Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4672 in Books
• Published on: 2009-06-09
• Released on: 2009-06-09
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 480 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780374272609
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From Publishers Weekly
This grimly absorbing history revisits the worst ordeal Americans experienced during WWII. Michael Norman, a former New York Times reporter, and Elizabeth Norman (Women at War) pen a gripping narrative of the 1942 battle for the Bataan peninsula in the Philippines, the surrender of 76,000 Americans and Filipinos to the Japanese and the infamous death march that introduced the captives to the starvation, dehydration and murderous Japanese brutality that would become routine for the next three years. Focusing intermittently on American POW Ben Steele, whose sketches adorn the book, the narrative follows the prisoners through the hell of Japanese prison and labor camps. (The lowest circle is the suffocating prison ship where men went mad with thirst and battened on their comradesÖ blood.) The authors are unsparing but sympathetic in telling the Japanese side of the story; indeed, they are much harder on the complacent, arrogant American commander Douglas MacArthur than on his Japanese counterpart. ThereÖs sorrow but not much pity in this story; as all human aspiration shrivels to a primal obsession with food and water, flashes of compassion and artistic remembrance only occasionally light the gloom. 8 pages of b&w illus., illus. throughout; maps. (June 16)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
*Starred Review* Unlike historians who have spotlighted the titans—MacArthur and Wainwright, Yamashita and Homma—who matched strategies in the Philippines in 1942, the Normans focus on the ordinary soldiers who bore the brunt of the wartime savagery. At the center of this searing narrative stands Ben Steele, a Montana cowboy remarkable for the fortitude that sustains him through fierce combat, humiliating surrender, and then the infamous Bataan Death March into imprisonment: four years of unrelenting slave labor, starvation, torture, beatings, and disease. Because Steele went on in his postwar life to capture his wartime ordeal in harrowing drawings (here reproduced), readers confront in both image and word the brutality of war and the desperation of captivity. Readers learn how news of Japanese atrocities inflamed an American passion for vengeance and justified horrific bombing raids—incendiary and then nuclear—against Japanese cities. But readers will find it hard to view such raids as fitting punishment of a bestial enemy after reading the Normans’ chronicle of the bitter experiences of very human and often guilt-wracked Japanese soldiers. The narrative even humanizes the anguished Japanese commanders condemned by a victors’ justice that held them accountable for offenses of out-of-control subordinates. An indispensable addition to every World War II collection. --Bryce Christensen

Review
By Richard Pyle, AP: "BATAAN DEATH MARCH,DETAILED, CHILLING"

"Tears in the Darkness: The Story of the Bataan Death March and Its Aftermath" (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 480 pages, $30), by Michael Norman and Elizabeth Norman: A new account of the Bataan Death March, in which more than 70,000 American and Filipino prisoners of war were victims of appalling barbarism a particularly grim episode of World War II following Japan's invasion of the Philippines. Driven from Manila into the hills of the Bataan peninsula, the combined Allied forces fought without hope of rein-forcement or escape until they had no choice but to capitulate. The largest surrender in U.S. military annals was fol-lowed by a forced 60-mile march along Luzon's main highway during which more than 10,000 of the POWs were sum-marily murdered or died from torture, wounds and disease. For Americans the Death March was a first encounter with the brutality that would define Japan's military behavior, and the fact that the story has been told many times before does not dissuade Michael and Elizabeth Norman, both pro-fessors at New York University, from another effort. The result is an extremely detailed and thoroughly chilling treatment that, given the passage of time and thinning of ranks, could serve as popular history's final say on the subject. The Normans spent a decade in research and writing, interviewing more than 100 surviving American veterans and relatives of scores of others, and traveling to Japan to track down the most elusive and difficult sources some 20 former soldiers who were involved in the march and a guard from one of the miserable camps where more captives died from sickness, torture or starvation. The authors also find an ideal protagonist in Ben Steele, a former Montana cowboy who in 1940, at 22, joined the Army Air Corps and was sent to the Philippines. Steele survived the Death March and prison camp, and his personal story is the thread by which the authors spin their harrowing narrative, also using Steele's sketches to illustrate it. They find some sympathy for Gen. Masaharu Homma, the Japanese commander in the Philippines. His 1946 trial and execution as a war criminal showed how the Imperial Army was driven to excesses by right-wing racist fanatics who intimidated its senior officers, Homma among them. But as with other latter-day critics, they have little admiration for Gen. Douglas MacArthur, the U.S. commander in the Philippines who was being glorified at home in 1942 as the greatest American military hero since Ulysses S. Grant. On Jan. 15, the authors report, McArthur sent his beleaguered troops on Bataan a would-be morale booster, promis-ing them that reinforcements in the form of troops and planes were on the way from the United States. "It was a lie, a Judas kiss," they write. "The Philippines was cut off. Washington knew it and so did MacArthur." --Associated Press, June 15, 2009

By Richard Pyle, AP: "BATAAN DEATH MARCH,DETAILED, CHILLING"

"Tears in the Darkness: The Story of the Bataan Death March and Its Aftermath" (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 480 pages, $30), by Michael Norman and Elizabeth Norman: A new account of the Bataan Death March, in which more than 70,000 American and Filipino prisoners of war were victims of appalling barbarism a particularly grim episode of World War II following Japan's invasion of the Philippines. Driven from Manila into the hills of the Bataan peninsula, the combined Allied forces fought without hope of rein-forcement or escape until they had no choice but to capitulate. The largest surrender in U.S. military annals was fol-lowed by a forced 60-mile march along Luzon's main highway during which more than 10,000 of the POWs were sum-marily murdered or died from torture, wounds and disease. For Americans the Death March was a first encounter with the brutality that would define Japan's military behavior, and the fact that the story has been told many times before does not dissuade Michael and Elizabeth Norman, both pro-fessors at New York University, from another effort. The result is an extremely detailed and thoroughly chilling treatment that, given the passage of time and thinning of ranks, could serve as popular history's final say on the subject. The Normans spent a decade in research and writing, interviewing more than 100 surviving American veterans and relatives of scores of others, and traveling to Japan to track down the most elusive and difficult sources some 20 former soldiers who were involved in the march and a guard from one of the miserable camps where more captives died from sickness, torture or starvation. The authors also find an ideal protagonist in Ben Steele, a former Montana cowboy who in 1940, at 22, joined the Army Air Corps and was sent to the Philippines. Steele survived the Death March and prison camp, and his personal story is the thread by which the authors spin their harrowing narrative, also using Steele's sketches to illustrate it. They find some sympathy for Gen. Masaharu Homma, the Japanese commander in the Philippines. His 1946 trial and execution as a war criminal showed how the Imperial Army was driven to excesses by right-wing racist fanatics who intimidated its senior officers, Homma among them. But as with other latter-day critics, they have little admiration for Gen. Douglas MacArthur, the U.S. commander in the Philippines who was being glorified at home in 1942 as the greatest American military hero since Ulysses S. Grant. On Jan. 15, the authors report, McArthur sent his beleaguered troops on Bataan a would-be morale booster, promis-ing them that reinforcements in the form of troops and planes were on the way from the United States. "It was a lie, a Judas kiss," they write. "The Philippines was cut off. Washington knew it and so did MacArthur." --Associated Press, June 15, 2009

Reviewed by Ferenc Szasz: "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 &# --New York Times, June 17, 2009

Reviewed by Ferenc Szasz: "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. -- Proceedings of the Naval Institute Press, June 2009

The Bataan Death March has been written about before, and well, by a number of historians. Memoirs alone about Bataan fill a long, harrowing shelf. Their titles cry out in silent pain, bitterness and defiance: "My Hitch in Hell," "No Uncle Sam," "We Refused to Die."

No aspect of this battle or the infamous march that followed seems to have been overlooked. It is possible to buy volumes devoted to Bataan's nurses, its military chaplains and, in Hampton Sides's best-selling 2001 book, "Ghost Soldiers," the men who rescued its survivors.

It was not clear that this wall needed another brick. But then you pick up Michael Norman and Elizabeth M. Norman's calm, stirring and humane "Tears in the Darkness: The Story of the Bataan Death March and Its Aftermath," and you think: yes, we needed another brick.

"Tears in the Darkness" is authoritative history. Ten years in the making, it is based on hundreds of interviews with American, Filipino and Japanese combatants. But it is also a narrative achievement. The book seamlessly blends a wide-angle view with the stories of many individual participants. And at this book's beating emotional heart is the tale of just one American soldier, a young cowboy and aspiring artist out of Montana named Ben Steele.

This story begins in earnest on Dec. 7, 1941, the day the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. Japan had planned to attack American military bases in the Philippines, where the peninsula of Bataan lies, at the same time, but its bombers and fighter planes were delayed by fog, eliminating the element of surprise, Japan thought. But when its planes flew over, eight hours after Pearl Harbor, the American planes sat on runways, inexplicably, like sitting ducks. It was carnage.

Two weeks later Japan invaded the Philippines. The poorly trained and untested American and Filipino forces were overmatched; they eventually retreated into the mountainous jungles of Bataan for a brutal last stand, one that the Normans, who are husband and wife, describe as "a modern Thermopylae."

After four months of intense fighting, the Allied forces -- their ranks decimated by hunger, dysentery and malaria, and with no relief or reinforcements in sight -- surrendered. "No American general had ever surrendered such a force," the Normans write, "76,000 men, an entire army."

The authors are sympathetic toward Ned King, the surrendering American major general, who was beloved by his men. (General King made it clear to his soldiers that he had surrendered, not they.) Mr. and Ms. Norman reserve their scorn for the initial Allied general overseeing Bataan, Douglas MacArthur, whom they accuse of not leading from the field and later abandoning his men there.

What is now known as the Bataan Death March began on April 10, 1942. Some 76,000 soldiers, many already close to death, were forced to walk 66 miles during the hottest season of the year -- there were almost no buildings along the way, no trees, no shade -- with little food and almost no water.

It was called a death march for a simple reason: if you stopped marching, you were killed, by bayonet or rifle. There were many other ways to die during the Bataan Death March; it was a spree of arbitrary brutality. For sport, Japanese soldiers fractured skulls with their rifle butts. Japanese tanks ran over men who fell. Good Samaritans who tried to help fallen comrades were beaten or stabbed. Men were forced to bury others alive.

To be on this march, one soldier said, was what it must feel like to "come to the end of civilization." Some 11,000 died along the way to the ultimate destination, a prison camp.

What's remarkable about this story, for Ben Steele and many others, was that it was just the beginning of the horrors that awaited them as Japanese prisoners of war. There are accounts here of train journeys in deadly, overheated box cars; of foul prison camps and hospitals filled with dying men; of being placed into the holds of transport ships like "pickles jammed into a jar"; of work details that were their own kinds of death marches. Many men who didn't die simply lost their minds.

There are many Japanese voices in "Tears in the Darkness." Mr. and Ms. Norman don't excuse Japan's actions, but place them in careful context. Japanese soldiers, they write, were the products of "a closed world of violence where men were subjected to the most brutal system of army discipline in the world." These soldiers "had been savaged to produce an army of savage intent."

Mr. Norman is a Vietnam veteran and formerly a reporter for The New York Times; Ms. Norman's books include "Women at War: The Story of Fifty Military Nurses Who Served in Vietnam." In this book they step back, at regular intervals, to explain dispassionately what it was like to undergo the experiences these men went through.

What are the physics of suffocation? How does a bomb blast actually kill a person? What exactly does lack of water do to a human body? "Tears in the Darkness" is a grim and comprehensive catalog of man's inhumanity to man.

In the end, though, "Tears in the Darkness" is a book about heroism and survival. All along you are glued, out of the corner of your eye, to one story, Ben Steele's. If you aren't weeping openly by the book's final scenes, when he is at last able to call home and let his family know that he is still alive after more than three years "missing in action," during which time this thin young man lost 50 pounds, then you have a hard crust of salt around your soul. --New York Times, June 17, 2009

Customer Reviews

surprisingly great read
This book may be history, but it reads like a novel. The authors have obviously done a lot of interviewing- more than 400- and it really shows. They have woven a story that's hard to put down. My only knowledge of the "Bataan Death March' was from the movies. This is some story. They take you to the Philippines before the battle and set the stage for it. Then they take you into the battle itself, right into the action. It's like you are there with the men. Then comes the surrender on April 9, 1942, 76,0000 men under American command, the biggest military defeat in our history. Then comes the death march. I think it's the longest chapter in the book. It was both hard to read and hard to stop reading. The details that these writers have accumulated are just unbelievable. You can see the work that went into this. Two things I especially like. First, although there must be literally more than a hundred characters in this book, they keep coming back to touch base with one character, a guy named Ben Steele, who was a young cowboy who grew up in Montana. His story really drew me in and I liked following him from the first page to the last. He became an artist after the war, and a many of his sketches, from that time in his life, are in the book. Surprisingly, I enjoyed reading about some of the Japenese soldiers. What's interesting is that you are angry at the Japanese and also feel for them at the same time. That's the way this book is written. Sometimes the good guys are bad and sometimes the bad guy are good. In the end, of course, the American and Filipino soldiers really suffered, so this is really a story of great courage and endurance. This is now my favorite war novel. Five stars all the way through the read.

Exploration of the human spirit
In their book, "Tears in the Darkness," Michael and Elizabeth Norman, have taken a historical event, the American defeat and its horrific aftermath in the Philippines at the start of Word War II in 1942 and turned it into a spell-binding exploration of the human spirit. At the center of the tale, of course, is the Bataan Death March. But after ten years of incredibly detailed research on both sides of the Pacific, the authors are able to render its full reality from a variety of individual perspectives: American, Japanese and Filipino. The result is a revelation -- not merely a narrative of courage, sacrifice, cruelty and suffering, but also, ultimately, of the redemptive power of reflection and forgiveness. It may also be the most moving book ever written about those dark April days almost seven decades ago and men who experienced them.

Great Book
I'm not usually inclined to read books about war, but I picked this up and couldn't put it down. It follows the story of a boy from Montana who ends up a soldier in the Bataan Death March. Even though the reader knows in the first few pages that the soldier, Ben Steele, survives, and is still alive in fact, I found myself on the edge of my seat and praying for him to make it. His story is heartbreaking, uplifting and compelling all at once. The book is not for the faint of heart and is harrowing in many places, but it's written with a kind of simplicity and grace that shows above all, the ambiguity of war. Tremendous.