Abandoned on Bataan
 Oliver “Red” Allen
 (Reviewed by The Editor - Rebecca Brown)
 2002 Crimson Horse E & P
  ISBN: 0971318417


A teenage American GI recounts his years (1941-1945) as a prisoner of war.

One man's story, as told to Mildred Allen, of starvation, torture & germ warfare at the hands of the Japanese Empire in the Philippines & Manchuria.

Yearning to become a pilot, Texan teenager Oliver Allen answers the call to duty as the storms of war rumble over Europe & China. Unable to attain his dream of flying planes, he enlists anyway & is immediately shipped to the West Coast, on to Hawaii & then across the Pacific to the Philippine Islands into the maw of the Japanese advance.

That “Red” Allen survives is due as much to the simplicity & hardscrabble of his Texas childhood during the Great Depression as to the ebullience of his youth, not to mention pure damn luck!

Abandoned on Bataan is an astonishing read. Profoundly modest, detailed & authentic. Time & time again, this prototypical survivor has the opportunity to dwell on self-pity & whine about horrific injustices visited upon him & his fellow POWs, however, he rarely does so, to his credit. It's the story that counts & the Allens have written a riveting memoir.

Oliver “Red” Allen has the blood of our pioneer parents running through his veins as he is shipped thousands of miles into the tropics, doing what must be done, what he is ordered, whether it's working on burial details, digging tropical foxholes, hiding in bomb craters, plodding on an endless forced march, repairing bridges, incarceration in camps, carrying fallen comrades, hauling water, finding food, cutting grass, surviving tropical diseases & visiting dying friends.

When his camp of ragged survivors is shipped off to Korea & then by rail on to Manchuria, he must start all over again in freezing winters in a land he never knew existed, working in a slave labor factory. Things improve a little when he is mistakenly assigned to KP duties. There he is moved to share with a neglected enemy boy.

Embedded in this memoir is also a mystery. What were the reasons the world went to war in Europe & in Asia, & what were the feathers the POWs found in their Red Cross packages & parcels from home?

As a child of WWII, I have always had a special place in my heart for those who fought, died & survived that conflict. Coming up in England, my memories & stories are of the European Theater. That's why After the Liberators by William C. McGuire II touched me so deeply. Everyone I knew had lost an uncle, a brother, a father. All of my father's family, back in Germany, were lost. Two of my mother's brothers, whom I never met, were RAF pilots who “bought it” somewhere over the Channel. My first introduction as a child to the Yanks was of tall, healthy bomber crews. Then tall, clean business men came over to London during The Marshall Plan to rebuild a devastated Europe. My mother often chauffeured their wives on shopping trips & I was recruited to carry their boxes & bags & tell some of the history of the places we drove through.

The last movie my family saw together was The Bridge on the River Kwai, which my Father insisted on dragging his ill self to. He never explained why it was so important other than to show us the walking stick he kept in a special cabinet. It was covered by a snake skin & heavily beaded with a military motto & insignia. Someone he had known had made it during his incarceration as a POW in the Far East. It had been delivered one day long after peace had been declared. As I read Abandoned on Bataan I kept remembering that walking stick & the story that died with my Father.

The War in the Pacific I learnt about only after emigrating to America, moving to the West Coast & living among so many survivors, some of whom have license plates declaring them Survivors of Pearl Harbor.

When I had the opportunity to read Duty by Bob Greene & We Band of Angels by Elizabeth M. Norman & Flags of Our Fathers by James Bradley with Ron Powers, I learnt more about the real life adventures of our servicemen & women. Now that I have read Oliver & Mildred Allen's book, I am even richer.

Abandoned on Bataan isn't about great generals or mighty battles, it is much, much more important, for it is about the survival of human dignity, compassion & hope. Yes, “Red” Allen ponders on the differences between cultures. Yes, his perspective of his captors is all-American, his point-of-view, however, is both prosaic & authentic.

Abandoned on Bataan ranks right up there with all our modern stories of young men on a quest & is a must for anyone who knows the stuff of which heroes are made--quiet endurance in the face of daunting odds, humor at the craziest moments, & almost casual compassion that bridges cultures & generations.

I feel as if my grandfather has taken the time to tell me his stories of a time long ago, when our world was in upheaval, & how he came through the fire to live a long, honorable life.

Do not miss this amazing memoir!
(04/27/03)

Rebecca