Synopses & Reviews
The fierce, bloody battles of Bataan and Corregidor in the Philippines are legendary in the annals of World War II. Those who survived faced the horrors of life as prisoners of
the Japanese.
In Conduct Under Fire, John A. Glusman chronicles these events through the eyes of his father, Murray, and three fellow navy doctors captured on Corregidor in May 1942. Here are the dramatic stories of the fall of Bataan, the siege of “the Rock,” and the daily struggles to tend the sick, wounded, and dying during some of the heaviest bombardments of World War II. Here also is the desperate war doctors and corpsmen waged against disease and starvation amid an enemy that viewed surrender as a disgrace. To survive, the POWs functioned as a family. But the ties that bind couldn’t protect them from a ruthless counteroffensive waged by American submarines or from the B-29 raids that burned Japan’s major cities to the ground. Based on extensive interviews with American, British, Australian, and Japanese veterans, as well as diaries, letters, and war crimes testimony, this is a harrowing account of a brutal clash of cultures, of a race war that escalated into total war.
Like Flags of Our Fathers and Ghost Soldiers, Conduct Under Fire is a story of bravery on the battlefield and ingenuity behind barbed wire, one that reveals the long shadow the war cast on the lives of those who fought it.
Review
Original, moving, and astonishing (Kenzaburo Oe, Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature) Epic... A marvelously humane and beautifully rendered tribute. (San Francisco Chronicle) A must read for anyone who cares about the history of World War II. (Chicago Tribune)
Review
"A thoughtful, humane meditation on war and family history, full of myth-bursting truths." —
Kirkus Reviews
"Glusman has written a compelling account of courage and sacrifice from the perspective of the doctors who sought to keep their fellow captives alive under conditions that amounted to a mass sentence of death. Over a third of American POWs held by the Japanese died in captivity. With grace and clarity, Glusman gives a keen sense of loss to that statistic, and a heroic dignity to those who survived—a major achievement indeed." —Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)
"Original, moving, and astonishing." —Kenzaburo Oe, Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature
"Epic... A marvelously humane and beautifully rendered tribute." —San Francisco Chronicle
Synopsis
Traces the experiences of the author's father and three fellow Navy doctors who were captured during the World War II battles of Bataan and Corregidor in the Phillippines, an event that united the men as allies as they attended patients under the brutal eye of their captors. Reprint. 45,000 first printing.
Synopsis
A gripping chronicle of courage in captivity, of sacrifice and survival, Conduct Under Fire recounts the fierce, bloody battles of Bataan and Corregidor through the eyes of the authors father and three fellow navy doctors taken prisoner by the Japanese in 1942. During their three and a half years of imprisonment, the doctors struggled daily against disease and starvation, fighting for their own lives as well as the lives of their fellow prisoners. Based on extensive interviews with American, British, Australian, and Japanese veterans, as well as diaries, letters, and war crimes testimony, Conduct Under Fire is an unforgettable account of bravery and ingenuity, one that reveals the long shadow the war cast on the lives of those who fought it.
About the Author
John A. Glusman is editor in chief of Farrar, Straus and Giroux. He has been a contributing editor to the Paris Review and has written for numerous publications, including The Economist, The Washington Post Book World, The Christian Science Monitor, and Rolling Stone.
Table of Contents
Prologueand#160;and#160; 1
- The Prettiest Girl in the Worldand#160;and#160; 5
- The Pearl of the Orientand#160;and#160; 25
- Red Sunsetand#160;and#160; 50
- Invisible Enemiesand#160;and#160; 62
- Exodusand#160;and#160; 72
- Rendezvousand#160;and#160; 85
- Opening Salvosand#160;and#160; 94
- Never Surrenderand#160;and#160;and#160;117
- "Help is on the Way"and#160;and#160; 123
- "Wherever I Am, I Still Love You"and#160;and#160; 143
- "We Are Not Barbarians"and#160;and#160; 154
- "I Go to Meet theand#160;Japanese Commander"and#160;and#160; 165
- Limboand#160;and#160; 198
- Horyoand#160;and#160; 214
- "The Last Thin Tie"and#160;and#160; 230
- The Good Doctorand#160;and#160; 253
- "The Japanese Will Pay"and#160;and#160; 282
- Bridge Over Helland#160;and#160; 295
- Bad Timing and Good Luckand#160;and#160; 318
- "Action Taken: None"and#160;and#160; 340
- The Arisan Maruand#160;and#160; 354
- Fire from the Skyand#160;and#160; 368
- Total Warand#160;and#160; 381
- Darkness Before Dawnand#160;and#160; 407
- Mission of Mercyand#160;and#160; 431
- Coming Homeand#160;and#160; 477
Epilogueand#160;and#160; 483
Acknowledgementsand#160;and#160; 483
Notesand#160;and#160; 487
Selected Bibliographyand#160;and#160;
Indexand#160;and#160;and#160; and#160;and#160;