Major Gordon's experiences accurate reflect those of thousands of his fellow prisoners of the Japanese. The nation owes a debt to Major Gordon, not just for his service, but for his willingness the recall the unending horror and write it DOWN!

Typically, post war records are replete with errors and it is only through thoughtful histories such as Gordon's can the next generation understand what price was paid for the freedom of the world.

Sadly, today we no longer teach the history of World War II. Ask any crowd of college kids and less than 5% would recognize the names of Bataan and Corregidor. Yet these same students can tell you every detail about the nasty twelve months of the "McCarthy Era" and, from their history text books, the life story of the "Beetles." The "Quislings" remain in control of our colleges and media. No one is ever taught about the Kamikazes of Japan and how the terrorists who attack today are absolutely the same enemy.

"Horyo" is a worthy addition for any serious student of World War II. Only with books like this, can the public ever understand why Japan owes the world an apology and reparation to its victims. Next to the Japanese, the Nazis appear angelic.

I felt this book gave me a better understanding of a critical period in American history. It is not typical of a lot of POW narratives I have read. The author provides an interesting look at pre-war military life in the Philippines. He also looks at questions surrounding the surrender of American and Filipino forces to the Japanese. I found his discriptions of POW life very insightful. They poignantly demonstrate what can happen to military personnel when there is an absence of leadership and discipline.

This heartbreaking book must be read with a half-decent grasp of the truth of American history. Otherwise, Gordon's story becomes trivialised. Out of context, it loses its meaning. Just another war story.

America is at an historical crossroads. More than ever, this arrogant, over-confident, money-obsessed, chronically ignorant, 'super'power needs to face the nasty FACTS of its own Hollywood-distorted history. Acting on unfathomable ignorance, its media-induced citizens can endorse yet another monumental politico-military blunder. This time, one too many perhaps!

The bigger they are, the harder they fall!

Bataan & Corregidor were purely American/MacArthur disasters. A truly hideous episode, swept under the rug. There is nothing to romanticise or commercialise. There is no saving grace, just total & utter disgrace - so Hollywood & the Spielberg's of this world, steer well clear of it; preferring to fantasize that Americans won WWII, when it was really won by the Russians at Stalingrad!, more than anyone.

O dear, that won't go down well in the Pentagon, will it? Is that the FBI I hear tapping my phone?

The average American imagines that 'Americans' won the Revolutionary War, led by Geo. Washington. But it was France who financed it and the French navy, more than anyone, that defeated the British monarchists. The American colonists/Congress neither financed nor supported the war in any heroic sense, at all. In fact their neglect of Washington & his tatterdemalion 'army' was a disgrace! From Chesapeake to Corregidor is not such an unimaginable leap in the context of American military history.

After the disgrace of Bataan & Corregidor (covered up), nevermind the fright of Pearl Harbour (now romanticised), the Americans did wage the Pacific War, and won decisively, only because of the Atomic Bomb, courtesy of scientists fleeing Hitler + a ruthless Truman, who DID grasp American military history as few Presidents have, and quit while he was ahead - ignoring MacArthur! Then came the utter stupidity and failure of Korea.

Do these people never learn?

Then the infamous, unforgiveable Vietnam War. A purely American war, with catastrophic results. Kennedy/Johnson/Nixon were all historically clueless. Read McNamara to find out how totally incompetent the American politicians & military were, once again.

Before outraged Americans follow Messrs Bush, Cheney, Rumfeldt and Powell's yahoo-ing posse too enthusiastically, into yet another ambush, under the banner of a "World-wide War against Terrorism", they would be wise to read up on the history of their own military prowess. We will avert our gaze from the futility of "Desert Storm" which was little more than a bloated fart against the winds of history, as we can now see.

Vast armies and unlimited weaponry do not a victory make.

The dwindling percentage of Americans who vote, urgently need to unglue themselves from their TV screens and read up on their real history, which is inglorious to say the least. Major Gordon's story is a pretty decent place to begin their long overdue education. It's an honest tale, rather well told, about an ugly (but far from isolated) chapter in American history.

America IS blessed with ONE redeeming feature: Energetic, investigative journalism and honest historical researchers, second to none in the world. Major Gordon, and many others, cut from the same cloth, may yet wake up this slothful, over-moneyed, ignorant nation, before it is too late: But only if their stories are taken to heart.

God bless America indeed!

This book was not what I expected, expecially after reading the previous reviews. The poetry is excellent but very cerebral! It is a Filipino version of what you study in Humanities in college.

This book is a must read for those trying to understand the assimilation of Filipino's into the American society. At times the works were rather deep, but after a bit of study, it is a total delight. I must say a lot of the material is not "easy reading" but it is all worth the effort.

Returning A Borrowed Tongue gathers the work of prominent poets who are Filipino or Filipino-American. The established writers, Gemino Abad, NVM Gonzalez, Jessica Hagedorn, are presented along with new voices like Jaime Jacinto. It sounds trite but I laughed, I cried, I read some of them over and over and wanted to talk to the poets themselves! Get this book if you have one drop of Filipino blood in you. Or even if you don't.

The imagery was startling and real. It recalled stories that my father told me about the Japanese invasion of the Philippines, which he witnessed as a boy about the same age as the protagonist. Manguerra-Brainard weaved the folk tales of the Philippines into her story expertly. Well done.

Cecilia Manguerra Brainard is a master story teller, who paints a vivid picture of the struggles of the Filipino people during the Japanese invasion of their country in 1941. Her deep understanding of the culture enables her to weave myth with every day life, creating a unique and haunting tale. Very well done.

I just wanted to thank Cecilia Brainard for writing this book and other books as well. I didn't know much about World War II in the Philippines, and this book taught me a lot about what the Filipino people went through. Cecilia Brainard, a very talented writer, has written an exceptionally fine novel in When the Rainbow Goddess Wept. Thank you, Cecilia.

Two years ago (9/99), I took "They Fought Alone" with me to a very large but remote mining site in the Philippines. I had met Col. Fertig numerous times nearly 40 years ago, but I had never read his book. I thought that his book would give me insight to the Filippino people and it did not disappoint me. It quickly became the "best read book in camp". After the Western employees read the book, it made the rounds of the Filippinos. I donated "They Fought Alone" to the newly built camp library when I left the Philippines.

Col. Fertig said a number of times that you only need to fear the bullet with your name on it. We, Americans, need to take a page from his book and start filling airliners and go back to our normal lives after 9/11.

I recently reread "They Fought Alone" after finding that two of W.E.B. Griffin's best-selling WWII fiction books were about Colonel Wendell Fertig's guerrilla campaign in the Philippines. These two books--"The Fighting Agents" and "Behind the Lines"--mix a little fact with a lot of fiction, but include some material from the John Keats book. I reread Keats to separate the fact from the fiction. I also stumbled upon a fall 2002 article on the Special Forces in "American Heritage" magazine, which mentioned Fertig's follow-up role in helping to organize the Green Berets in the 1950s--a story I did not know until reading Griffin. What a small world!

Griffin knew Fertig at Fort Bragg, which is where Fertig helped found the Special Warfare School and, interestingly, where Fertig's great-grandson, Dave Hudson, wrote his review of the Keats book. Griffin stated that Fertig's lack of promotion to general-officer rank, after commanding 30,000 guerrillas--the equivalent of an Army Corps, was one of the great travesties of justice perpetrated by a jealous MacArthur staff after the war.

Having known a by-then grandfatherly Colonel Fertig in the early 1960s when he was at the Colorado School of Mines, I would agree with Griffin's assessment. Wendell Fertig was one of a very select group of real heroes, not the instant, media-manufactured, post-9/11 kind.

I hope Hollywood and Brad Pitt can bring Colonel Fertig some very belated, posthumous justice, although I am not optimistic based on Keats' and Griffin's lack of success. However, the two authors must be given considerable credit for keeping this remarkable story alive for 40 years from the publication of "They Fought Alone" and 60 years after the actual events so that Hollywood could finally "discover" it.

"They Fought Alone" is an excellent book. It tells the story of COL Wendell W. Fertig and the United States Forces in the Philippines during World War II. USFIP, as it was known, fought guerrilla warfare against the occupying Japanese forces from the surrender of American forces in the Philippines (i.e. the Bataan Death March) until GEN MacArthur's return. If you have any interest in military history and/or guerrilla warfare, this book would be of interest to you. There is presently a movie script based on this book and in talks for production for a big-screen adaptation. Incidentally, COL Wendell W. Fertig was my great-grandfather.

What do you know about the Battle for the Philippines? Like most, you probably know that: 1) The Japanese invaded, 2) There were intense defensive delaying actions fought at Bataan and Corregidor, 3) MacArthur escaped vowing "I shall return!" 4) Captured survivors suffered greatly in their forced march from Bataan, and 5) Later, MacArthur did triumphantly return and everyone lived happily ever after. But there's much more to this battle than all that. Read about how MacArthur altered the defense plan for the archipelago from the original US plan and why he did so. See how the Imperial Japanese Navy almost dealt a blow to the US Naval Task Force. Learn why MacArthur was portrayed in the limelight (it wasn't personal vanity as some might think). But most of all, experience the bitter conflict through the eyes of the men who made it possible, and also paid for it. Astor's work is very readable, informative, and entertaining.

Another great effort by Gerald Astor, this time he offers the reader an oral history of the fighting in the Philippines during WW2. The author draws his narrative from the experiences of American Marines, soldiers, sailors and airmen and covers the first and second campaigns conducted in the Philippines during the war. The book provides an interesting and detailed insight into the experiences of the common soldier and helps those who have never experienced such things an understanding why men do certain things. An enjoyable and easy to read account of a WW2 campaign.

Excellent review of the war in the pacific. This story is long overdue. Hats off to Mr. Astor for the way he intermingled history with the personal stories of the courageous men and women who endured, fought and overcame an extremely vicious enemy. Anyone who had a family member in the pacific during WWII should read this book! Thank you Mr. Astor for a job well done!

What I wanted out of this book was not really what I got. I wanted a personal memoir filled with interesting anectdotes, recountings of battles the author fought in and guerilla operations, in short: adventure. Perhaps you will think that a little bloodthristy of me, but it is what I bought the book for.

However, I found these things to be few and far between. There are a trifling amount of these kinds of episodes, but mostly Ray Hunt and his ghost writer gloss over these points of interest (for me, anyway) to comment on generalities of guerilla life in the Philippines and "to set the record straight." Though this was the first book I have read on guerilla operations in the Philippines, it quickly became clear that there are several camps with opposing views about what really happened during the war among US/Filipino guerilla forces, and each tries to get its version of events to be taken as history. Mr Hunt makes an effort to give his side of the story throughout the book from mostly personal information, so in this respect I think he did a good job.

He also takes the opportunity to unapologetically wax patriotic. He is unflinching in his thoughts that the US and MacArthur are always doing right, a tone which sometimes was too strong for me to take seriously. At one point he claims that the best thing for the Philippines after the war would have been to make it "the 49th state,"(this was before Hawaii and Alaska were admitted) presumably because America was and is the best thing going anywhere.

In short, this book is not one of men in battle and the hardships they undergo. It is one man's first person view of a seemingly ongoing argument about this particular bit of history, as well as providing a wealth of general background on the subject. I suspect that there are other, better books to buy on all these categories, and would recommend this book only to those who are deeply interested and want to read everything they can find on it.

The Philippines' role as a major battleground in World War II must not be forgotten. Thus, Ray Hunt and Bernard Norling provide an important service in "Behind Japanese Lines: An American Guerrilla in the Philippines." The story of American servicemen fighting as guerillas during the Japanese occupation of the Philippines is an amazing one. Hunt's personal experience is just one of many such riveting experiences.

"Behind Japanese Lines" provides the reader with a vivid portrayal of Mr. Hunt's three-year ordeal as a guerilla on the island of Luzon, an ordeal he did not expect to survive. It also contains detailed analysis of the history of the Philippines and its complex relationship with the United States. The only drawback is that Mr. Hunt's narrative is abruptly and inconveniently interrupted by such analysis, presumably by Mr. Norling.

Importantly, Mr. Hunt gives much regard to the Filipino people, who suffered so much during the war. With their help and sacrifice, he was able to stay alive and fight to help liberate the Philippines. Very few other people of any nation gave so much in fighting for freedom during the war.

Also, Mr. Hunt is honest in his account of guerilla life. It was anything but easy, as rival guerilla gangs fought each other almost as often as they fought the Japanese. Even American guerillas fell under the spell of a near-anarchy situation and over-stepped their bounds. But such were the circumstances, and guerillas did what they could to survive. In any event, Japan's conduct in the Philippines was far worse than that of the guerillas.

All in all, the book is a good read and contributes much in the way of the history of the Philippines in World War II. Another similar book worth reading is "Lieutenant Ramsey's War: From Horse Soldier to Guerrilla Commander," by Edwin P. Ramsey and Stephen J. Rivele.

This book is one of those excellent works by the University Press of Kentucky. They publish a great number of WW II personal narratives concerning the more obscure activities and less known theatres. I recall one written by a bandsman, the only one such I ever saw.
This review is based on the 1988 Pocket Book newstand edition of the 1986 hardback original.
The book is well written, quite thorough, and extensively sourced and noted, in contrast to many such works in which all that is set down about the author is in the blurb on the cover. There is also a handy map of Central Luzon printed on the inside back cover, a really great idea so that one can easily find it. Why don't other publishers do that? There is also a very useful index which covers not just personal names, as do so many, but has also subject listings to various topics.
As contrasted to the original book published during WW II, with the title "American Guerilla in the Phillipines", this one does not whitewash the dirty and brutal aspects of the war and its aftermath. All in all, a very interesting and well written work which deserves a place on the shelves of Spec Ops, "grunt" history, and personal narrative collections.

I recently visited the country and although I did witness the harshness and depression, that is only a small part of the image I have of the Philippines. What is portrayed in this book is mostly the depressed side of the country: prostitution, sick children, dirty streets, calamity, unhealthy locals, poverty. Like I said, although I was a witness to all of these, I was also a witness to a colorful culture, hospitality, pristine islands, wealth of natural resources, preserved native and colonial architecture, Fiestas, Filipinos who are content in their simple lives, smiling children.

The photographs brought together a variety of interesting images of the Philippines. As an amateur photographer, I have been searching for photographic books on the Philippines and I found the contrast of beauty and harsh reality very well put together. The only drawback was the poetry. I didn't feel that it captured the emotion of the images.

When most Americans think of the Philippines, they consider the wild excesses of Angeles City and the old Subic Bay era. This book goes beyond that image and gives the reader a more accurate view of the Philippines and its truly remarkable culture.

Others have commented on the literary merits of this book, so I'll address its complex intermixing of reality and fiction. The author is pretty accurate on minor (sometimes unnecessary) details, but warps the big picture a lot. A major element of this novel is the outrageously poor performance of US Navy torpedos during 1941-43. In the real WWII, the major impetus for exposing this incredible scandal came from the submarine sailors. The destroyer force seems to have been mostly oblivious to the worthlessness of their major weapons system, even after the unbelievable "battle" against the burning hulk of USS HORNET described in Chapter 39. Yet Gobbell has heroic destroyer sailors uncovering the torpedo scandal. Furthermore, the fundamental cause of the defects was the monopoly on torpedo design and testing held by the Navy's own torpedo factory. Gobbell has invented a private corporation to take the rap instead, for no apparent plot purpose. Loyalty to the old school can be carried too far. Still, the book provides a timely reminder that overwhelming superiority in wealth, science and technology won't win wars unless these factors are converted into viable weapons handled by trained and motivated personnel BEFORE the war starts.

Like Gobbell's first book "The Last Lieutenant," "A Code for Tomorrow" is exciting and fun to read. The story moves at a quick pace and the action never stops. And any book that teaches me more about World War II is, in my opinion, a good book. "A Code for Tomorrow" accomplishes this, as Gobbell places Lt. Todd Ingram at the center of fierce naval battles at Santa Cruz and Cape Esperance.

Though the story is exciting and full of intrigue, I could not help but think that Gobbell based it on a James Bond movie. There are too many quick escapes and bizarre coincidences. For instance, a scene towards the end when Ingram and others are placed on a barge to be killed in a Japense torpedo practice exercise. That sounds more like a James Bond movie than anything have to do with World War II.

Still, I eagerly await Gobbell's next book "When Duty Whispers Low." Gobbell has a gift with his story-telling ability and knowledge of naval history. I very much recommend his books.

John Gobbell continues his characters and his premise in this latest book--forming fiction, suspense, espionage, and naval combat based in real, WWII history--and does so with the same flare and catch-and-hold-your-interest writing that can be found in "The Last Lieutenant" (his first book of the series).

As a connoisseur of techno-thrillers, suspense and espionage novels, I think Gobbell ranks up there with the greatest: Clancy, Coonts, Brown, et al. His weaving of actual WWII actions and history with some fictional characterizations is on-target and makes for a fun, can't-put-it-down reading. I highly recommend this--indeed all--of his books to the WWII action buff or general suspense-fiction reader alike.

I am a big fan of Gary Paulsen. Some of his books like Dogsong, Hatchet,(WHICH I THINK EVERONE HAS READ) Woodsong, and Christmas Sonata. The pictuers in the book are different. He writes about living in the Philippines. One thing that he talked abouut is that there was a war going on and he callled it "war time". He lived in the Philippines because his dad was in the war over there. I was very glad that I read this book and I hope you will read it too.

Biography...most people don't like to read these kinds of books. But, this is a very exciting biography that can't be put down.

Gary Paulsen is truly a rare talent. Your right there where ever he is, smelling the sea, the jungle, he draws you in and keeps you right along side him!

One of the worst books I've ever read...A mess...Incompetent, talentless, laughable. The romance novel version of an MST 3000 episode. Wild Gardenias is they type of book that gives romance novels a bad name. Horrible.

A failure of epic proportions. This is a novel that fails on every level. Ms. Collins is incapable crafting a story we care about, characters that rise above daytime soap opera caricatures or have any semblance of realistic, human relationships, and she is incapable of saying anything meaningful about the Vietnam war or the experiences of that generation. Tasteless, trite and shallow. One could say that it's unforgettable only in the sense that it leaves an unpleasant aftertaste that lingers with the reader for a long time. The only thing more stunning than how bad this novel is is the fact that the author's biography mentions that she is the PRESIDENT OF THE PUBLISHING COMPANY(?) that foisted this ridiculous mess on unsuspecting readers. If its president's writing abilities are any indication, Gardenia Press must be a third rate, fly by night vanity press.

I bought and read this book because it was so highly recommended by a friend. My thoughts in one word--'Wow" insightful, brilliantly written, this is one of those books that you read and it makes you a better person. Now when I see a title by P. Elizabeth Collins, I'm buying it, she can make words sing. A+ for Wild Gardenias.