62 pages • 2 hours read
Hampton SidesGhost Soldiers: The Epic Account of World War II's Greatest Rescue Mission
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2001A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
Human Survival in Extreme Conditions
Human survival in extreme conditions is one of the main themes in Ghost Soldiers. The author focuses on both physiological and psychological factors involved in this process. There are several examples of human resilience in this text: 11 men survived the Palawatan massacre in December 1944 and lived to talk about it, thereby prompting the raid on the Cabanatuan camp. The American soldiers survived the losing Battle of Bataan, the Bataan Death March, as well as camps O’Donnell and Cabanatuan. Some POWs, like Chaplain Taylor, survived from Bataan to Cabanatuan and even the Oryoku Maru “hell ship,” followed by forced labor in Manchuria. American spy Claire Phillips survived arrest, torture, imprisonment, and her death sentence in Manila. All these different examples share the similarity of pushing the body and mind to their limits.
The category of physical survival comprises violence, cruelty, and brutality, serious illnesses like dysentery, and chronic conditions like poor hearing and eyesight caused by malnutrition. First, the author makes an important distinction between dealing with violence and gore in combat versus as prisoners of war. He highlights this difference by focusing on the “emotional texture” thereof (110). The soldiers were somewhat desensitized to violence, having experienced it in combat through seeing killing or killing others themselves. At the same time, witnessing the cruelty of the Japanese guards directed at those who could not keep up during the Bataan Death March was different, because the POWs felt “absolute impotence in the face of evil” (110).
Second, the men experienced several serious diseases. Their causes ranged from malaria-carrying mosquitos in tropical conditions, to cramped living spaces and poor sanitation. Their illnesses were exacerbated by the lack of basic medicines at the camp, some of which, like quinine, were smuggled in by Claire Phillips’s network. Third, starvation from a low daily caloric intake and malnutrition from vitamin deficiency not only exacerbated the aforementioned illnesses but also added to the POW’s chronic conditions, such as limited eyesight. What unites these diverse examples is that physical survival seemed to, in part, rely on the overall health of the individual in question. In other cases, avoiding death was a matter of pure luck, as was the case with Eduard Thomas’s escape attempt induced by malaria delirium. Similarly, in the case of Claire Phillips, she survived because her death sentence was not carried out by the Japanese.
The other factor of importance is human psychology, which seems to provide the psychosomatic link between the body and the mind. The prisoners of war relied on various factors to maintain their equilibrium, including having a sense of normalcy, religion, hope, communication with the outside world, imagination, creativity, and camaraderie within the camp to survive. First, they derived a sense of normalcy from organizing the camp into a miniature version of society with different jobs—from farmers to doctors—and leadership. Second, keeping track of time was particularly important in a place where imprisonment was indefinite—unlike the definite sentences of common criminals in standard prisons. Third, they escaped into their minds and relied on imagination. Some, like Lieutenant Henry Lee, wrote poems. Others, like Eduard Thomas, built an imaginary house in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in his head brick by brick. Fourth, socializing was one of the many aspects of camp camaraderie. The prisoners played sports and read books from the Red Cross library. They took care of each other, especially when they were ill.
The most extreme example of group cooperation was the “blood brothers” concept, in which 10 prisoners would be killed if one from their designated group tried to flee. Fifth, communication with the outside world through the Bamboo Telegraph, smuggled messages, and Red Cross Christmas packages played a significant role in providing the prisoners with a sense of hope: “I had begun to think that we in here were the Forgotten Men,” as a man nicknamed Sky Pilot wrote to Claire Phillips (248). They also derived a renewed sense of hope from getting the news about the American advance in the Asia-Pacific theater and witnessing its evidence overhead with increased flight activity.
Finally, religion in general and prayer in particular were other aspects of psychological survival: “In a world of perpetual suffering, the chaplains played an exceedingly important role in the life of the camp” (253). Seeing death all around, the chaplains aided the prisoners with spiritual matters while the prisoners “saw daily evidence of the spirit world” (253). In some cases, the psychological aspect of survival seemed to trump the physical counterpart. Some prisoners seemed to just give up hope and died shortly afterward. Others, like Chaplain Robert Preston Taylor, seemed miraculously cured from their deathbed through group prayer. Overall, Hampton Sides’s case studies of POW survival demonstrate human resilience under extreme duress and serve as an inspiration to the reader.
The Social Organization of the Cabanatuan POW Camp
The establishment of a miniature “society” and its organization in the World War II Philippine prisoner-of-war camps is one of the focal points for Hampton Sides. He explores this question because some Allied prisoners were incarcerated for three years, and a functioning “society” was necessary for their survival. This “society” also differed from peacetime prisons for criminals because it had to be established from scratch. In this sense, it is a worthwhile case study despite the horrific circumstances of war and prisoner abuse:
As bleak as the circumstances were, any hope of survival dictated that there be some semblance of a society at Cabanatuan, and as in all societies, there was a discernable structure, with elaborate grapevines for disseminating goods and information (182, emphasis added).
At first, the Japanese occupation authorities moved the Allied prisoners who survived the Bataan Death March from Camp O’Donnell to Cabanatuan in June 1942. Cabanatuan was “a place that was less crudely equipped and geographically better suited to accommodate large numbers of long-term prisoners” (180). It was also a facility used by the Philippine Army before World War II, which the Japanese expanded. The camp was divided between the authorities (the rulers)—the Japanese—and the prisoners (the ruled): the Allied soldiers and civilians. The latter were primarily American, but also British, Norwegian, Dutch, Canadian, and Filipino. There was a perverse “social contract” between the rulers and the ruled: an escape from the chaos of the outside world dominated by war and destruction by giving up all their rights. Indeed, when the Japanese guards left the prisoners with Stockholm Syndrome to their own devices in January 1945 for a short time, the POWs felt unprotected and almost missed the sense of structure provided by their captors.
In general, Cabanatuan “began to organize itself” (182). There was a basic social hierarchy, with leaders such as Commander Duckworth. The leaders were responsible for the general running of the Allied part of the camp as well as disseminating information. The POWs used their peacetime professions to improve the living conditions of the camp. Thousands of them lived in barracks. The prisoners named the “streets” in the prison camp Main Street and Broadway to gain a sense of normalcy. They also required the other necessities of a functioning “society.” As a result, prisoners with engineering experience improved hygiene by digging septic and irrigation systems. Latrines required chemicals to maintain them, such as copper sulfate. Boiling clothes killed parasites. They tracked time by using a metal triangle. All of these factors helped to give the prisoners a sense of routine and a degree of agency and dignity.
A medical facility, and medical professionals such as Doctor Hibbs, were key focal points of a camp that experienced serious illnesses exacerbated by chronic malnutrition. Regular patients were separated from serious cases and housed in the “Zero Ward.” The Zero Ward was for those with little chance of survival. As in a functioning society, quarantines were necessary to prevent the spread of infectious diseases like diphtheria to the other prisoners and the Japanese guards.
Leisure was another important reminder of their former lives. The prisoners made a baseball diamond for sports. They played ping-pong and horseshoes as part of the “morale program” (183). Religion was also at the center of morale-building in light of the death and disease all around. Some prison chaplains, like Robert Preston Taylor, were also part of the secret smuggling network linked to Claire Phillips. The prisoners had a “cafe” to play bridge and drink “ersatz coffee” (183). They celebrated Christmas with the Red Cross aid packages.
As in society at large, the men formed cliques, such as the Masons and the Knights of Columbus. The well-educated gave lectures on various subjects like history. Astronomy was “the most popular class of all” because the prisoners could examine the night sky themselves (184). Their library contained about 3,000 titles. They wrote poems and sketched. The POWs also kept important keepsakes, such as “documents, medals, souvenirs, [and] clean uniforms they had planned to wear out of camp” (357). Overall, the organization of the Cabanatuan camp to resemble a small peacetime society shows that even under extreme circumstances, people remain group- and structure-oriented.
Colonialism and World War II: The Japanese, Americans, and Filipinos
The effects of colonialism on the Philippines and its relations with the US and Japan are one of the main themes in Ghost Soldiers. This theme is important for several reasons. First, the US and Japan were colonial powers and fought on Philippine territory far away from their respective mainlands. Second, the Philippines was an American colony after the Spanish-American War (1898) until its 1946 independence. However, the islands were occupied by imperial Japanese forces between 1942 and 1945. As Hampton Sides puts it, Filipinos “repeatedly seemed to bear the brunt of other people’s arguments” (99).
These two factors were responsible for the complex relationship between the Filipinos, Americans, and the Japanese during WWII. This relationship permeated every aspect of Ghost Soldiers, including the Filipino guerillas and villagers helping the Rangers in the POW rescue mission, the American and Filipino participants in the Bataan Death March, and American spy Claire Phillips’s secret network helping the POWs that featured many Filipinos. This relationship ranged from utmost loyalty to the Americans to collaboration with the Japanese.
An ethnically diverse region, the Philippines was colonized by the Spanish in the 16th century. Spanish colonization left a significant cultural impact: from the use of the Spanish language to Catholicism. The Spanish-American War, in which the US won and purchased the Philippines, came on a tail-end of a series of revolts against Spanish rule seeking independence. The new American masters fought against the Filipinos until 1902, although their insurgency lasted until 1913. This period included “reconcentration” zones for civilians and the use of torture methods in addition to standard warfare. The Filipino casualties were difficult to estimate, ranging from 200,000 up to one million, including deaths from diseases and starvation. Having crushed the insurgency, the US rule was paternalistic, believing that the Filipinos could not govern themselves. By 1941, the Philippines was quite dependent on the US economically.
As a result, Filipino attitudes ranged from seeking full independence—as was the case with the longtime revolutionary leader, Emilio Aguinaldo—to supporting the Philippine Commonwealth, which had a somewhat greater degree of autonomy than a colony. In turn, the American attitudes toward the Japanese ranged from the “Yellow Peril”-style racist propaganda to a paternalistic treatment of the Japanese during Japan’s occupation after 1945. Similar to the case of the Filipinos, the General MacArthur-led occupation force did not believe that the Japanese were capable of democracy.
When the Japanese invaded the Philippines shortly after Pearl Harbor in December 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt opted to sacrifice the area and prioritize aiding the Allies in Europe. Both General MacArthur and many Filipinos viewed this as a betrayal. The Japanese slogan, “Asia for the Asiatics,” resonated with many throughout Asia even though it came from the Japanese imperialists. In 1943, the Japanese even granted the Philippines nominal “independence” and made the islands its “ally,” which was more than the US had done.
Some Filipinos remained loyal to the US As the author describes, they participated in Claire Phillips’s secret network of smuggling supplies into the Cabanatuan camp. Filipino guerillas like Eduardo Joson and Juan Pajota displayed an “intensely pro-American loyalty,” while many villagers in the countryside treated the Americans with hospitality (99). The author argues that the Japanese mistreated many villagers, for instance, taking some Filipinas to serve as “comfort women” for the Japanese troops. Others, like Hukbalahap, subscribed to a Marxist-inspired ideology and sought independence while opposing both the Americans and the Japanese. Thus, loyalty depended on many factors, such as personal and communal experiences as well as ideology.
This sociopolitical context was extremely important for the Rangers, who relied both on the Filipino guerillas to directly aid in the rescue and on the villagers to provide indirect support. It was for this reason that Colonel Mucci placed the mayor of Platero under temporary house arrest, fearing that he may be in communication with the Japanese. Mucci also feared that the friendly but talkative nature of the villagers—who seemed to know all about the rescue raid when the Rangers first arrived—would reveal the details of the rescue to their enemies through the Bamboo Telegraph. Later, Private Rufo Vaquilar, a Filipino American Alamo Scout dressed as a villager during a reconnaissance mission, went up to the Cabanatuan fence to determine whether the sole Filipina talking to the Japanese guards was a cause of concern. Finally, on the way back from the rescue, Colonel Mucci and the Filipino guerillas had to negotiate with the Hukbalahap to secure safe passage. In general, the microcosm of the Rangers’ raid on the Cabanatuan camp reveals the broader experiences of the Filipinos as subjects of European, American, and Japanese imperialism. In turn, this experience provides a fuller image of the context of colonialism and its dynamics in World War II.
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