Gentle Friends,
I recently finished reading the book: Surviving BATAAN and Beyond: Colonel Irvin Alexander's Odyssey as a Japanese Prisoner of War edited by Dominic J. Caraccilo (ISBN: 978-0-8117-3248-2.) The book represents the memoirs of a midlevel American Officer who survived the Bataan Death March and stuggled for three and one half years to continue to survive until the war came to an end. Colonel Alexander was first marched to Camp O'Donnell and then to the infamous Camp Cabanatuan. His discussions of the daily lives and deaths of the prisoners are gripping, yet they seem objectively presented. He describes how, at times, prisoners attempted to secure additional food and supplies, which was always at great risk and not always successful.
After a lengthy stay at Camp Cabanatuan, he and many of his surviving colleagues, were transported by ship to a labor camp in Japan. He describes his experience aboard the Japanese transport ship with such detail that the reader cannot help but feel some of his terror and the helplessness that many times accompanies captivity.
After his experience in Japan, the Japanese transported him and others to a labor camp in Korea, where he remained until he was liberated at the end of the war. Even when he knew the war is finished, he still had to struggle for survival until the Americans reached his camp.
I found the book to be an extremely vivid account of wartime cruelty and survival. I recommend it most highly to anyone wanting to explore the Bataan Death March experience.
I recently finished reading the book: Surviving BATAAN and Beyond: Colonel Irvin Alexander's Odyssey as a Japanese Prisoner of War edited by Dominic J. Caraccilo (ISBN: 978-0-8117-3248-2.) The book represents the memoirs of a midlevel American Officer who survived the Bataan Death March and stuggled for three and one half years to continue to survive until the war came to an end. Colonel Alexander was first marched to Camp O'Donnell and then to the infamous Camp Cabanatuan. His discussions of the daily lives and deaths of the prisoners are gripping, yet they seem objectively presented. He describes how, at times, prisoners attempted to secure additional food and supplies, which was always at great risk and not always successful.
After a lengthy stay at Camp Cabanatuan, he and many of his surviving colleagues, were transported by ship to a labor camp in Japan. He describes his experience aboard the Japanese transport ship with such detail that the reader cannot help but feel some of his terror and the helplessness that many times accompanies captivity.
After his experience in Japan, the Japanese transported him and others to a labor camp in Korea, where he remained until he was liberated at the end of the war. Even when he knew the war is finished, he still had to struggle for survival until the Americans reached his camp.
I found the book to be an extremely vivid account of wartime cruelty and survival. I recommend it most highly to anyone wanting to explore the Bataan Death March experience.
