Paddock’s Pick: Ghost Soldiers

Editor’s note:  Anita Paddock’s review of books we should read are scheduled to appear on the second and fourth Friday of each month. Enjoy.

review by Anita Paddock
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Most of us have heard of the Bataan Death March, a part of our history that defines our surrender to the Japanese in the Philippines and the horrific treatment of the Americans and Filipinos who made that march to prisoner of war camps.

The American soldiers under General Douglas MacArthur were already starving before they started the march. They felt humiliated at having to surrender, and the Japanese showed their disdain for the Americans “cowardly surrender” by forcing them to march without food or water. Many of the men were already sick with malaria and dysentery.

The Japanese, under General Homma, underestimated the number of Americans who surrendered. They expected 25,000 American and Filipino troops. The actual number was closer to 100,000. And General Homma had overestimated the health and strength of the prisoners.

Camp O’Donnell  had once been a training facility for the Philippine Army. It was now a POW camp, originally designed for 9,000 people, but now holding 50,000 American and Filipino soldiers. One prisoner later wrote that “Hell is only a state of mind. O’Donnell was a place.” The camp was a putrid place. The men were fed watery rice that was crunchy with maggots. Two water spigots served 9,000 POWs. Open slit trenches were breeding ground for black flies, green blowflies, bluebottle flies, and every strain of intestinal parasites. One out of every ten prisoners who passed through Camp O’Donnell perished there. It was called the “Andersonville of the Pacific.”

When the monsoon rains came, the burial of the dead was difficult. Corpses would float to the top of the graves and sometimes runoff into the barracks. Burial crews had to be especially careful in handling the bodies of those who died of wet beriberi. Some of the victims would be swollen by their own puss and swell to 300 pounds. The men carrying the corpses had to be very careful or the  bodies would burst all over them.

Eventually the able-bodied prisoners were sent on ships to work as stevedores and coal miners in Japan. The sickest and the weakest were left at various POW camps.

In the city of Cabanatuan was a camp populated by 500 American soldiers. They called themselves the ghosts of Bataan because they felt like they had been abandoned. They were there for three years before a plan was made to rescue them.

The 6th Ranger Battalion, under the command of Lt. Col. Henry Mucci, was chosen to accomplish this glorious attempt to rescue the men before the Japanese killed them. Mucci knew from information he’d received from local villagers and spies that often the Japanese burned or decapitated prisoners. Ammunition was too much of a prize to use it to execute prisoners. The tide was turning for the Americans, and he knew the Japanese would kill their prisoners before they allowed them to be set free.

The book alternates between the prisoners and the rescuers, and it makes for an exciting adventure for the reader.

This book reads like a novel, and it set the author, Hampton Sides, on a fine path as a writer of creative non-fiction. Born in Memphis, he was a journalist who wrote about the outdoors. In “Ghost Soldiers” he interviewed both the prisoners and the rescuers, and it was a real delight to hear their story in their own words.

Since this book was written, Hampton Sides has published several more books. “Blood and Thunder” is his story of Kit Carson and the conquest of the Southwest. It’s next on my list.

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One of the many nice things about working at the library is that my customers recommend books for me to read.

Bill Morris, one of my first customers when I began my job 14 years ago, told me about this book. He had heard about it at the dentist’s office where all the staff had read it and were discussing it.

Even though it came out nine years ago, it was a new title for me, and I’m so glad I read it. It seems to me that all of us should read a book like this every once in a while. It will make you proud to be an American.