Book Review: Horyo, by Richard M. Gordon, Paragon House, 2001
Many experience war, few observe it, and even fewer understand what they observe. Richard Gordon’s desire to set the record straight about Japanese captivity and what it did to its captives is the foundation for this valuable, remarkable book. For too many people, images of POW camp life are based on one part The Great Escape and one part Hogan’s Heroes. Gordon describes the real life of captivity as few others have dared. Its rare, disturbing insight into the POW existence and the struggle to survive make it required reading for all servicemen.
Many factors doomed the American forces in the Philippines in 1941: lack of training, inadequate supplies, the dismal state of the officer corps, MacArthur’s inexplicable failure to protect his air assets in the hours immediately after the Pearl Harbor strike, and ultimately the Europe First strategy directed from Washington. Gordon touches on all these while focusing on the jagged edge of his own experience of capture and imprisonment. When the Philippines fell in 1942 he started out in Bataan, hiked to Camp O'Donnell, and shipped thence to Japan’s Mitsushima camp, scene of some of Japan's worst POW abuses. Gordon’s account of initial capture and the walk Camp O'Donnell is dramatic and detailed. Later, his description of liberation, transport, repatriation, and resettling are wonderful recreations of the joyful chaos of war’s end.
POWs in the Philippines suffered further due to the breakdown of command structures. The infamous death march disintegrated units, and reduced the inadequately-trained units to undifferentiated masses of men, most only looking out for themselves. These have all been told before. Gordon excels not only by the strong account of these experiences, but by his description of how POWs repeatedly victimized each other: withholding medicines used for barter, sexual predation, betrayal to the Japanese, and callous mutual disregard. The American units were atomized by the Japanese, and the physical trauma of the relocation of prisoners destroyed all unit cohesion. Gordon describes how the British prisoners, in contrast, maintained discipline and leadership in the most trying circumstances.
The book has one baffling omission. Its photographs include shots of Gordon visiting with former captors or their widows in the early 1990s. The emotional depth and complexity of this book would have been even richer had Gordon described his journey back to Japan 45 years after the war’s end and his confrontations with past tormentors.
Nonetheless, Horyo is a darkly illuminating account of a world where allies became enemies, where enemies displayed improbable kindness, and where individuality destroyed individuals. Gordon’s account is not reassuring, and through his restraint there simmers a lifetime of resentment, anger, and injustice. Yet these give his account an exceptional authenticity and emotional depth, far exceeding other accounts which merely catalog beatings and schemings. Implicit on every page is the challenge of how the reader would have acted any differently in such soul-crushing circumstances. No one will ever think of the Philippine campaign or POW experience the same way after reading this unique, powerful book.
Many factors doomed the American forces in the Philippines in 1941: lack of training, inadequate supplies, the dismal state of the officer corps, MacArthur’s inexplicable failure to protect his air assets in the hours immediately after the Pearl Harbor strike, and ultimately the Europe First strategy directed from Washington. Gordon touches on all these while focusing on the jagged edge of his own experience of capture and imprisonment. When the Philippines fell in 1942 he started out in Bataan, hiked to Camp O'Donnell, and shipped thence to Japan’s Mitsushima camp, scene of some of Japan's worst POW abuses. Gordon’s account of initial capture and the walk Camp O'Donnell is dramatic and detailed. Later, his description of liberation, transport, repatriation, and resettling are wonderful recreations of the joyful chaos of war’s end.
POWs in the Philippines suffered further due to the breakdown of command structures. The infamous death march disintegrated units, and reduced the inadequately-trained units to undifferentiated masses of men, most only looking out for themselves. These have all been told before. Gordon excels not only by the strong account of these experiences, but by his description of how POWs repeatedly victimized each other: withholding medicines used for barter, sexual predation, betrayal to the Japanese, and callous mutual disregard. The American units were atomized by the Japanese, and the physical trauma of the relocation of prisoners destroyed all unit cohesion. Gordon describes how the British prisoners, in contrast, maintained discipline and leadership in the most trying circumstances.
The book has one baffling omission. Its photographs include shots of Gordon visiting with former captors or their widows in the early 1990s. The emotional depth and complexity of this book would have been even richer had Gordon described his journey back to Japan 45 years after the war’s end and his confrontations with past tormentors.
Nonetheless, Horyo is a darkly illuminating account of a world where allies became enemies, where enemies displayed improbable kindness, and where individuality destroyed individuals. Gordon’s account is not reassuring, and through his restraint there simmers a lifetime of resentment, anger, and injustice. Yet these give his account an exceptional authenticity and emotional depth, far exceeding other accounts which merely catalog beatings and schemings. Implicit on every page is the challenge of how the reader would have acted any differently in such soul-crushing circumstances. No one will ever think of the Philippine campaign or POW experience the same way after reading this unique, powerful book.
posted by Prospero at 7:06 AM
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