Flashbacks: Prisoner of War in the Philippines

By T. Walter Middleton

Book Overview

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1570900973
• ISBN13: 9781570900976
• Release Date: November 2002
• Publisher: Alexander Books
• Length: 196 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.1" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

no mammy, no pappy, no uncle sammy...

The Japanese looked upon surrender as the lowest form of cowardice, a dishonor to not only oneself, but to that of his family and above all his country. They therefore treated any prisoner with a loathsome, vehement and barbarous attitude that is almost totally incomprehensible to us today. "Flashbacks," the second of T. Walter Middleton's wonderful books, gives a personal account of his horrendous ordeal as a WWII prisoner of the Bataan Death March and Camps. Mr. Middleton was held captive for over three and one half years, and during that time he endured torture, disease, starvation, and a deprivation of humanity. Since that time, he has endured his own private hell, memories which have held him prisoner for decades. The writing of this book was an effort to purge some of those memories, those flashbacks, and to enlighten those of use who were fortunate enough to be spared horrors of this type. Some of his worst memories, however, have been omitted, as they were far too grievous for him to put on paper. Mr. Middleton also told me that after all he and the others had gone through, that after their rescue they were locked up in padded cells, because at that time they didn't know what to do for them. It was the closest he came to losing his mind completely. His salvation from his ordeal was his Christian upbringing, and he turned to God as he had been taught all his life. Mr. Middleton's style of writing is endearing to say the least. As a young boy who grew up in the mountains of western NC, his upbringing was founded in storytelling, a timeless art of tales handed down from one generation to the next. So, it is no wonder that his writing carries on much of this same style. That is, he writes as if you were sitting next to him, listening to him tell the story. I personally find this honest and refreshing, lending a personal touch to his book that is seldom found in most of the books written today. In his late eighties by now, his character and style is still unpretentious and genuine. "Flashbacks" is a treasure, a book to be kept and shared for future generations.

Flashbacks: Great Oral History

T. Walter Middleton gives you a great taste of folksy, oral history used to describe one of the most horrific sequence of events in US military history: the Defense of the Bataan Peninsula, the Bataan Death March, imprisonment in Camp O'Donnell, the Hell Ship experience, and slave labor for a Japanese corporation in Mukden, Manchuria. Mr. Middleton reveals many details of the horrors of those accumalated experiences. He does so, not with bitterness, but rather with a refreshing and surprising sense of humor. In one chapter he describes how his fellow prisoners discovered a large cache of marijuana which they smoked, and how in the midst of all deaths and diseases, they behaved strangely in an effort to have fun at the expense of the Japanese guards, who were completely confused by their unusual behavior. In one of the final chapters, he expresses the doubts he and his fellow prisoners had that they would ever again be able to fit into a normal, civilized society. Aside from being a "Great Read", this book will give it's reader a very personal look into the lives of the men who made the Bataan Death March. Fred Baldassarre Researcher/Archivist Battling Bastards of Bataan

Required Reading

The author, Walter Middleton, was a good friend of my dad's when I was a kid. At about age 10, full of the idea that war is really grand (common among red-blooded males of that age and beyond, it seems), I started bugging Mr. Middleton with questions like, "What did you do in the War?" About the third time I asked, he set me down for about an hour and told me. What I heard changed me forever.Many of the things Mr. Middleton told me that day are stories included in this book. I warn you, it is un-PC by standards of the current decade, but the author is to be forgiven if four years of treatment as an animal, by animals, has colored his view of the Japanese as a people. Also, the text is rife with colloquialisms, and there are more than a few grammatical and spelling errors. But the intent was not to write a thesis here. It was to record for succeeding generations the unique perspective of the War, the Japanese captors, and our own officers (including the great MacArthur) from the eyes of our enlisted men, who bore the brunt of the War. In this aim, Mr. Middleton succeeds with five stars. For anyone who has never read an alternative history textbook, I rank "Flashbacks" equal to Howard Zinn's "A People's History of the U.S." and James Loewen's "Lies My Teacher Told Me" in importance.I have ordered a copy of this book for a friend of mine with whom I have had conversations about how most Americans of my generation have no idea what hard times are really like. (I know I don't, not from first-hand experience such as recorded in this book.) I would have sent my own copy to my friend, except that it is a signed copy, and even more importantly because I will want to pass it down to the next generations in my family. This reading is not pleasant, but it is vitally important. The history embodied in this book must be kept alive. Read it and pass it on.

fives years of faith

I just so happen to be the great niece of Mr. Walter T. Middleton. This book was a very heart moving book to read. For a person to go through the treatment that he endured is a miracle. This book is great. He is an outstanding storyteller and this book is a page turner. I would recamend this book to anyone looking for stories during this time perod.