Hell under the Rising Sun : Texan POWs and the Building of the Burma-Thailand Death Railway

Kelly E. Crager

ISBN 10: 1623497884 / ISBN 13: 9781623497880

Editore: Texas A&M University Press, 2019

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nach der Bestellung gedruckt Neuware - Printed after ordering - Late in 1940, the young men of the 2nd Battalion, 131st Field Artillery Regiment stepped off the trucks at Camp Bowie in Brownwood, Texas, ready to complete the training they would need for active duty in World War II. Many of them had grown up together in Jacksboro, Texas, and almost all of them were eager to face any challenge. Just over a year later, these carefree young Texans would be confronted by horrors they could never have imagined.The battalion was en route to bolster the Allied defense of the Philippines when they received news of the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor. Soon, they found themselves ashore on Java, with orders to assist the Dutch, British, and Australian defense of the island against imminent Japanese invasion. When war came to Java in March 1942, the Japanese forces overwhelmed the numerically inferior Allied defenders in little more than a week.For more than three years, the Texans, along with the sailors and marines who survived the sinking of the USS Houston, were prisoners of the Imperial Japanese Army. Beginning in late 1942, these prisoners-of-war were shipped to Burma to accelerate completion of the Burma-Thailand railway. These men labored alongside other Allied prisoners and Asian conscript laborers to build more than 260 miles of railroad for their Japanese taskmasters. They suffered abscessed wounds, near-starvation, daily beatings, and debilitating disease, and 89 of the original 534 Texans taken prisoner died in the infested, malarial jungles. The survivors received a hero s welcome from Gov. Coke Stevenson, who declared October 29, 1945, as 'Lost Battalion Day' when they finally returned to Texas.Kelly E. Crager consulted official documentary sources of the National Archives and the U.S. Army and mined the personal memoirs and oral history interviews of the 'Lost Battalion' members. He focuses on the treatment the men received in their captivity and surmises that a main factor in the battalion s comparatively high survival rate (84 percent of the 2nd Battalion) was the comraderie of the Texans and their commitment to care for each other.This narrative is grueling, yet ultimately inspiring. Hell under the Rising Sun will be a valuable addition to the collections of World War II historians and interested general readers alike.

Codice articolo 9781623497880

Dati bibliografici

• Titolo: Hell under the Rising Sun : Texan POWs and the Building of the Burma-Thailand Death Railway
• Editore: Texas A&M University Press
• Data di pubblicazione: 2019
• Lingua: Inglese
• ISBN 10: 1623497884
• ISBN 13: 9781623497880
• Rilegatura: Taschenbuch
• Condizione: Neu
• Dimensioni: 234 L x 156 A x 12 P (millimetri) 234 millimetri di larghezza per 156 millimetri di altezza per 12 millimetri di profondità
• Peso: 336 grammi

Descrizione articolo

Riassunto

“This historically strong and emotionally powerful book honors these men, who surely have great reason to be proud.”—Choice

“Hell under the Rising Sun: Texan POWs and the Building of the Burma-Thailand Death Railway is especially welcome in American prisoner-of-war studies . . . . Historically strong and emotionally powerful, this book honors the men of the 2nd Battalion, 131st Field Artillery Regiment of the Texas National Guard. Surely, they have a great deal to be proud of, and this book does them justice.”—H-Net Reviews

Informazioni sull?autore

KELLY E. CRAGER is head of the Oral History Project, The Vietnam Center and Archive, Texas Tech University. He was formerly a visiting assistant professor in the history department at Texas A&M University. He completed his dissertation at the University of North Texas, where he met surviving members of the “Lost Battalion” through the university’s oral history program.