Untitled (short & worth reading)

The Belmont Club | August 14, 2005 | Wretchard

[68skylark]

In February 1945, a woman now dying of lung cancer grabbed two of her children and jumped out the window to escape Imperial Japanese Marines crashing through the door intent on bayoneting everyone in the burning house. Finding no one, they went on to the next house to continue their massacre on a street not far from the Rizal Memorial ballpark, where Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth both played in sunnier days before the forgotten Battle of Manila. The 100,000 civilians who died in the largest urban battle of the Pacific War -- more than at Hiroshima -- are not remembered in beautiful candles floating down darkened rivers or in flights of doves soaring into the blue sky; there is no anti-American significance to their deaths. But they still live in the fading memory of that woman, who hid for two days in the smoldering ruins of the neighborhood until the first American patrols came into view.

I saw my aunt last as she stood in a window of a Sydney hotel and waved goodbye. I hope to see her again.

I bruise you
You bruise me
We both bruise too easily
Too easily to let it show
I love you and that's all I know

But the ending always comes at last
Endings always come too fast
They come too fast
But they pass too slow
I love you and that's all I know
-- Jimmy Webb and Art Garfunkel

[68skylark]

The permalink is here.

For the rest of The Belmont Club, click here.

[68skylark]

I only know a little about WWII in the Pacific. But this part of the world is looking more and more important to the war on terrorism -- we may soon be learning more about the history and people of this region.

Someone once said that Americans learn geography by going to war. Maybe that's true about history as well.

[goldfinch]

I only know a little about WWII in the Pacific.

If you want to learn more, I recommend the book, 'Eagle Against the Sun' by Ronald Spector. Spector covers the war with an American perspective and offers good analysis of our successes and failures. It was the first book I read when I, like you, realized I did not know much about WWII in the Pacific. After that, I read a couple hundred more...but 'Eagle Against the Sun' still stands out as the best single volume history of the War in the Pacific.

I would also recommend John Toland's 'The Rising Sun'. Toland's book details the war from the Japanese point of view. Both books are available on Amazon.

[John Filson]

Followup post of an older article from http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2005/feb/03/yehey/top_stories/20050203top6.html here: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1463295/posts

The 100,000 figure is also mentiond.