Bataan

by Boyt, Eugene P.

• ISBN13: 9780806135823
• ISBN10: 0806135824
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2004-03-01
• Publisher: Univ of Oklahoma Pr

Summary

Like many other young American men during the depression-era 1930s, Gene Boyt entered Franklin D. Roosevelt's Civilian Conservation Corps. Later, after receiving an ROTC commission in the Army Engineers and a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from the Missouri School of Mines, Boyt joined the Allied forces in the Pacific Theater. While building runways and infrastructure in the Philippines in 1941, Boyt enjoyed the regal life of an American officer stationed in a tropical paradise--but not for long. When the United States surrendered the Philippines to Japan in April 1942, Boyt became a prisoner of war, suffering unthinkable deprivation and brutality at the hands of the ruthless Japanese guards. One of the last accounts to come from a Bataan survivor, Boyt's story details the infamous Bataan Death March and his subsequent forty-two months in Japanese internment camps. In this fast-paced narrative, Boyt's voice conveys the quiet courage of the generation of men who fought and won history's greatest armed conflict.

Author Biography

Gene Boyt achieved the rank of Captain by the time of his discharge from the military. After retiring from his work as an engineer with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, Mr. Boyt lived in Chickasha, Oklahoma, until his death in September 2003 David L. Burch, a human relations professional in Oklahoma City, formerly taught college courses in American history and government

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	ix
Foreword	xi
Gregory J. W. Urwin
Preface and Acknowledgments	xxiii
Introduction	xxvii
Beginnings	3	(27)
Soldiering in Paradise	30	(23)
To Bataan	53	(17)
We Shall Remain	70	(39)
``I Might As Well Surrender, Too''	109	(14)
March of Death	123	(16)
Hell at O'Donnell	139	(17)
On to Japan	156	(21)
Zentsuji: The Officers' Prison	177	(18)
Victory!	195	(14)
The Good Life	209	(9)
Epilogue Why?	218	(7)
Afterword	225	(2)
Sources	227	(2)
Index	229