Bataan. A Survivor's Story
Bataan. A Survivor's Story
Oklahoma Press | 268 pages | Gregory Urwin | ISBN: 0806135824 | English | PDF | 2004 | 9.4MB
Former Corps of Engineers officer Boyt (1917-2003) and the family friend who helped him transcribe his story offer a cogent account of surviving the Depression and four years as a Japanese POW. From a family impoverished by the father's desertion as well as the economy, Boyt got to college through the Civilian Conservation Corps, and from college into the army. Arriving in the Philippines five months before war broke out, Boyt was captured on Bataan and survived the Death March and several camps in the Philippines. Shipped to Japan, where survival was, if not easier, at least less impossible, he was liberated in 1945 to embark on a successful career as a civil engineer. His is a straightforward tale, featuring understated but vivid portraits of helpers and hinderers, clear consciousness of how little can stand between life and death, and a balanced attitude toward the many vices and occasional virtues of his captors. Likely to be one of the last Bataan survivor's narratives, this one definitely belongs in Pacific war collections.