We Band of Angels by Elizabeth M. Norman

I love it when a non-fiction book is so fascinating that you can’t put it down. Such is the case with Elizabeth Norman’s We Band of Angels (subtitled: The Untold Story of American Nurses Trapped on Bataan by the Japanese)

C.S. Lewis wrote of two elements in writing. The first is the words (Logos); the second is the craft of putting them together in a compelling way (Poema). I have found that World War Two books often have the words and facts straight, but lack compelling writing, That can hardly be said for this book because Norman has woven her research and survivor interviews into a mesmerizing account of courage in the face of war-time atrocities.

On the same day that Pearl Harbor was bombed the Japanese navy also launched attacks on American naval and army bases in the Philippine Islands. Tens of thousands of soldiers were trapped on the peninsula of Baatan and the island of Corregidor. For months they obeyed Macarthur’s orders to “never surrender”. But by May of 1942, tropical diseases and lack of food had weakened the troops to such an extent that they were no longer able to resist enemy advances.

Knowing a little about the Bataan Death March and the thousands who were killed on that perilous trek, I was surprised to read that all 77 nurses who were captured survived their internment in POW camps. Because the Japanese had never seen women in army fatigues they couldn’t believe that they were on the bases for any other reason than to be “comfort girls” to the soldiers. Hence they were placed in civilian internment camps and not the deadly P.O.W. camps portrayed in films such as “Bridge Over The River Kwai”.

Several movies have tried to capture the saga of this book. My favorite is "So Proudly We Hail", but the nurses who survived Corregidor hated it for the way it romanticized and trivialized their loyal service to their country. Now that I’ve read the book I’ll have to re-watch the film and see what I think.

(More on this book in my next post.)

Words for Wednesday

While preparing for my Freshman Writing class tonight, I came across this nugget of truth on authority:

No one likes to be talked down to. The company president who in a newsletter to employees makes jokes about supposed romances between the boys who drive the trucks and the girls in the office, the headmaster who uses, and probably misuses, his students' slang, the clergyman who laces his instruction to the affianced with mild vulgarities - all are being falsely magnanimous, pretending not to be in the positions of authority that they hold.

We may sincerely want to put aside the trappings of office a while and be treated as an equal rather than a superior, and those who perceive our sincerity may oblige us. But in the context in which our authority, experience, or position is relevant, we shouldn't pretend we don't have it. Talking down, after all, is only a form of bullying.

- From The Handbook of Good English by Edward D. Johnson, p. 264.

Books from the First World War

Because I love old books and history, this post from Abe books was fascinating. It's called "Trench Literature" and highlights the books written and read by soldiers during the First World War. The lists include books read by soldiers from various nations.

Anyone read any of these authors? I've read one each by Buchan, Wells, and Kipling, but not much else from the books cited - except for Pride and Prejudice which the author seriously doubts anyone was reading in the trenches. I beg to differ, though. In my opinion, Pride and Prejudice has only become "chick lit" in recent decades.