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1. Ghost Soldiers, written by Hampton Sides, is 334 pages long. 2. The book Ghost soldiers is a non-fictional account. 3. (a) The purpose of the book is to provide the reader an accounting of the events, from those who survived and participated, in the liberation of POWs from the Philippines in WWII. It provides an account from the initial surrender of American forces to the Japanese, the march to the POW camps, living at the camps and the eventual rescue of the POWs from the Japanese who had made the decision to execute all POWs. (b) The audience in this non-fictional account that is intended for readers that would be interested in History, Military, World War II, Asia Pacific theatre of WWII, Philippines, Rescue Operations. 4. Mr. Sides begins his book with the grizzly details of the execution of POWs by the Japanese and the escape of some of the prisoners which established the sense of urgency for a daring rescue. The author then takes us through the circumstances that led to the initial surrender of American forces to the Japanese and the infamous Bataan Death March. This helps sets the stage of the abandonment, hopelessness and despair in which the US soldiers found themselves. Mr. Sides alternates between the perspective of the POW and the soldiers who came to their rescue giving the reader a full appreciation of the emotion and anxiety being experienced. Sides’ tone (attitude toward the subject/audience) is to provide as factual account as possible of the circumstances, the morale, the bravery and heroism of the liberation of POWs in the Philippines. He evokes empathy, patriotism, emotional anger and despair at the plight of these solders, their officers and their rescuers. There are several quotes that illustrate the tone used by Mr. Sides: 1. A quote that invoked the patriotism of the reader and emotional anger of the rescuers is “When Colonel Mucci suggested that in all likelihood the Japanese planned to sweep these guys into a ditch and slaughter them, the Rangers were thus fired with a zealous outrage. It made us so damn mad, Prince said, that we couldn’t see straight” (Sides 63). 2. A poignant quote by one of the solders who was identified as the resident poet, sums up the fatalistic attitude and despair of the solders after General MacArthurs departure from the Philippines “We are the battling bastards of Bataan, No mama no papa, no Uncle Sam, No aunts, no uncles, no nephews, no nieces, no pills, no planes, no artillery pieces… and nobody gives a damn” (Sides 44). 3. Sides really gets the reader emotionally involved with his account of a speech given by Captain Tsuneyoshi, the POW Commanding Officer, “Your domination of the Orient is gone forever, we will fight you and fight you and fight you for a hundred years until you have been destroyed… it is only through our generosity that you are alive at all. We do not consider you to be Prisoners of War, you are members of an inferior race, and we will treat you as we see fit… your country has forgotten your name, your loved ones no longer weep for you” (Sides 106). You now can understand why the solders referred to the Colonel as Little Hitler. 5. In my opinion, Mr. Sides is offering through this account is that while these soldiers were initially abandoned by their country (hence Ghost Soldiers), there is an innate human spirit to survive and help one’s countryman that is capable of overcoming even the most hellish of circumstances and for some men, it is what defines leadership: 1.
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