Ghost Soldiers / Hampton Sides

A detailed Summary of Ghost Soldiers / Hampton Sides

When Japan first attacked Pearl Harbor, exactly 60 ago, little was known about the Imperial Army. Their mentality seemed almost non-human. Even while General MacArthur was attempting to maintain America's ground in the Philippines this was so. Eventually, this lead to the surrender of the American army, the Batan death march, and imprisonment at Cabanatuan POW camp. These POWs were in fact elite soldiers of the sixth army. As the author of Ghost Soldiers, Hampton Sides, put it: "They were the forgotten, an elite of the damned".

The book begins with a long prologue describing the Palawan massacre at Puerto Princesa Prison Camp from the point of view of one of few survivors, Eugene Nielson. In fact, the majority of this book is described by World War II veterans who were either POWs or their rescuers. In the prologue, Nielson tells with little detail of how the Japanese imperial army managed to burn alive over 100 of his comrades and by which methods he and only 10 others managed to survive and swim to safety. Once in safety and within American lines, Neilson tells his story to high ranking officials in the army. This testimony brings the officers to a realization that the Japanese are inhumanly cruel to the POWs and the forgotten

After the prologue, the story begins introducing the first of the prisoners, Dr. Ralph Hibbs, a medic in the army who was stationed in Batan. In this chapter, the loosing battle between the American army and the Imperial army is described finally leading up to American surrender. At the beginning this seemed wonderful, the men were tired of fighting and low on supplies. The surrender seemed even promising since the Japanese were know for their good hospitality. Tommie Thomas, one of the POWs even tells the story of his surrender to general Homma who treated him with respect and kindness.

The book itself is written in a very unique fashion. As you may have understood from the summary, the book contains a lot of history, I literally wrote an essay about the Batan death march and Cabanatuan prison camp. However, this history is told though the voices of people who were actually there. In an exquisitely eloquent fashion Hampton Sides rotates from personality to personality who not only tells his own story but also others, perhaps those who died either before or even after the ordeal. This gives the feeling that the author actually knows what he was talking about when writing this book since all he wrote was one big biography/history book.

Another less important reason why the language was so good, especially for me, is that I found many words using on SAT reasoning test. It is an excellent book for those who want to improve their vocabulary since you can actually understand what the author is talking about (as opposed to a writer like Hemingway).

As for criticisms: It is true that Sides wrote a great book about the raid on Cabanatuan. However, I found a few minor points in his book that need be adjusted. For example, as an Israeli-American who has done quite a bit of traveling, I still don't a clue where half of the places mentioned in the book are geographically. Secondly, I felt that the author failed to convey sorrow among fellow Americans when something cruel was done to one of their fellow peers. As if they were just delighted that it wasn't them who was decapitated. Not showing American unity in this issue sort of disturbs the image of the cruel Japanese and the innocent Yanks who were tortured and offered no rights or quality of life (if offered any life at all). It just seems as if more emotion should be put into the death of a fellow soldier.

Some common words found in the essay are:
Ghost Soldiers, Japan Ultimately, War II, Chaplain Tiffany, Abie Abraham, Ralph Hibbs, Thomas POWs, Cabanatuan Rangers, Captain Prince, Soon Japanese, imperial army, death march, batan death march, batan death, american lines, death march cabanatuan, war ii, march cabanatuan, american army, ghost soldiers, tells story, world war ii, captain prince,

Approximate Word count = 1600
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: History