The Hike into the Sun

Sergeant Bernard T. FitzPatrick endured the long and deadly hike to Japanese prisoner of war camps known as the Bataan Death March. In Japan he was forced to work at the Yawata Steel Works at Kokura—the original target of the Allies’ second atomic bomb. FitzPatrick’s service at Clark Field in the Philippines, the brutal fighting on Bataan, and the harrowing details of his time as a Japanese POW are detailed. Interspersed are his thoughts on U.S. preparations for the Pacific war, his Japanese captors, and the American, Filipino and Japanese men and women who risked their lives to ease the harsh conditions in the camps.

The late Bernard T. FitzPatrick, a former insurance executive, lived in St. Paul, Minnesota.
The late John A. Sweetser III, a teacher and writer, lived in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Bernard T. FitzPatrick with John A. Sweetser III
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 255
Bibliographic Info: 39 photos, selected bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2011 [1993]
pISBN: 978-0-7864-6776-1
eISBN: 978-0-7864-9202-2
Imprint: McFarland

Maps and Illustrations      ix
Acknowledgments      xi

Introduction: Hospital Train Homeward      1

PART ONE: THE HIKE
1. Debacle at Clark Field      11
2. Into the Breach      16
3. They Shall Not Pass      21
4. Rattrap on the Agno River      23
5. Guarding the Calumpit Bridges      27
6. Into Bataan      30
7. The First Line      33
8. Withdrawal      37
9. The Second Line      41
10. Of Malaria and Iguanas      46
11. Last Days      50
12. Surrender      54
13. The Hike Begins      56
14. Vitamin Sticks      64
15. Vaya con Dios      70

PART TWO: THE SAMURAI AND MACARTHUR
16. Survival of the Samurai      77
17. Dishonor      81
18. Attention      84
19. Present Arms      89
20. Parade Rest      93
21. At Ease      97
22. To Measure the Strength      102
23. I Shall Return      108

PART THREE: IN THE POKEY
24. Camp O’Donnell      117
25. Building Bridges      124
26. The Two Fiestas of San Isidro      131
27. Calauan Revisited      137
28. The Fair One      140
29. Building More Bridges      145
30. Cabanatuan Prison Camp Number One      149
31. Breakout      155
32. Heroes of Cabanatuan      161
33. The Mass of the Blue Moon      165
34. The Mayor of Bilibid      170
35. Farm Days      176
36. Major Smothers and the Smothers Brothers      180
37. Shipping Out      183

PART FOUR: TO JAPAN
38. Hell Ship      189
39. Fukuoka Dai San      196
40. The Trading Game      204
41. The Lone Ranger      208
42. The Voice of the Crane      213
43. Yasumi      217
44. Major Rikitaki Surrenders      221
45. Pere Rene Roullier      225
46. Sayonara

Selected Bibliography      233
About the Authors      235
Index      237

“a much valued, intimately descriptive contribution to the growing body of literature on the Japanese treatment of war prisoners and daily life (and death) in the camps”—Midwest Book Review; “unusually well written”—The Cellar Book Shop.