Saints at War in the Philippines: Latter-day Saints in WWII Prison Camps

Michael H. Hyer's book Saints at War in the Philippines: Latter-day Saints in WWII Prison Camps is the latest publication associated with Brigham Young University's Saints at War Project.1 Hyer, a corporate attorney and independent historian, is a nephew of First Lieutenant George (Bobby) Brown, who is featured prominently in the book and was “one of the Latter-day Saint POWs who died in the sinking of the Japanese ship Shinyo Maru” (271)—a cargo steamship carrying 688 Allied prisoners of war that was torpedoed and sunk by the submarine USS Paddle on September 7, 1944, off the coast of Mindanao as it sailed for Manila.The Japanese surprise air attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on Sunday morning, December 7, 1941, is well-known to Americans. Less known is the fact that the land, sea, and air forces of Imperial Japan attacked the American-administered Philippine Islands at the same time.2 Some historians consider the American loss of the Philippines “the worst military defeat in U.S. history.”3 This book tells the important, butlesser-known, story of Latter-day Saints who experienced the fall of the Philippines—fighting, withdrawal, defeat, and surrender on the Bataan Peninsula; the fall of Corregidor; the Bataan Death March, extended incarceration by the Japanese, and, finally, liberation by Allied forces. The book's final chapter, epilogue, and afterword provide welcome information regarding the post-war lives of survivors and details regarding the men who died before the war's end.The author's purpose in writing this book was “to track [my] uncle's experiences as a soldier and POW by overlaying the few basic facts known from his military records, as well as bits and pieces of information recorded in family histories, over more detailed published accounts of the war” (xi). While researching and writing about his uncle's wartime exploits, Hyer was “able to identify other POWs who were members of the Church and had been imprisoned with my uncle. Many of these other Latter-day Saint POWs had left accounts of their experiences in letters, interviews, talks, and personal histories . . . carefully preserved by their families” (xii).Hyer tells this distinctly military story without getting lost in military acronyms, terminology, or jargon. Over two dozen photographs and three maps contribute effectively to the book's narrative, and the book's index is sufficiently detailed. As the book recounts the interesting and harrowing stories of numerous service members in a variety of locations, some readers might find it a little challenging—especially in the first half of the book—to keep all the characters and their circumstances straight.With thirty chapters in 230 pages, many are quite short. A four-page chapter on “Escape and Its Consequences,” for example, felt much too brief and left me wanting more information on that subject. Throughout the book, though, Hyer shares numerous interesting anecdotes, such as this experience by Army Captain Robert G. Davey from Salt Lake City: While commanding an infantry unit, Davey had moved the unit into a densely covered thicket of trees where they would be hidden from the Japanese. They had just dug into their foxholes when Davey felt a strong impression to leave that area. He ignored it. His platoon was tired and hungry, and now, after much effort, it was firmly entrenched and safely hidden in the thicket; no one wanted to leave. The feeling persisted, however, and Davey eventually ordered them to move. The next morning, they marched back through that area and found it had been heavily shelled. (42)Or this incident on Christmas Day in 1942 at the Davao penal colony: At the time of the surrender, a soldier had taken down an American flag and wrapped it around himself under his uniform. Once in captivity, he had hidden the flag in a regular GI blanket. . . . [the] American POWs would have been severely beaten and the flag confiscated if the Japanese had ever seen it. . . .On that Christmas Day, when the guards were not looking, the POW who had smuggled the flag unrolled the blanket, displaying the Stars and Stripes. According to Davey, “When the men saw the flag . . . a ripple of wonder and amazement spread throughout the group. This was followed almost instantly by the deep silence that comes only when one's heart is too full to permit words to be spoken. With their eyes still gazing upon the colorful banner, the soldiers began to sing; softly, but with increasing depth of feeling [‘God Bless America']” (129).As Hyer correctly notes, this book relates “stories of resilience in the face of adversity, of unwavering faith at times when God may have seemed indifferent and his presence far away, and of goodness and virtue in a world filled with hate and malice” (xii). They are stories worth reading and sharing.