Captured Honor
POW Survival in the Philippines and
Japan
Bob Wodnik
They joined for different reasons. Before he became an aircraft mechanic, Fran Agnes picked apples for twenty-five cents an hour in sunny Wenatchee, Washington. The promise of keys to a shiny new Ford roadster dazzled him into joining the Army Air Corps. Odas Greer was an only child who left home in the 1930s, enlisted in the Army, and worked his way up to sergeant. Hankering for adventure, freewheeling young Galen Martin and a buddy signed up in Corpus Christi, Texas.
Their lives would never be the same again. Fran Agnes would endure the Bataan Death March, Odas Greer would be captured and held as a prisoner of war, and Galen Martin would be seized and forced to work in Japanese copper mines.
With his extraordinary ability to convey the thoughts and feelings of these courageous survivors, author Bob Wodnik has masterfully compiled their stories and those of several other World War II prisoners of war into a non-fiction historical work with the feel of a novel. Readers glimpse the unrelenting physical agony and mental anguish of these young heroes as they struggle simply to live, and then, following years of captivity, make the difficult and awkward return to civilization.
There were changes at home, too. Letters hoarded by a quiet night clerk at the seedy Strand Hotel in Everett, Washington, portray civilian life during the war. The patriotism, the rationing, the blackouts, and the missing loved ones all indelibly altered those left stateside, and provide insight into a generation of Americans.
"The author has an uncanny ability to capture in words the experiences of ex-POWs. If there were one book I could recommend to explain the experience of being a POW under the Japanese, this would be it."--Tommy Thompson, former U.S. Army officer
"First and foremost, the manuscript is beautifully written. The author demonstrates an ability to blend dialogue, letters, and narrative into a seamless fabric, which enfolds the reader."--Stephen Balzarini, PhD., Associate Professor of History, Gonzaga University
Color
Latino Voices in the Pacific Northwest
Lorane A. West
"Lorane West has broken the silence, bringing to life the voices that Spanish interpreters hear every day in the clinic, the ER, and the maternity ward... Though the stories in this book are uniquely Latino, many of the stories recount common human experiences that resonate across cultures."--Cynthia E. Roat, MPH, trainer and consultant for Language Access in Health Care
"By tradition and conviction, our country is a welcoming society. America is a stronger and better nation because of the hard work and the faith and the entrepreneurial spirit of immigrants...About fourteen percent of our nation's civilian workforce is foreign born. Most begin their working lives in America by taking hard jobs and clocking long hours in important industries."--President George W. Bush
The hard work, faith, and entrepreneurial spirit of recent Latino immigrants to the Pacific Northwest are evident in Color. Without claiming to speak directly on anyone's behalf, the author presents a tapestry of poignant conversations with people who have come from various Central and South American cultures and backgrounds, all with the common thread of speaking the Spanish language. Their professions range from attorney to school bus driver. Some embrace the new culture of the United States; others merely tolerate it. Seattle resident Lorane A. West based her writing on exchanges she witnessed as a certified home health care worker and medical interpreter, and through her work at the Northwest Immigrants Rights Project. Her narratives give voice to hopes, dreams, and life experiences--from the ordinary to the overwhelmingly difficult.
In Color, a young man who wants to be an auto mechanic cannot understand why he is required to take Psychology 101 at the local community college. "Tell me they're not doing it just to cheat the students out of even more money." A woman tells how as a little girl, she swept a dirt floor, cooked over a wood fire, and washed clothes in a muddy river. "Nothing was ever truly clean. It was endless and sad. Can you imagine being here, in a nice apartment, how fun it is for me to keep house?" A man is unable to comprehend the poor work ethic of his fellow employees. "Minimum wage is more per hour than I would make at home by a long shot. So I work as hard as I can...but my citizen coworkers are always complaining. They even tell me not to work so hard because I make them look bad!" A father speaks of the intense hunger he experienced as a child and then recalls, "The first time my son said, 'I don't like this food,' I burst out crying. My wife thought I was upset at his bad manners, but I was just so glad my son had the luxury of not liking food...that my children have never known hunger." Another family endured the opposite. "We never got ahead. The jobs kept drying up on us...we had to pay $800 a month to live in an unheated basement with just two mattresses to share for the five of us...Life has been horrible here...I would like to write a book and tell my people, don't come. It isn't like the movies. Don't come."
Whether about love, work, play, finances, or family, these accounts illuminate cultural differences in attitudes, rights, and values, and pose intriguing questions about the effects of prosperity, the state of healthcare, and whether this country truly is a "welcoming society." West paints a very real picture of life for many new immigrants to the United States, and through her portraits, gives Americans a glimpse of themselves that may both surprise and challenge.
Snowbound
Ladd Hamilton
Trapped between snowy ridges and an unforgiving river, they had to decide whether to attend to the last needs of a dying companion or abandon him in the attempt to save themselves...
Three young New Yorkers, their guide, and a camp cook, riding five horses and leading five more set out into the untamed vastness of the Bitterroot mountains. This is to be the adventure of a lifetime, but it is already September. Ahead of these hunters, as they make their way up the Lolo Trail, lie the record snows of 1893 and a cruel, controversial decision.
Snowbound is the true story of the Carlin party, whose ill luck and bad judgment drove these decent men to an ethical dilemma that shocked the nation and can still raise an argument wherever people rub shoulders with wilderness. This gripping narrative is the story of a desperate struggle to get out of the mountains with a sick man and of the heroic efforts of various army units to rescue them.
Hamilton brings rich narrative detail and crackling tension to an intriguing episode in Northwest history. He gives flesh and bone to his characters, setting the reader down among them as they battle the elements and their own failures, caught between the imprisoning mountains and an unforgiving river.