Book Review of Some Survived
In this historical, eyewitness account of Some Survived: An Eyewitness Account of the Bataan Death March and the Men Who Lived Through It, Manny Lawton offers us a sober, even-keeled telling of the story with facts, names, and anecdotes that captivate the reader.
Lawton first chronicles the Bataan Death March and its horrors with steely, but matter-of-fact details.
He then allows us to enter the incredibly horrendous hell holes that were the Japanese prison and labor camps of O'Donnell, Cabanatuan, and Davao.
The author provides us with the story of the slavery, torture, starvation, debilitating diseases, brutal beatings, and humiliation experienced by those American, Filipino, British, and Dutch prisoners-of-war.
This story is not for the light-of-heart, but through its horrors, one is inspired by the character and strong will to survive by Lawton and his fellow prisoners of war.
Additionally, Lawton describes the three escapes from Davao Penal Colony (Dapecol) on Mindanao, the Philippine's most southern island.
He obtained much of that information from meetings with the surviving escapees after the war.
But the most egregious experiences shared in this book are those of the hellish transport ships and freighters that carried the prisoners from the Philippines to China and Japan.
Over sixteen hundred prisoners of war started the voyage, but less than three hundred survived.
The lack of potable water, unsanitary conditions, starvation rations, extremes of temperature, absence of medical treatment, and callous actions by the captors contributed to those deaths.
However, many of the POWs were killed by American bombs or torpedoes because the Imperial Forces dishonorably, it should be noted, painted over the red crosses on their troop transport ships' smoke stacks.
And that transformed the transports and freighters from prison ships to legitimate military targets.
Many of those ships were sunk in Manila Bay at the outset of the voyages.
Several were sunk in the South China Sea and Hong Kong Bay, but some met their demise out on the open seas.
Many of these examples of inhumane treatment of Americans are chronicled in a number of others books including Bataan: A Survivor's Story, Battle for Bataan, Unbroken, Undefeated, Tears in the Darkness, Bataan: The March of Death, My Hitch in Hell: The Bataan Death March, Escape From Davao, Courage on Bataan and Beyond, Return to Freedom, Captured Honor, and Give Us This Day.
I highly recommend the reading of Lawton's account as well as these other equally informative, captivating, and inspiring books.
Lawton first chronicles the Bataan Death March and its horrors with steely, but matter-of-fact details.
He then allows us to enter the incredibly horrendous hell holes that were the Japanese prison and labor camps of O'Donnell, Cabanatuan, and Davao.
The author provides us with the story of the slavery, torture, starvation, debilitating diseases, brutal beatings, and humiliation experienced by those American, Filipino, British, and Dutch prisoners-of-war.
This story is not for the light-of-heart, but through its horrors, one is inspired by the character and strong will to survive by Lawton and his fellow prisoners of war.
Additionally, Lawton describes the three escapes from Davao Penal Colony (Dapecol) on Mindanao, the Philippine's most southern island.
He obtained much of that information from meetings with the surviving escapees after the war.
But the most egregious experiences shared in this book are those of the hellish transport ships and freighters that carried the prisoners from the Philippines to China and Japan.
Over sixteen hundred prisoners of war started the voyage, but less than three hundred survived.
The lack of potable water, unsanitary conditions, starvation rations, extremes of temperature, absence of medical treatment, and callous actions by the captors contributed to those deaths.
However, many of the POWs were killed by American bombs or torpedoes because the Imperial Forces dishonorably, it should be noted, painted over the red crosses on their troop transport ships' smoke stacks.
And that transformed the transports and freighters from prison ships to legitimate military targets.
Many of those ships were sunk in Manila Bay at the outset of the voyages.
Several were sunk in the South China Sea and Hong Kong Bay, but some met their demise out on the open seas.
Many of these examples of inhumane treatment of Americans are chronicled in a number of others books including Bataan: A Survivor's Story, Battle for Bataan, Unbroken, Undefeated, Tears in the Darkness, Bataan: The March of Death, My Hitch in Hell: The Bataan Death March, Escape From Davao, Courage on Bataan and Beyond, Return to Freedom, Captured Honor, and Give Us This Day.
I highly recommend the reading of Lawton's account as well as these other equally informative, captivating, and inspiring books.
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