Inside the Bataan Death March

<p> For two weeks during the spring of 1942 the Bataan Death March--one of the most widely condemned atrocities of World War II--unfolded. The prevailing interpretation of this event is simple: American prisoners of war suffered cruel treatment at the hands of their Japanese captors while Filipinos sympathetic to the Americans looked on.</p><p> Most survivors of the march wrote about their experiences decades after the war and a number of factors distorted their accounts. The crucial aspect of memory is central to this study--how it is constructed by whom and for what purpose. This book questions the prevailing interpretation reconsiders the actions of all three groups in their cultural contexts and suggests a far greater complexity. Among the conclusions is that violence on the march was largely the result of a clash of cultures--undisciplined individualistic Americans encountered Japanese who valued order and form while Filipinos were active even ambitious participants in the drama.</p>