03.27.08
My Comments on Ghost Soldiers
Not long ago, after seeing my posts on Bataan, Lori recommended a book to me called Ghost Soldiers by Hampton Sides. The other week I finished reading this book. I give it a two thumbs up! Ghost Soldiers is a fascinating true story of an American rescue mission to free the POWs held in the Cabanatuan prison camp in the Philippines during WWII. Sides does a great job tying together the various stories of the men involved. While much of the horrific accounts of brutality is heart-wrenching to read, the story of these men and those who helped them also reflect the amazing strength of the spirit. From them I have been inspired and have a renewed sense that all is not lost even in times of war.
One POW by the name of Bert Banks spoke regarding his contemplations of why some good people die while others are allowed to live. I would venture to say that all of us have contemplated that type of thing. Banks made a comment that struck me as truth. That comment was that, “this is all happening to teach us something about the nature of free will.” Time and time again we read of unbelievable acts of cruelty inflicted upon innocent people, and we wonder why it happens. How can people be so evil? Some go so far as to lose faith in God, while others blame God for these atrocities. While I believe there is a reason God allows these evils, I have often wondered why or what is the reason? My conclusions have been that the reason we suffer is ultimately because of sin. While we can suffer as a result of our own sin, many times we also suffer for the sins of others. One might ask, “Why doesn’t God protect the innocent?” My thoughts have been that perhaps some people have to die because when sin is committed there has to be a consequence. It would be unfair to allow sin to go without consequence otherwise we would not have free will to chose what to do (it would all be chosen for us), yet when we choose what to do, we have to reap what we sow. If sin was not allowed to ripen, then we would not reap what we sow and that would be against the nature of God. We are allowed to sin because we were given free will. And with that free will we must endure the consequences of the actions we choose–i.e. a murder will pay for his actions either in this life or the next, but because we have been given free will, he is allowed to kill, commit sin. But what Bank’s comment impressed upon me was that with free will, we have a great responsibility to choose what’s right and good. I don’t think we were given free will just so that we can live recklessly and selfishly.
I read accounts such as Nanking in 1938 and Rwanda in 1994 where it seems that all hell broke loose. And it did with devastating results. When reading about Rwanda, I read one author commented that it was as if God’s presence was completely gone from the region. And it made me wonder if God “does” leave some places and is that why such hell could break loose. Generally when I think of God, I think He is everywhere, but there is one passage in the Bible (1 Kings 19:11-12) that said,
“And, behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the LORD; but the LORD was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the LORD was not in the earthquake:
12And after the earthquake a fire; but the LORD was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice.
That passage seems to indicate that God is not always everywhere. This is not to say that He can’t be if He so chooses, but apparently there are places He chooses not to be in. In the Bible before Jesus ascended to heaven, He said that He would leave a helper. I believe that helper is the Holy Spirit, and the presence of the Holy Spirit is what holds back or restrains total evil. Yet, in Revelation, it is said that there will come a time when the Holy Spirit will leave for a time, and I think once again when the Holy Spirit leaves, we will experience total evil such as in Nanking, Rwanda and many other violent epochs in history. So why do I mention all this? Well, there was one part of Sides’ book that I read which made me think of how the Holy Spirit works and that it seems that it is through people who are willing to stand up for what is right and not just follow blind orders like an automaton that the Holy Spirit works. These are the people who prevent total violent chaos. Sides’ account of Masanobu Tsuji’s involvement during the Bataan march in the Philippines magnified this importance to me and that what happened in the Philippines was a glimpse of the presence of the Holy Spirit at work in the midst of all that violence. It also highlighted to me the importance of the choices we make with our free will. The story, according to Sides is that,
“Colonel Tsuji fanned the flames of race hatred and endlessly harped on the theme of the purity and superiority of the Yamato race. Wherever he went, atrocities seemed to follow. He was said to be personally responsible for the death of more than 5,000 Chinese. Tsuji advocated eating the flesh of the enemy to build fighting spirit–on one occasion, he is reported to have dined on the liver of a downed Allied pilot.”
Sides wrote that when Colonel Tsjui arrived in Luzon, trouble ensued. During the Bataan death march other commanders in charge of prisoners started getting mysterious field calls ordering that the prisoners and anyone offering to surrender be immediately killed. A few of the Japanese commanders thought this order was an outrage and did not believe that it was a legitimate order, thus did not follow through with killing the prisoners. However, there were other commanders who did not question those orders even if they seemed wrong, and thus took the lives of hundreds of POWs. It was later found that those field calls were bogus (and likely orchestrated by Tsjui), but nonetheless resulted in mass killings. Those under the care of the commanders who did not follow orders blindly and did not act as automatons, but used their heads and their consciences (free will) were spared. I think the Holy Spirit works through these types of people to restrain total evil and senseless killings. And it is another example of how we can use our free will to stand up for what it right. I hope never to encounter such wretched conditions, but if so, I pray that I will stand firm for what is right.
Anyway, for anyone interested in WWII in the Pacific, I highly recommend Ghost Soldiers. I could hardly put the book down once I started it, and have since retold some of the stories in the book to various people just because I was so impressed by them.
Marlakins
