Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: Prisoners of the Japanese: Pows of World War II in the Pacific by Gavan Daws ISBN: 0-688-11812-7 Publisher: Harpercollins Pub. Date: 01 December, 1994 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.74 (27 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: An Absolute Masterpiece of Military History!
Comment: This book should be required reading for all Americans. So many people here think WWII was a glamorous, "good" war, when in fact it was horror and brutality beyond imagination. Perhaps the movie 'Private Ryan' will wake up some Americans to the horrors of war, but Daws' book shows that the war against Japan was infinitely more barbaric. The evidence of the Japanese atrocities against Americans, Chinese, Koreans, Filipinos, Dutch, Australians, and British is INESCAPABLE! Compare the mortality rates of Allied prisoners in German POW camps to those of the Japanese camps. I have studied military history for many years, and this is the most horrifying account of brutality I have ever read. It is criminal that because of the emphasis on the Nazi Nuremburg trials, many war criminal Japanese were able to escape justice. Even more perverse is the fact that a number of these war criminals now hold prominent positions in Japan today, and DENY JAPAN's ATROCITIES! Many Americans may have heard the words, "Bataan Death March," but until you read Daws' account, you HAVE NO IDEA what those Filipinos and Americans suffered at the hands of their Japanese captors. This book will make any free person wake up and realize how precious life is. This book has BEEN NEEDED FOR 50 YEARS!!
Rating: 5
Summary: Thorough and sobering documentation of WW2 POWs
Comment: Gavan Daws' effort in this book was to document the countless stories he was told by World War Two veterans who had been captured and held by Japanese forces. The men and women that are discussed in this book were subjected to torture, intentional infections and medical experimentation, saw their comrades used for target practice and suddenly beheaded, and worse. It is amazing that so many of these brave souls survived the conditions described. This book would complement the 2001 effort by Hampton Sides, Ghost Soldiers, very well. Sides' effort, one of the best history efforts I have ever read, is about one camp in particular, while this book is about the Japanese system as a whole. Daws was given a lot of testimony from the folks in famous (the river Kwai area, for example), and the obscure camps throughout Asia. The memory of this book will lat with you a long time, and make you appreciate not only the veterans of the time, but also the comforts of modern society achieved at great cost.
Rating: 4
Summary: Unbelievable Cruelty
Comment: Many people have heard of the Bataan Death March and are aware that the Japanese treated their WWII prisoners inhumanely. An additional few stories here and a movie or two there probably compiles as much as most of us know on the subject. For anyone who would like to know more, I highly recommend "Prisoners of the Japanese". It is a well documented and well told story that uses certain units as a focus on what it was like to be a prisoner of the Japanese. Through the eyes of these survivors, Daws recreates a living hell than no one should ever have to go through and, more importantly, one than no one should ever administer or tolerate. Daws looks at all of the different groups of prisoners including the British, Australians, and the Dutch. The war was over so early for the Dutch that it was somewhat of a surprize to realize that they were participants as well. Many images remain from this book and most are inappropriate to toss out in a review like this. This book is not for those with weak stomaches. In fact, I loaned this book to a friend after I finished it. He finally gave it back to me a year later saying it was just too difficult for him to finish reading. The author takes us through hell and back. There is a summation of what happened afterwards and that was a helpful aspect of the book although we are still left a bit short of empty.
This was a major event in 20th Century history and persons unfamiliar ought to become more aware of the depth of the brutality that has emerged in times of war. As I write this review, there is a lot of hand wringing, soul searching, and congressional investigations going on in the US over abusues American soldiers inflicted on Iraqi prisoners. What we are finding out is wrong and upsetting. However, the rhetoric and hyperbole suggest that we have forgotten the depths to which otherwise civilized nations have sunk in similar conditions in the past. It doesn't make what we've done acceptable but the comparisons some people are making betray their ignorance. If the pictures of Iraq shocked you, please read this book.
 |
Title: Belly of the Beast: A POW's Inspiring True Story of Faith, Courage, and Survival Aboard the Infamous WWII Japanese Hellship, the Oryoku Maru by Judith Pearson ISBN: 0451204441 Publisher: New American Library Pub. Date: 10 October, 2001 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
 |
Title: Hidden Horrors: Japanese War Crimes in World War II by Yuki Tanaka, Toshiyuki Tanaka ISBN: 0813327180 Publisher: Westview Press Pub. Date: 01 January, 1998 List Price(USD): $24.00 |
 |
Title: My Hitch in Hell: The Bataan Death March by Lester I. Tenney ISBN: 1574882988 Publisher: Brassey's Inc Pub. Date: 01 September, 2000 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
 |
Title: Death March: The Survivors of Bataan by Donald Knox ISBN: 0156027844 Publisher: Harvest Books Pub. Date: 01 December, 2002 List Price(USD): $18.00 |
 |
Title: Unit 731 Testimony by Hal Gold ISBN: 4900737399 Publisher: Tuttle Publishing Pub. Date: 01 November, 1995 List Price(USD): $9.95 |
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
