Undefeated

The Undefeated, America’s Heroic Fight for Bataan and Corregidor, by Bill Sloan, Simon and Schuster 2012

Outnumbered, starving, stricken with malaria, abandoned by the politicians back home - these are the descriptions of conditions my uncle sent in his desperate letters from the Philippines back to New Hampshire.  And the larger complete picture painted by author Bill Sloan echoes the same sense of desperation and dogged hope as Japanese forces invaded this strategic Pacific island group.

But how did the Allied soldiers get by as they waited for MacArthur’s return?  For what it’s worth, in my family, rumblings about the youngest uncle’s abandonment by General MacArthur continue to circulate with great resentment.  The returning survivors said little, but their strange habits and adjustment problems spoke volumes.  For my uncle, this meant hours of silence as he worked crossword puzzles and cut out paper planes, never speaking of what he had seen and experienced. 

The photos in Sloan’s book tell the story of the surrender of Corregidor, the bombing of Manila, MacArthur’s return, the Bataan Death March, and the before and after shots of survivors.  Although the forced march of some sixty-five miles left many men with inescapable dreams of revenge, there were some who managed to shed the bitterness:

          Cletis Overton, an Arkansas Army volunteer, at age 92 looked back on the war and the terrible suffering he and his comrades experienced:

          There was a time when you could’ve given me a machine gun and marched those Japanese guards of mine down a gangplank, and I would’ve felt good just sitting there mowing them down.  I don’t feel that way anymore.  I’ve gotten over that.

Was it forgiveness, or a life better lived that inspired Overton to open up about his experiences so many years after the war?  Author Sloan conducted over 36 interviews with survivors, each of whom lived a life of second chances.  Might it be that once freed and returned home, despite what we now call post-traumatic stress and recurrent illnesses – my uncle, for example, suffered from periodic attacks of malaria, even when back in New Hampshire - these survivors were able to envision and doggedly build a “new life” marked by a new series of achievements, from church deacon, to physician, to aviator? Could it be that they individually and in different home towns decided to not be overcome by the brutality, to remember their dead by memorializing a good life, a life filled with good?  Reminiscent of the Band of Brothers film series, Sloan’s book records the harsh, inescapable truths from a time when many young Americans suffered, not all survived, and some stumbled and managed well the time that remained.

Mill Girl Verdict:  Another Lenten reflection - in their own words survivors of the Bataan Death March talk forgiveness, revenge, and resolution.