![]() ![]() Only a fraction of those prisoners would be alive at war’s end. lost control of the Philippine Islands to the Japanese Army, forcing 76,000 American and Filipino soldiers to surrender, and marking the single largest defeat in U.S. A year later, Steele was stationed in Manila, Philippines … where his odyssey of deprivation, starvation, and torture would begin. He thought he might like to go to California, might like to see the world not yet 23, Steele became a private in the U.S. The New York University husband-and-wife professor team of Norman and Norman spent 10 years researching on three continents – the U.S., the Philippines, and Japan – to create this historical tome that ultimately feels like an overwhelmingly convincing treatise against war.Īt the center of some 450 pages of tragic history is Ben Steele, a young cowboy from rural Montana who enlisted in the army on his mother’s advice. ![]() In the book’s opening pages, the “Authors’ Note,” explains the title – ‘tears in the darkness’ is a literal translation of the Japanese kanji for anrui, “the kind of pain and sorrow that, literally, cannot be seen.” But beyond the explanation is a warning against war: “It is true that some men – men of greed, ambition, or raw animus – love war, but most, the overwhelming number who are forced to bear arms, come home from the killing fields and prison camps with anrui, ‘tears in the darkness.’” ![]()
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