Belly Of The Beast Essay
The United States’ declaration of war on Japan after the attack on Pearl Harbor on the date that lives in infamy, December 7,1941, was an inevitable decision manifested from Japan’s occupation of Southeast Asia. The two countries’ worsened tension is delineated through the men in Judith L. Pearson’s novel about a corpsman’s service during the war and of his journey aboard Japan’s notorious hellships. Pearson, inspired by powerful stories on real life heroes, took upon herself to create a complex novel about the strength it took for men like Estel Myers to endure the adverse conditions that were thrust upon them. Through extensive research and the insight of Estel’s brother Ken, Belly of the Beast provides a valuable insight to a rarely recorded
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The POWS were marched from the Bilibid prison and faced inhumane treatment from the Japanese on each of the three ships- the Oryaku Maru, Enoura Maru, and Brazil Maru. After Japan’s Emperor accepted the surrender terms for the war, Estel was finally rescued and repatriated from a prison near Hiroshima on October 6, 1945. Pearson’s use of graphic descriptions of the lack of food, water, space, medicine, and treatment that the prisoners received on the hell ships exposes the underlying animosity Japanese felt for Americans whom they believed to be evil. The diminishing faith that Estel and the other prisoners had in their salvation from hell is symbolized by the recordings of the number of men still alive from the starting 1,619 prisoners from Bilibid. Despite the toll the apocalyptic voyage took on the prisoners which forced them to beg their enemies for a drop of water, some rice, or even a cigarette, Estel’s enduring spirit allowed him to live to be able to write his family back. All the death surrounding Estel didn’t stop him from helping others hold onto their soul and body and showing readers the depth of mankind. Although the title of the book is misleading since the book covers Estel’s entire journey and only reserves about 10 pages for the physical and psychological torture faced on the Oryoku Maru, it precisely personifies the enemy ships as “the
The POWS were marched from the Bilibid prison and faced inhumane treatment from the Japanese on each of the three ships- the Oryaku Maru, Enoura Maru, and Brazil Maru. After Japan’s Emperor accepted the surrender terms for the war, Estel was finally rescued and repatriated from a prison near Hiroshima on October 6, 1945. Pearson’s use of graphic descriptions of the lack of food, water, space, medicine, and treatment that the prisoners received on the hell ships exposes the underlying animosity Japanese felt for Americans whom they believed to be evil. The diminishing faith that Estel and the other prisoners had in their salvation from hell is symbolized by the recordings of the number of men still alive from the starting 1,619 prisoners from Bilibid. Despite the toll the apocalyptic voyage took on the prisoners which forced them to beg their enemies for a drop of water, some rice, or even a cigarette, Estel’s enduring spirit allowed him to live to be able to write his family back. All the death surrounding Estel didn’t stop him from helping others hold onto their soul and body and showing readers the depth of mankind. Although the title of the book is misleading since the book covers Estel’s entire journey and only reserves about 10 pages for the physical and psychological torture faced on the Oryoku Maru, it precisely personifies the enemy ships as “the