Ben Steel Chapter 2 Summary

Once again, the book resumes the replaying of Ben Steel’s childhood, especially centering on his muse for his interest in art, Will James, who he ultimately was given the opportunity to meet as he had to deliver him supplies, a job he had as a young adult. The narrator then switches the setting to the war in the Philippines, resuming on April 9th, 1942, the start of the terrifying march to Bataan. Under the Japanese captivation, each solider was inspected by a “guard”, and as they went down the lines, they described the Philippine soldiers as “hungry children” while the “white men” as “men without a fighting sprit”, a “will to win”. Throughout the marches, the Japanese believed it was their “duty” to beat the prisoners, as their sergeants and lieutenants had “beaten them”.
As the story progresses, it goes on to describe multiple stories from survivors, describing the tactics the Japanese used to express their power over the prisoners. In order to do so, the Japanese would use a “bayonet” that was “twenty inches long” with a “fifteen-inch blade”, to jab a solider in his lower back area if he was struggling or just for “plain fun”. Additionally, as the American-Filipino soldiers were prisoners, they were prevented access the basic necessities, such as water. As a result, the soldiers suffered from extreme dehydration and only a “madman would ask for water” (it was only at certain points that the solders were permitted to drink). Furthermore, “dead men and animals littered the field” as the “corpses lay where they fell”, which attracted millions of nasty decomposes. Once they arrived at the Pantingan River, each prisoner was “bound” to each other, as “their hands were behind his back”, then they were “leashed one prisoner to the next”, creating “chains of