Tears in the Darkness: The Story of the Bataan Death March and Its Aftermath | Ben Steele Bataan Death March Survivor

Tears in the Darkness is a book published by Michael Norman, a Vietnam veteran. Inside the book is the narration of one of the worst defeat in US history. It happened in December 1941 when the Japanese invaded the Philippines and captured more than 76,000 prisoners (or POWs). This marked the start of a heartless Bataan Death March were more than 7,000 soldiers died while going through a 66-mile trail, and 25,000 Filipinos and 1500 Americans died in prisons after the torture they suffered in the Death March. Ben Steele, 91, is one of the few remaining survivors of the Bataan Death March. In the book Tears in the Darkness, Ben Steele narrated how he saw Japanese soldiers behead sick men begging for water, run over stumbling prisoners with tanks and split his comrades' skulls with rifle butts. The Bataan Death March was so unhuman in nature that the Japanese general who imposed it was executed years after for war crimes.

Tears in the Darkness: The Story of the Bataan Death March and Its Aftermath, by Michael Norman and Elizabeth Norman is a 480-page book published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, sells for $30. Grab a copy in a bookstore near you.