivalent load.
   
   It is likey the Bullet Train never would have developed, except for a short, stubby former farm boy with an explosive temper. His name was Shinji Sogo. His lifetime spanned the period of Japan's transformation from feudalism to work economic power. He was involved in the strugle within the nation between civilians and the militias, and a failed plot to overthrow the government in the tense days that led to Pearll Harber.
   
   Largely unknown outside Japan, Sogo deserves to be known as "Old Man Thunder" and "Father of the Bullet Train."

2 comments about Imprisoned Apart: The World War II Correspondence of an Issei Couple (Scott and Laurie Oki Series in Asian American Studies).

1. In this simple, lovely paperback the life & times of two quiet, introspective pioneers come alive. They left the land of their birth for Seattle in America, arriving in the 1919. There they thrived within their community & their church. Until that fateful day when Iwao was snatched away shortly after Pearl Harbor. The World War II correspondence of this Issei couple throughout the dark years of their separate internments is the heart of this biography. Yet the memorabilia & superb black & white photographs of the NorthWest region give a greater insight into these quiet, devoted Americans. Truly an inspiring study in forgiveness & endurance. ........................



2. This is the true story of a married couple who were sent to separate internment camps during World War II. It is a heart-wrenching, but heart-warming story, told mainly in his letters to her, as she was too depressed or too ill to write much of the time. All Americans should know the full details of this shameful time in our history. This book shows how a man can love his wife under any circumstance. Highly recommended!

1 comments about One Thousand Days in Siberia: The Odyssey of a Japanese-American POW.

1. About eight years ago, I read Peter Sano's story when it was in its earliest form. I knew then that he should have it published - and finally, he did. Peter was born in America but at the age of 15, in 1939, he was sent to Japan to become the adopted son of his childless aunt and uncle. Drafted into the Japanese army in 1945, Peter was sent to war. By being in the wrong place at the wrong time, Peter ended up in Siberian POW and labor camps for three years before finally being released. During those years, Peter made life bearable for many of his fellow prisoners, often at his own expense - and though he downplays his heroism, he kept some people alive who would otherwise have perished. His is a tale both humorous and tragic and in the end, inspiring. Today, Peter is back in America, an accomplished architect, husband, father, and one of the kindest and gentlest souls I have ever met. It was impossible to put down his manuscript once I started it until I had devoured every page. I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys tales of triumph over adversity, love beating hate, and quick wits winning out over the harshest odds.

1 comments about The Writings of Koda Aya, A Japanese Literary Daughter (Studies of the East Asian Institute).

1. A truly insightful study beautifully argued without the use of word processing

5 comments about My Hitch in Hell: The Bataan Death March (World War II Commemorative).

1. This readable memoir of one of the darkest parts of World War II in the Pacific theater brings Lester Tenney's experiences as a young man, recruit, soldier, prisoner of war and repatriated civilian to life. Mr. Tenney's journey through the hell he describes leads us through pain, despair, hope, bitterness and ultimately to the forgiveness he found. We learn about one man's faith in family and loved ones that led to his determination to survive. Anyone interested in World War II will find this a valuable resource. My book group (women in our fifties and sixties) was moved by this book. Several bought more copies to give to friends and family.



2. This is a story about a terrible event in history. This is not a fun story to read but it is one that needs to be read to help us appreciate how good our life really is. There are many memorable parts to this book, I am amazed anyone could survive this.



3. I remember this situation when I was 10 years old during WW2. This is a fascinating read and so well written that I could not put it down. It tells it like it was..



4. I just finished this book, and I must say I am inspired. Lester Tenney deserves an enormous amount of respect and admiration for what he endured and acomplished during his time as an american POW.
   
   While this is not exactly a full account of the Death March and the surrounding events filled with statistics and data, it is Tenney's first hand account that makes this horrendous event so palpable that the reader feels as though they are enduring the very same hardships.
   
   Do not expect this to be a simple or comfortable read. While the book has some wonderful and very happy moments, namely Tenney's own postive attitude and inner strength, these moments are doubled by nearly unbearable situations that will make you cringe, as any story about one of the most horrifying events of the war should. Tenney describes in extreme detail the atrocities of the Japanese military. While this story is anything but rosy, it is indescribably important, as it tells a story which seems to be forgetten in our society. What these men suffered through was every bit as terrifying as those on the battlefield, and those who suffered during the Holocaust. Tenney does their story justice, and shows us that these harrowing men deserve every bit of respect and admiration as any other serving in an American uniform.



5. The story of the Bataan survivors is at the same time unbelievable and infuriating. It blows my mind the cruelty these heros were subjected to on an hourly basis and at the same time I'm ashamed to say that part of me feels like Japan got off easy with two nukes dropped on them. That anybody lived at all is in itself no small feat.
   
   The book itself is a great read. It was obviously written by a survivor, so consequently it has that 1st person feel that I like.

5 comments about Hotel Tacloban.

1. Until recently, I thought that this book could be safely ignored as a pathetic, misleading blot on the broad canvas of POW history.
   
   As other reviewers have noted, the Publisher (Angus & Robertson) has added a disclaimer that, "...it has not been possible to prove that the events did occur". Actually, A&R only added this inadequate note (in small type) after an eminent Australian history professor warned them that the book was packed with historical errors and was undoubtedly fiction.
   
   However, right now in 2008, one can see many Internet sites where Douglas Valentine is still presenting his Tacloban fiction as if it was history. Even more worryingly, these websites are being used to vilify the record of a genuine Prisoner of War, presidential candidate John McCain. In response, I'd like Amazon readers to be clear on how much of "Hotel Tacloban" they should accept as historical truth. The answer is ZERO percent.
   
   I'm an Australian. I've worked in the Philippines and personally hiked in the battlefields of New Guinea that Valentine purports to describe. I've researched extensively on POW history and I've also had an academic article published in the USA describing the detection of historical fraud. I'm very familiar with the archival material that can be used to check works such as "Hotel Tacloban".
   
   Other reviewers are correct that this book "reads well". - Yes, exactly like polished fictional prose, not oral history! The landscapes described in Northern Papua are quite wrong. The grassy and swampy coastal plains are portrayed as "mountains" with "rainforest". The vicious siege of the Japanese at Buna in November 1942 is described as some sort of minor patrol action. Valentine obviously didn't bother to properly read the history books that he lists in his bibliography, which accurately describe this country and these battles, where the Australian Army and the US Army fought and died. Valentine's laxity is disrespectful in itself.
   
   Valentine describes his father walking for "days" after captivity (but the Japanese pocket was only a few hundred yards deep!) and then being calmly loaded into a Japanese freighter. No Japanese freighters were anywhere near the Buna siege area in November 1942. The Allies dominated the sky. So every aspect of the purported capture and evacuation of Valentine's father is quite impossible.
   
   It just doesn't ring true that Valentine or his father have ever set foot in Papua. (At one point Valentine lets slip that his father's record says he was in the 375th Harbor Craft Company. This unit actually departed the USA in 1944 and briefly transited through Hollandia in Dutch New Guinea before moving to - surprise, surprise - Tacloban in the Philippines, after the US Leyte landings. In 1944, Valentine Snr. would have been at the legal enlistment age of 18, rather than Valentine's implausible "16" in 1942. (The photo of Valentine's dad on the paperback cover of "Hotel Tacloban" shows him in front of a 1944-pattern US tent, but looking fit and still in possession of the front teeth that the Japanese had supposedly knocked out!)
   
   More dire narrative problems emerge when the book re-locates to the purported Tacloban POW camp in the Philippines and its "interesting" Australian occupants. Unfortunately for Valentine, The Australian War Memorial clearly states that no Australian POWs were held in the Philippines! The names of Valentine's key characters *cannot* be found in Australia's Veterans Affairs database. The US NARA database also shows no released US POW named "Douglas VALENTINE", and no US military POWs liberated anywhere on the island of Leyte. There is no evidence that Valentine Snr. ever experienced captivity in the hands of the Japanese at all.
   
   The depictions of the Australians in the POW camp are laughably divorced from reality. Valentine certainly has never lived with any Australians. Instead we get ridiculous sheep-shagging caricatures! The dialogue sounds wrong. The nicknames sound wrong. The descriptions of life in Australia sound dead wrong.
   
   There is no "Major R. L. Cumyns" (Valentine's murder victim) buried in any Commonwealth war grave anywhere in the world, let alone the Philippines. If Valentine was going to make up a key character name like this, then he shouldn't have chosen one that's so easy to disprove! (And Cumyns sounds like a caricature straight out of the movie "Bridge on the River Kwai".)
   
   Valentine's description of the POW camp itself is also hokey - the local geography sounds wrong; he gets the wet season five months out in timing; and the buildings are too small, with the wrong construction for a former Philippine Army camp. Also, in contrast to every other POW memoir that I've ever read, "Hotel Tacloban" almost ignores the captors, the Japanese. There is no mention of Japanese-language commands or essential camp procedures such as bowing, which were life-and-death matters for POWs. It's pathetic that Valentine couldn't make a better job of creating a fictional POW camp, when his bibliography lists six excellent POW memoirs. He simply can't have read them..
   
   And don't get me started on "The Enforcer" and his devilish five-minute torture sessions! (On the positive side, the wild inaccuracies of this book at least show that Valentine is not a plagiarist!)
   
   Finally, some choice quotes from Douglas Valentine himself:
   
   "... when I write, it is too hard to write the truth..." Frontispiece quotation page xv.
   
   " ...Fooling an audience into believing the most preposterous, the most blatant of fictions, through an elaborate fabrication of plausible half-truths and downright deceptions, was a Digger's highest level of achievement..." p39.
   
   "... at the risk of being called anti-Asiatic or racist by enlightened people, I must confess that for many years I secretly wished that more bombs had been dropped on Japan..." p69.



2. As an historian who had devoted some 15,000 hours researching and documention the Pacific POWs, I can say, unequivacably, the the story is PURE fiction.
   Valentine conflates numerous actual events to this make believe story about a POW. No record exists, any where, that his father was on such a patrol, that such a POW camp existed or that any of the named POWs existed.
   
   It is a good "yarn" but don't ever call it history. It demeans tha valor and honor of thousand of American and allied POWS who suffered and died for your freedom. To even infer it is true is disgraceful



3. Looking at other Amazon reviews this book has reviews from very good to very bad. I was expecting to be somewhere in the middle but it turned out to be quite a bit better than I expected. I would say it is worth reading if you come across it.



4. Amazon.com is wrong when it says my book is out of print and that a picture of the dust jacket is not available. The Hotel Tacloban is published by iUniverse.com as an Author's Guild Backinprint book. You can get it by going to my website and clicking on the dust jacket for the Hotel Tacloban, which will take you directly to iUniverse.com, where you can order the book.



5. The Hotel Tacloban is a fascinating read. The book flows well, reads easily, and keeps pulling you along to the next chapter - a marvelous peice of literary craftsmanship. The only downside is the nagging thought that it might just be a made-up story.

   That would be easy to accept if the author said outright that it was fiction. It would also be easy to accept if we had independent confirmation of the events. What is hard to accept is that the story has the ring of authnticity - we do know that many things just like this happened - and the author claims that it is true, but we have no way of proving or disproving those assertions.

   A war veteran myself, I can testify that things like the events related in this book are unfortunatly normal occurences in many circles throughout the world, even today. Further, the types of actions purported to have been carried out by the US Army at the end of the book have in fact been done before, another well-documented fact. More importantly, perhaps, is this - the words of the author ring with the tone of truth. A wise VA counselor once remarked to me, when we were discussing whether or not specific events had occured to a mutual aquaintance, that even if we could never establish the exact sequence or total sum of events, it was obvious that SOMETHING had happened to him. I get the same feeling from this book. Whether it is the story given here or something else entirely, there seems to be some dark chapter in the life of the man protrayed. Thus, while I will never quote from this book as history, I believe that it does bequeth an adequate portrayal of what life was like for some people during the war. I look at it more as historical novel than historical fact, which allows me great luxury in finding a place for it in my library.

   Read it for what it is, though we can never know for sure. Is it eyewitness to history, a fascinatingly and cunningly crafted fictional masterpiece, or the dark broodings of a man with deep psychological problems of some sort? It is a remarkable example of whichever one of those it is, and it is also a reminder (no matter what the truth is) of the dark side of the largest war ever fought on this planet.

No comments about THE WORLD IS ONE: Princess Yi Pangja's Autobiography.

4 comments about Sanshiro: A Novel (Michigan Classics in Japanese Studies).

1. I rate this irony laden story on par with Soseki's most important novel, 'Kokoro.' Joseph Conrad's novels had to travel to Africa and the East Indies to establish the parameters within which the Japanese lived their daily lives as they grappled with the effects of Western Rationalism upon a nonindustrial society. Fortunately for world literature, Soseki Natsume was up to the task of documenting this transitional period with grace, wit, and sensitivity. Soseki's books generally are either serious ('Kokoro') or satiric ('Botchan,' 'I Am A Cat'), 'Sanshiro' is both and it is the better for it.
   After graduating from a provincial school Sanshiro enters Japan's greatest university and encounters a number of Tokyo sophisticates, among them westernized girls, famed artists and writers, jaded academicians, dedicated scientists and his best friend Yojiro a lovable, well-meaning scoundrel who constantly throws his shy and self-effacing compatriot into the thick of things. Because there are so many elements that make up this heady mix, the reader has the choice of processing the story on many different levels. At the very simplest level it is about first love and disappointment, but it is also a commentary upon the effects of the new on the old, East meets West, the city vs. the countryside, the traditional and untraditional, youthful idealism and middle-aged disappointment. This probably sounds as though it might be tedious or pedantic, but really Soseki's treatment of the themes is gentle and a delight to read. For instance, when one of Sanshiro's heroes is disgraced by a well-meaning plan that goes awry, Soseki blunts the pain by riffng on the inscrutability of the 'philosophical smoke' streaming through his victim-hero's nostrils as he puffs on his pipe. A stream of smoke by which Sanshiro's roguish friend claims to read emotions. Also, when Soseki lampoons the intellectual conceits of his characters, he does it in a way that the reader must seriously consider each proposition before the joke becomes apparent. As to the pain of disappointment in love, this is always sad and heartfelt yet Soseki is able to ameliorate it by leaving the subject and the object of the heartbreak ambiguous as if either side may have been responsible.
   This is imagined, but one begins to suspect that Haruki Murakami was influenced by this novel and even appropriates some of the themes found in it for his own: mysterious and alluring women who flit in and out of the story, odd scientific and philosophical theories as props, central character as passive witness. It is fun to imagine this and one begins to find other coincidences too. Anyway, it is just a thought, perhaps brought on by the coincidence that Jay Rubin, the translator who does an excellent job of bringing this text to life, also translates for Haruki Murakami.
   Readers, this is one of the finer Japanese novels that I have encountered. The author often had me smiling, laughing, cringing, sighing and rooting for the various characters in this well told story.



2. "Sanshiro" is a coming-of-age novel, Meiji Japan style. This is definitely not one of Soseki's better known novels, especially in the United States, but it still has an appeal and sharpness that transcends time and cultural barriers.

   "Sanshiro" is in many ways both different and yet similar to Soseki's most famous work, "Kokoro." Both include tales of heartbreak and tragedy, along with social commentary on Japanese society. For whatever reason, Sanshiro struck me as a much more "modern" book than Kokoro. Using the word modern on a book written 100 years ago may seem odd, but reading Soseki's comments on Japanese society at the time (end of the 19th/beginning of 20th century Japan), then considering the ultimate result of the Meiji cultural "revolution" (the emphasis on Western science and Eastern philosophy which led to militaristic ultranationalism), and then again the state of Japan today and it is clear that Soseki's comments are not outdated.

   Similarly, Sanshiro's Mineko is a much more modern, "Western" young lady than her counterpart in Kokoro. Unlike Kokoro's Ojosan, who didn't seem to have a thought of her own, Mineko is beautiful, intelligent, slightly haughty, and has a mysterious appeal about her. She is not some trophy to be captured, but a person to be respected in her own right. I found myself verbally assaulting the annoyingly clumsy Sanshiro when he missed opportunity after opportunity to get to know Mineko better. Of course, when he finally develops some guts it's too late. The blame for this unhappy end falls on Mineko as well, as she is one of Sanshiro and Yojiro's generation's "unconscious hypocrites" in the words of Soseki. Mineko knows that she has found a fellow stray sheep in Sanshiro, yet she ultimately abandons him.

   Soseki's writing is again a joy to read. Every time you encounter a passage that seems to start getting a little monotonous, he throws in a paragraph that seems absolutely brilliant. The characters are similarly memorable. I liked Kokoro a bit better, but Sanshiro is still an excellent book that has aged well.




3. Soseki's first attempt at a serious (as opposed to Botchan), full-length novel is a wonderful story of a country boy, Sanshiro, in his first year at Tokyo University studying literature. During the year he falls in love and unwittingly gets involved in university politics.
   Set in the early 1900's, the book examines Japanese society moving into the modern world. Sanshiro is trapped between the traditional Japan of his home, the modern world of Tokyo, and the academic world of the University. He falls in love with a modern woman, but has difficulty relating to her because he has little experience with woman and because of his traditional upbringing.
   My droll description by no means does the novel justice. As a coming-of-age story, it is superior to Western classics such as This Side of Paradise and The Catcher in the Rye. It is an utterly charming novel that shows Soseki's fine sense of humor as well as his skill and insight in critiquing Japanese society and man entering a modern world. Soseki's simple, elegant writing style survives even through translation. It serves well as an introduction to Soseki's works, which later are darker psychological analyses.



4. Many of Soseki's other novels are still in print, but this one is not. Odd.

   Sanshiro is probably not a good book to head in to unless you are familiar with Meiji period Japan. However, the message(s) in the book are without a doubt easily discovered even if you haven't studied the history of the time.

   The main focus is on a boy becoming a man, going to school in Tokyo, far from his home village in Kumamoto. The sort of things he encounters during college life are no doubt the same sort of things Soseki met with (even though soseki is from Tokyo), but they illustrait many discoveries and observations many of us may have made and just forgetten about, without realizing how important they may have been.

   Taking place just after the Russo-Japan war the picture painted of society is frought with confusion and excitement.Rapid change and new discoveries are shown from both sides of the mirror. Perhaps there is something here for us in the age of rapid globalization and digitalization as well.

   This will await reprinting, hopefully forthcoming.

4 comments about Things That Must Not Be Forgotten : A Childhood in Wartime China.

1. I was sent a copy of this book by my mum from Australia last year and only recently had the chance to finally read the book.
   
   It's no wonder that this book is an award winner (2000 Kiriyama Pacific Rim Book Prize). Kwan keeps you rivetted to his story, told through eyes of a young boy growing up in very turbulent times. In spite of coming from a wealthy family, it cannot save him from the terrors and turmoil brought to Northern China in the 1930s and 1940s, nor from the racial judgement passed on him for being half-Chinese and half-White.
   
   How Kwan manages to survive is quite amazing. He is abandoned by his own mother and faces major abuses at school. Then, war begins and he begins to witness the atrocities committed by the Japanese in China. Finally, after the Japanese are defeated, he nearly loses his father to the KMT government that his father has faithfuly served through the resistance movement. He is not even safe from his own family, who try to use him as a means to extort his father for money that no longer exists.
   
   An absolute must read for anyone interested in China, the Japanese invasion of China, and a boy's coming of age.



2. I read a review and an excerpt of this book in Toronto last summer, and waited anxiously for it to be published here in the States. I read it in two days, gulping it down excitedly; then I re-read it slowly, informed of the story but savoring the beautiful prose. I wrote Mr. Kwan a "fan letter," only to learn today in this forum that he passed away. I was hoping for a sequel.



3. An extraordinary story told with well controlled language and subtle understatements. The book chronicles the lives in a previledged, but also marginalized, world where everyone is deeply enshrouded in his or her own loneliness : the western expatriates in China, the mixed-blood children like the author himself, the western women married to Chinese men but unable to summon any love for the country or its people, the well-cultured mem ostracized by the society for their marriages to western women. Each of them, making good-intentioned efforts to connect, failed miserably because of their own deep-rooted prejudice, social barriars imposed by other people, or simply the uncontrollable historical whirlwinds. Outside this walled-in existence, a war is raging on with unimaginable callousness. The wall would eventually crumble down and the fineness of the Legation Quarter be swallowed by the brutal and rancid humanities of that era. Reminding us at times of Proust and Graham Greene, this remembrance of things past documents, in a hushed voice, an extraordinary age and all the human efforts to stay emerged in the midst of sweeping torrents. Warmth and friendship flicker from time to time in this vast emotional void : the author's attachment to his down-to-earth and understanding nanny Shu Ma, his natural bonding with the reticent peasant Xiao Hu, and the unusual and quiet friendship between the boy and the Japanese Admiral. Language in the last couple chapters slips a little bit and becomes less disciplined. But overall this is a wonderfully written memoir. Saddened by the news of the author's death couple weeks ago, I was especially grateful for the gift he left with us in the form of this book.



4. I bought Michael David Kwan's "Things That Must Not Be Forgotten" after reading a glowing review in the Washington Post. I was not disappointed. It is a moving, understated memoir about Mr. Kwan's childhood years starting shortly before the outbreak of World War II and ending as the Kuomintang was breathing its last in mainland China. Although young David was fortunate enough to be born into a wealthy family as a "half-caste" child of a Chinese father and a Swiss mother (who abandoned the family very early in David's life), he was never considered to be a true part of either the white and Chinese communities. The editorial reviews give a good overview of the content of the book and the increasing difficulties that David and his family endured under the Japanese and even more so under the corrupt Nationalist Chinese government. The narrative is brisk and engaging; it is probably the best work of non-fiction that I have read in quite some time.

   Sadly, on May 20th of this year Mr. Kwan suffered a fatal heart attack just two weeks before the official U.S.-publication of this book. We are all very fortunate that he was able to give us such a memorable farewell gift.

   "Things That Must Not Be Forgotten" won the 2000 Kirayama Prize for non-fiction, beating out such well-received books as Herbert Bix's "Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan," Helen Zia's "Asian American Dreams" and Chanrithy Him's "When Broken Glass Floats."

5 comments about Horyo: Memoirs of an American Pow.

1. I felt this book gave me a better understanding of a critical period in American history. It is not typical of a lot of POW narratives I have read. The author provides an interesting look at pre-war military life in the Philippines. He also looks at questions surrounding the surrender of American and Filipino forces to the Japanese. I found his discriptions of POW life very insightful. They poignantly demonstrate what can happen to military personnel when there is an absence of leadership and discipline.



2. Major Gordon's experiences accurate reflect those of thousands of his fellow prisoners of the Japanese. The nation owes a debt to Major Gordon, not just for his service, but for his willingness the recall the unending horror and write it DOWN!

   Typically, post war records are replete with errors and it is only through thoughtful histories such as Gordon's can the next generation understand what price was paid for the freedom of the world.

   Sadly, today we no longer teach the history of World War II. Ask any crowd of college kids and less than 5% would recognize the names of Bataan and Corregidor. Yet these same students can tell you every detail about the nasty twelve months of the "McCarthy Era" and, from their history text books, the life story of the "Beetles." The "Quislings" remain in control of our colleges and media. No one is ever taught about the Kamikazes of Japan and how the terrorists who attack today are absolutely the same enemy.

   "Horyo" is a worthy addition for any serious student of World War II. Only with books like this, can the public ever understand why Japan owes the world an apology and reparation to its victims. Next to the Japanese, the Nazis appear angelic.




3. This heartbreaking book must be read with a half-decent grasp of the truth of American history. Otherwise, Gordon's story becomes trivialised. Out of context, it loses its meaning. Just another war story.

   America is at an historical crossroads. More than ever, this arrogant, over-confident, money-obsessed, chronically ignorant, 'super'power needs to face the nasty FACTS of its own Hollywood-distorted history. Acting on unfathomable ignorance, its media-induced citizens can endorse yet another monumental politico-military blunder. This time, one too many perhaps!

   The bigger they are, the harder they fall!

   Bataan & Corregidor were purely American/MacArthur disasters. A truly hideous episode, swept under the rug. There is nothing to romanticise or commercialise. There is no saving grace, just total & utter disgrace - so Hollywood & the Spielberg's of this world, steer well clear of it; preferring to fantasize that Americans won WWII, when it was really won by the Russians at Stalingrad!, more than anyone.

   O dear, that won't go down well in the Pentagon, will it? Is that the FBI I hear tapping my phone?

   The average American imagines that 'Americans' won the Revolutionary War, led by Geo. Washington. But it was France who financed it and the French navy, more than anyone, that defeated the British monarchists. The American colonists/Congress neither financed nor supported the war in any heroic sense, at all. In fact their neglect of Washington & his tatterdemalion 'army' was a disgrace! From Chesapeake to Corregidor is not such an unimaginable leap in the context of American military history.

   After the disgrace of Bataan & Corregidor (covered up), nevermind the fright of Pearl Harbour (now romanticised), the Americans did wage the Pacific War, and won decisively, only because of the Atomic Bomb, courtesy of scientists fleeing Hitler + a ruthless Truman, who DID grasp American military history as few Presidents have, and quit while he was ahead - ignoring MacArthur! Then came the utter stupidity and failure of Korea.

   Do these people never learn?

   Then the infamous, unforgiveable Vietnam War. A purely American war, with catastrophic results. Kennedy/Johnson/Nixon were all historically clueless. Read McNamara to find out how totally incompetent the American politicians & military were, once again.

   Before outraged Americans follow Messrs Bush, Cheney, Rumfeldt and Powell's yahoo-ing posse too enthusiastically, into yet another ambush, under the banner of a "World-wide War against Terrorism", they would be wise to read up on the history of their own military prowess. We will avert our gaze from the futility of "Desert Storm" which was little more than a bloated fart against the winds of history, as we can now see.

   Vast armies and unlimited weaponry do not a victory make.

   The dwindling percentage of Americans who vote, urgently need to unglue themselves from their TV screens and read up on their real history, which is inglorious to say the least. Major Gordon's story is a pretty decent place to begin their long overdue education. It's an honest tale, rather well told, about an ugly (but far from isolated) chapter in American history.

   America IS blessed with ONE redeeming feature: Energetic, investigative journalism and honest historical researchers, second to none in the world. Major Gordon, and many others, cut from the same cloth, may yet wake up this slothful, over-moneyed, ignorant nation, before it is too late: But only if their stories are taken to heart.

   God bless America indeed!




4. This is an incredible well written narrative. Major Gordon is a major figure in the Battling Bastards of Bataan. His discussion of the events are well thought and eye opening. The conditions of the POW camps, their senior officers and the reflections of exactly what happened is told in a different light. His youth and early childhood reflect the reasons why a young man would enlist in the military. The deliberate thoughts that would enable a teenager of the 40's vs todays same teen. The respect for government vs 2000 traditional thoughts. The war in general tells much of the 1940's as seen from Major Gordon's eyes.His discussion of the POW conditions, the horror of war. The hostilities and the reasons for the early surrender. Much of what Major Gordon states is much different from the many history books that I have read. The major premise for reading this book is to make Americans aware of this battle and the horrible knowledge that these survivors were left behind. Today the Major is a battling force in helping Americans to remeber Bataan. A war cry of Remember the Alamo, Remeber the Maine, should now be Remember Bataan. We should all salute Major Gordon and his heroic comrades. We should all remember the heroes of Bataan.



5. Richard Gordon and my father shared some of the same experiences, as they were both in the Bataan Death March, were on the same hell ship to Japan and were in the same prison camp together. My father went on to Kanose prison camp in 1944, as Mr. Gordon notes in his book. This book has enabled me in my research on my father, Jack, to understand what he went through. It has given me an even greater appreciation of those men who were prisoners of the Japanese. And for those captured on Bataan and taking the Death March, and those who fought on Corregidor, it only serves to further bring to the forefront, that these men were indeed considered EXPENDABLE by their government. In fact, in all of the hoopla of World War II, what happened on Bataan and Corregidor has all but been forgotten in the annals of history, except for those men and their families who fought there, died there, or were imprisoned. Some came home, most did not. My father notes in his letter home, after release, that of the 120 men in his company (Headquarters) in the 194th Tank Battalion, only 32 were coming home. He notes that that is apparently true with the whole battalion. I have had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Gordon, and several other men who were in prison with my father. I have been corresponding with others. I have met men who were in the 194th with him. How any of these men survived is a miracle. Mr. Gordon's story, along with those of others, deserves everyone's attention.