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Ghost Soldiers: The Epic Account of World War II's Greatest Rescue Mission QUOTES

Ghost Soldiers: The Epic Account of World War II's Greatest Rescue Mission QUOTES

1 " The War Department in Washington briefly weighed more ambitious schemes to relieve the Americans on a large scale before it was too late. But by Christmas of 1941, Washington had already come to regard Bataan as a lost cause. President Roosevelt had decided to concentrate American resources primarily in the European theater rather than attempt to fight an all-out war on two distant fronts. At odds with the emerging master strategy for winning the war, the remote outpost of Bataan lay doomed. By late December, President Roosevelt and War Secretary Henry Stimson had confided to Winston Churchill that they had regrettably written off the Philippines. In a particularly chilly phrase that was later to become famous, Stimson had remarked, 'There are times when men have to die. "

― Hampton Sides , Ghost Soldiers: The Epic Account of World War II's Greatest Rescue Mission

2 " These men suffered enough for a hundred lifetimes, and no one in this country should be allowed to forget it. "

― Hampton Sides , Ghost Soldiers: The Epic Account of World War II's Greatest Rescue Mission

3 " In August 1944, the War Ministry in Tokyo had issued a directive to the commandants of various POW camps, outlining a policy for what it called the ‘final disposition’ of prisoners. A copy of this document, which came to be known as the ‘August 1 Kill-All Order,’ would surface in the war crimes investigations in Tokyo. Bearing a chilling resemblance to actual events that occurred at Palawan, the directive stated:
‘When the battle situation becomes urgent the POWs will be concentrated and confined to their location and kept under heavy guard until preparations for the final disposition will be made. Although the basic aim is to act under superior orders, individual dispositions may be made in [certain] circumstances. Whether they are destroyed individually or in groups, and whether it is accomplished by means of mass bombing, poisonous smoke, poisons, drowning, or decapitation, dispose of them as the situation dictates. It is the aim not to allow the escape of a single one, to annihilate them all, and not to leave any traces.’ (pp. 23-24) "

― Hampton Sides , Ghost Soldiers: The Epic Account of World War II's Greatest Rescue Mission

4 " I thought we’d been forgotten,” the prisoner said. “No, you’re not forgotten,” Robbins said. “We’ve come for you. "

― Hampton Sides , Ghost Soldiers: The Epic Account of World War II's Greatest Rescue Mission

5 " Filipinos were famous for their garrulousness. They were the Irish of Asia, it was sometimes said—warm, openhearted, story-loving, with unslakable appetites for the latest rumor or fact. "

― Hampton Sides , Ghost Soldiers: The Epic Account of World War II's Greatest Rescue Mission

6 " The degree to which a society is civilized can be judged by entering its prisons. "

― Hampton Sides , Ghost Soldiers: The Epic Account of World War II's Greatest Rescue Mission

7 " from his legs like an untethered weight. In their thousands the parasites "

― Hampton Sides , Ghost Soldiers: The Epic Account of World War II's Greatest Rescue Mission

8 " We are not pleasant people here, for the story of war is always the story of hate; it makes no difference with whom one fights.
The hate destroys you … Agnes Newton Keith
Three Came Home "

― Hampton Sides , Ghost Soldiers: The Epic Account of World War II's Greatest Rescue Mission

9 " Thomas was far from healthy, but his diphtheria never returned. Thomas could only call his recovery a miracle. More serum arrived two days later; had he not rallied so dramatically there still was a chance that Thomas would have survived long enough to receive a lifesaving shot. Still, he could not shake the feeling that his reversal without antitoxin was related to his passing the shot on to his buddy Trujillo. There had been numerous cases of miraculous recoveries in the wards of Cabanatuan, and these stories were the subject of endless theological speculation. Thomas, who was not a deeply religious man at the time, did not know what to make of all this, but he was, like Trujillo, most grateful to be alive. “When I came through that diphtheria,” Thomas recalled, “I knew that if anyone was going to walk out of that prison camp it was going to be me. I had made it this far, and as long as the Lord was willing, I was going to make it the rest of the way. "

― Hampton Sides , Ghost Soldiers: The Epic Account of World War II's Greatest Rescue Mission