A Study in Valor: The Faith of a Bataan Death March Survivor

by Garner, William T.

• ISBN13: 9781600651052
• ISBN10: 1600651054
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-07-07
• Publisher: Mapletree Pub Co

Summary

Many books have been written about the Bataan Death March, but few have described the deep faith of the heroic men who experienced the horrors of that march. Among the survivors was Clarence Bramley. Tall and lean, he enlisted during World War II with dreams of flying P-40 fighter planes. But the reality of war often dashes young men's dreams. While waiting for the results of his pilot exams, his squadron was ordered to the Philippines where he serviced the very planes he was hoping to fly. Then in the spring of 1942, the islands fell to the Japanese. During the years that followed, Bramley experienced the brutal Death March, incarceration in the Philippines and Taiwan, nightmarish weeks on a Japanese Hell Ship, and forced labor in a prison camp at Kosaka, Japan. He suffered disease and brutality and witnessed the agonizing deaths of close friends and comrades - but he never lost faith in God.

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. xi
Preface	p. xiii
Introduction	p. xvil
The Early Years	p. 1
Into the Army	p. 5
Hamilton Field	p. 11
Overseas	p. 23
War	p. 31
Surrender	p. 47
The March of Death	p. 59
Camp O'Donnell	p. 73
Cabanatuan	p. 81
The "Hell Ships"	p. 99
Japan	p. 111
Letters and Flags	p. 117
Parachute Drops Continue	p. 135
Home	p. 141
A Soldier's Faith	p. 151
Others Who Served	p. 159
The Poetry of Prisoners	p. 165
Internet URL References	p. 195
Author Biography	p. 197
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

Excerpts

The prisoners were divided into groups of about one hundred men with six to eight guards assigned to each group. Thus began the infamous forced march to San Fernando and Camp O'Donnell that has become known as the Bataan Death March, due to the thousands of men who perished along the way. As to each prisoner, the marching distance varied according to where along the route he had been when the march began. But for most, it was actually a series of marches covering approximately 85 miles. . . .

The men were not told their destination or how far or how long they were to march. They received little or no food or water. Some were too ill to march at all. Prisoners too weak to continue frequently fell out of the march. The stronger were usually not permitted to help the weaker, although many tried. Most of those who could not keep up were bayoneted, shot, or beheaded. Some were disemboweled or thrown under the moving wheels of Japanese trucks and equipment. . . .

The weakened prisoners were subjected to a form of torture that some have called the "sun treatment," from which those without caps or helmets suffered the most. . . . Even during the march, guards would sometimes remove the hat or helmet of a marcher. Each midday, while the tropical sun was blazing, the prisoners were required to stand or sit in direct sunlight for several hours. Their guards sat in the shade.>p>

Even if a prison needed to relieve himself between ordered stops, he had to keep moving. This meant, of course, that many were required to urinate or defecate in their clothing, compounding the difficulty of marching. There was no consideration for personal hygiene.

The men were not permitted to have water, although often there was fresh water close by and easily accessible. Many men went out of their heads. The Japanese soldiers sometimes dragged out those who were delirious and buried them alive. Worse, they sometimes held rifles to the heads of other prisoners and forced them, under threat of death, to bury their delirious but fully conscious comrades. . . .

Clarence entertained thoughts of escape and even discussed it quietly with some of the other prisoners. He was told that some men had tried, and although most were killed, a few had made it. Even in their poor condition, it seemed to him that a hundred prisoners could overpower a handful of armed guards. Of course, they would have to consider where they would go and whom they could trust if they managed to break free. Clarence and other men who had been in the Philippines for only a few months were unfamiliar with the country except for the immediate areas in which they had served.