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Give us this day: The true story of the survivors of the Bataan death march
Vintage paperback
188 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1956
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews
May 16, 2024
Normally I am the “book giver” in our family. Yesterday my dearly beloved (of the past twenty-eight years) handed me, Give Us This Day and said, “Read this!” He’s been telling me about this book for longer than I can remember. He says he read it forty years ago and has never forgotten it. Now I know why, as well as why he searched so long and diligently to find an out-of-print copy.
Sidney Stewart’s first-hand account of the Bataan Death March and the long years of Japanese captivity afterwards are told with a quiet poignancy and urgency which is impossible to describe; it must be experienced. All I can say is there was example after example of Truth in this book which I kept wanting to share with those dearest to me, especially if they have been or are struggling with any issues concerning: Life/Death, Faith in God, Trust/ Fear, Suffering, Forgiveness, Friendship/Love, and/or Surrender/Letting Go. And if we’re honest with ourselves who isn’t dealing most of those matters in one form or another almost every day?
Stewart’s story focuses on himself, his core group of friends and features one particularly heroic priest, Father Bill Cummings who inspires not only the title of the book but also an entire group of men to go on living under some of the most inhumane conditions known to mankind—although without any overt effort to ‘convert’ anyone. The author, a native Oklahoman, was not Catholic and yet he credits this priest with calming a starving, suffering wretched group of naked men in the hull of a stinking Japanese crate and keeping them from killing each other in the cold Pacific waters during the winter of 1944 simply by praying the Our Father,
Fully five stars. Six if I could. Couldn't put it down once I started it! Thanks Bear!
God bless America!
Sidney Stewart’s first-hand account of the Bataan Death March and the long years of Japanese captivity afterwards are told with a quiet poignancy and urgency which is impossible to describe; it must be experienced. All I can say is there was example after example of Truth in this book which I kept wanting to share with those dearest to me, especially if they have been or are struggling with any issues concerning: Life/Death, Faith in God, Trust/ Fear, Suffering, Forgiveness, Friendship/Love, and/or Surrender/Letting Go. And if we’re honest with ourselves who isn’t dealing most of those matters in one form or another almost every day?
Stewart’s story focuses on himself, his core group of friends and features one particularly heroic priest, Father Bill Cummings who inspires not only the title of the book but also an entire group of men to go on living under some of the most inhumane conditions known to mankind—although without any overt effort to ‘convert’ anyone. The author, a native Oklahoman, was not Catholic and yet he credits this priest with calming a starving, suffering wretched group of naked men in the hull of a stinking Japanese crate and keeping them from killing each other in the cold Pacific waters during the winter of 1944 simply by praying the Our Father,
‘Each evening sanity returned to the men when Father Cummings began to pray. By now almost all the other priests had died. “There were eighteen, no, nineteen of us when we left Manila,” he recalled one evening. “Now. . .” He didn’t finish. Each night the solace and comfort we received from the prayers was more than anything that anyone could do for us. He gave us strength and hope.’ p.221Written in 1956, Give Us This Day doesn’t spare the reader the atrocities endured by these largely forgotten prisoners-of-war, left to the not-so-tender mercies of an enemy which did not share our Western views on physical pain, moral honor, or the rules of war. And yet, the author also doesn’t find it necessary to share every last gory detail of his ordeal either. Whole days and weeks of unimaginable deprivation and suffering he glosses over leaving it to the reader’s imagination to supply the requisite empathy and prayers of thanksgiving for all that these brave souls endured.
Fully five stars. Six if I could. Couldn't put it down once I started it! Thanks Bear!
God bless America!
May 15, 2024
For many years, a very close friend of mine used to tell me how lucky he was to have met, and to have had as a psychoanalyst, a man named Sidney Stewart. He said that Stewart was tough on him, but had been a superior professional, giving him so many things to think about. But most importantly, Stewart had forever remained a strong presence in his life. In particular, he recalled Stewart telling him to always make the tough choices in your own life because if you don’t make them, they will be made for you.
It was just a few years ago that my friend decided to try and find out if Sidney Stewart was still alive. Sadly, he was not, but my friend did make contact with Stewart’s wife. It was at this point, for the very first time, that my friend learned that his extraordinary psychoanalyst had also been a Japanese prisoner of war and had written Give Us This Day. And this is how I came to learn of this outstanding book.
Stewart, who had written down his memoirs, eventually found that “fictionalizing” them made for a much better read. This account of a small group of soldiers, who along with thousands of others, were captured and held by the Japanese, makes for riveting and harrowing reading.
With all that is going on in the world, it is not a rarity to see or hear about atrocities. But for most of us, no matter how much we pay attention to the news, or how aware we believe ourselves to be, we do not, we cannot know what really and truly goes on.
In reading Give Us This Day, it was hard to imagine 600 soldiers in the hold of a ship that was only meant for one hundred men. It was hard to imagine sickness turning to delusion, and men (fellow soldiers) being so thirsty that they would cut one another’s throats in order to drink blood, much less a son doing that to his own father.
While I do not wish to retell the horrors here in this review, I do wish to say that I was alternately struck by the conditions these men faced in real life which few of us ever encounter in a nightmare. I was amazed by the will to live and the lengths the men went to (and the ingenuity) in trying to survive under such impossible circumstances.
Give Us This Day was an amazing story of survival. Even for the men who did not survive, most tried just as hard to do so as the few who did. But beyond anything, this book is a story that pays homage to the power of friendship, to taking responsibility for one's own life, and to never giving up.
It was just a few years ago that my friend decided to try and find out if Sidney Stewart was still alive. Sadly, he was not, but my friend did make contact with Stewart’s wife. It was at this point, for the very first time, that my friend learned that his extraordinary psychoanalyst had also been a Japanese prisoner of war and had written Give Us This Day. And this is how I came to learn of this outstanding book.
Stewart, who had written down his memoirs, eventually found that “fictionalizing” them made for a much better read. This account of a small group of soldiers, who along with thousands of others, were captured and held by the Japanese, makes for riveting and harrowing reading.
With all that is going on in the world, it is not a rarity to see or hear about atrocities. But for most of us, no matter how much we pay attention to the news, or how aware we believe ourselves to be, we do not, we cannot know what really and truly goes on.
In reading Give Us This Day, it was hard to imagine 600 soldiers in the hold of a ship that was only meant for one hundred men. It was hard to imagine sickness turning to delusion, and men (fellow soldiers) being so thirsty that they would cut one another’s throats in order to drink blood, much less a son doing that to his own father.
While I do not wish to retell the horrors here in this review, I do wish to say that I was alternately struck by the conditions these men faced in real life which few of us ever encounter in a nightmare. I was amazed by the will to live and the lengths the men went to (and the ingenuity) in trying to survive under such impossible circumstances.
Give Us This Day was an amazing story of survival. Even for the men who did not survive, most tried just as hard to do so as the few who did. But beyond anything, this book is a story that pays homage to the power of friendship, to taking responsibility for one's own life, and to never giving up.
August 3, 2015
Stewart's account of his days as Japanese prisoner of war during WWII. Names of events and places I had heard of but didn't really know much about. Now I will not forget them. Just when you think the worst must be over, things get worse again. Somehow Stewart and his friends help each other through it all, right up to the very end. While he doesn't dwell on the atrocities committed, he doesn't gloss over them either.
Recommended for high school age on up.
Recommended for high school age on up.
April 30, 2013
Sidney Stewart was one of the few survivors of the Bataan death march in the Philippines. He captures the humanity and the horror of what happened. He starts out as a naive young man who hopes that others don't recognize his weakness. Almost incidentally to the story, Father Bill Cummings offers to accompany the Allied soldiers when they evacuate and are captured. Father Bill is a background character throughout the book, but he is the one who gives this book its title, and he is a central figure in the issue that increases in importance as the number of survivors dwindles down: what good is faith in God?
This is not a book that clobbers you with religion. In fact, because my own thoughts on faith are developed and clear, I kept wondering what kind of faith the book's author had: faith in faith? faith in humanity? faith in a good God? faith in Jesus Christ? Although the book doesn't dwell on this question, Stewart shows how important the question is to him when near the end of the book someone he loves dies saying there is no God.
Sidney Stewart doesn't cover up human weakness or paint evil people as all bad. No doubt when you endure so much death and lose so many you love, you can look at so many lives and see the good and bad in them as well as in yourself. And having survived such a terrible captivity puts a lot of quarreling in perspective. Give us this day . . .
This is not a book that clobbers you with religion. In fact, because my own thoughts on faith are developed and clear, I kept wondering what kind of faith the book's author had: faith in faith? faith in humanity? faith in a good God? faith in Jesus Christ? Although the book doesn't dwell on this question, Stewart shows how important the question is to him when near the end of the book someone he loves dies saying there is no God.
Sidney Stewart doesn't cover up human weakness or paint evil people as all bad. No doubt when you endure so much death and lose so many you love, you can look at so many lives and see the good and bad in them as well as in yourself. And having survived such a terrible captivity puts a lot of quarreling in perspective. Give us this day . . .
June 30, 2025
My dad read this book aloud to my brother and me when we were young teenagers, typically while wearing a lava-lava and sitting at a patio table under a Plumeria tree (we lived in Hawaii at the time). Dad had been a Marine for 12 years and a police officer after that; he trusted Sidney Stewart to help him with character formation for his bookish boys. The memoir, and Stewart's heroism, has never left me.
November 8, 2012
Despite the horrific cruelty that is pervasive all along the book, it does give us a sense of hope.
If people like Sidney Stewart could survive this, it means that other people can and that the concept of "resilience" is not a mere idea but a fact.
For goodreaders I may add that the author survived very well in Paris, France. He became an artist a reknown psychhoanalyst and never forgot to celebrate life as a miracle, which it was indeed after such an ordeal...
If people like Sidney Stewart could survive this, it means that other people can and that the concept of "resilience" is not a mere idea but a fact.
For goodreaders I may add that the author survived very well in Paris, France. He became an artist a reknown psychhoanalyst and never forgot to celebrate life as a miracle, which it was indeed after such an ordeal...
September 14, 2012
I can specifically remember finishing this book the morning of Sept 11, 2001. I was waiting to report to a fire fighting training at Naval Base San Diego that morning just a few hours later.
September 26, 2021
This book is riveting. I wish that instead of these concentration camp recollections like NIGHT, the US high school sophomores actually read more books like this one or "A River Swift and Deadly: The 36th "Texas" Infantry Division at the Rapido River." Now these books are very expensive or no longer published.
My father who had been in one of the 1st US Army divisions to free Dachau in WWII never got over the experience. The whole time I was growing up he had me watch the various documentaries whenever they were on TV and also discuss to a certain extent the impact. Now however the cost to buy the book is outrageous . The book is unforgettable.
My father who had been in one of the 1st US Army divisions to free Dachau in WWII never got over the experience. The whole time I was growing up he had me watch the various documentaries whenever they were on TV and also discuss to a certain extent the impact. Now however the cost to buy the book is outrageous . The book is unforgettable.
October 11, 2022
Outstanding!
Excellent history of Sidney Stewart and his buddies. How I wish my cousin, who was there as well, could have been one of his pals. Anyone who wonders what happened to our soldiers after the fall of the Philippines should read this book. Sid put his whole heart into it, and thank God he survived to tell their story. Thank you
Excellent history of Sidney Stewart and his buddies. How I wish my cousin, who was there as well, could have been one of his pals. Anyone who wonders what happened to our soldiers after the fall of the Philippines should read this book. Sid put his whole heart into it, and thank God he survived to tell their story. Thank you
October 19, 2024
Give Us This Day
I can’t imagine a person could live through the things he suffered. God had a plan for him! He did a great job with the facts, and presented them in an understanding way. It’s at least a 1 box of Kleenex book!
I can’t imagine a person could live through the things he suffered. God had a plan for him! He did a great job with the facts, and presented them in an understanding way. It’s at least a 1 box of Kleenex book!
February 22, 2017
An amazing account of the author survival and relationships during the
Bataan death march and subsequent imprisonment by the Japanese.
Bataan death march and subsequent imprisonment by the Japanese.
July 30, 2018
This was a really good book. The story of the trials of Japanese prison camp during World War II.
January 15, 2019
Life in a WWII POW camp.
June 15, 2022
Contemplate
I first read this book as a teen. Its story and lessons has stayed with me my whole life (73).
I first read this book as a teen. Its story and lessons has stayed with me my whole life (73).
November 10, 2021
Oh my Gid ! This book is unbelievable. Cannot say more because the more is nothing to describe the feelings each word communicates.
December 1, 2012
A remarkable book. Remarkable both in that Mr. Stewart survived, but also that he was able to write this book at all. I'm not sure how I would have acted in the same situations he faced, I hope I would be as selfless, as caring of his fellow prisoners, but I don't know. One thing I do know is that if I was somehow able to survive, I don't think I would then have the courage to write about my experience. Remarkable also in that he was just 21 when he was first taken prisoner. When I was 21 I think I was only thinking about things like pizza and beer, Sidney Stewart is helping to save lives and inspire help his friends to remain hopeful.
One of the reasons Stewart was able to survive was his dedication to his group of friends, and his friendship with Father Bill Cummings. Father Cummings was the Catholic priest best known for saying 'There are no atheists in a foxhole'. The story of Bill Cummings would make for another book as powerful as this one, if not more so.
It is inspiring to know that people like Sidney Stewart exist in this world to help to counteract some of the evil.
One of the reasons Stewart was able to survive was his dedication to his group of friends, and his friendship with Father Bill Cummings. Father Cummings was the Catholic priest best known for saying 'There are no atheists in a foxhole'. The story of Bill Cummings would make for another book as powerful as this one, if not more so.
It is inspiring to know that people like Sidney Stewart exist in this world to help to counteract some of the evil.
August 18, 2016
This was an eye-opening story of a group of new recruits whose first assignment in 1942 lead to their being part of the horrible Battan Death March with no food or water for many days, Americans were savagely beaten to death. But the horrors of starvation, never enough water and inhumane treatment lasted 3 more years, many prisoner camps and ship holds later. Unrelenting heat and freezing cold, no medical care, no clothes, you name it. Stewart and his buddies survived by keeping each other alive at the expense of their own lives. Out of many thousands of Battan survivors, Stewart was the only one to make it back home to his beloved Oklohama. His is almost an unbelievable account of Japanese cruelty and indifference to terrible suffering.
August 12, 2024
An astounding memoir of Stewart's experiences, mostly as a prisoner of war, in the Eastern Theater during WWII. His experience is the very definition of endurance, of which his participation in the Bataan Death March is only the beginning.
My father-in-law loaned me his copy of the book, a first American edition, out of the blue a few days ago. He'd had the book since he was a child, and he pointed out that the chewed corners of the cloth binding were from a pet rat he'd had when he was 8 years old. He is 62 now.
Highly recommended for readers of American or miltary history. This book is still in print.
My father-in-law loaned me his copy of the book, a first American edition, out of the blue a few days ago. He'd had the book since he was a child, and he pointed out that the chewed corners of the cloth binding were from a pet rat he'd had when he was 8 years old. He is 62 now.
Highly recommended for readers of American or miltary history. This book is still in print.
June 7, 2011
The subtitle to my version was "The Powerful True Story of the Bataan Death March," which was quite misleading considering the whole march took place over only seven pages. The rest was a typical soul-searching/ patriotic POW story although I appreciated the author including his dubious moral incident in the hull of a ship after portraying himself earlier in the book so glowingly in his treatment of women, children, and priests.
July 4, 2012
Well, I won't elaborate on the story because you pretty much know it from other people's comments. However, I must say that this is absolutely the best book I've read about WWII prisoners. It really makes you appreciate all who have served for our country. I highly recommend this book to read!
June 30, 2016
Just when you think it can't possibly get any worse for Sidney, it does. I finished this book feeling ashamed of any complaints I've had about my life being difficult. I recommend this book to everyone.
September 20, 2018
So Raw, so Real
This book is hard to read. It is a graphic and disturbing story of war. I almost didn't finish it because it was so brutal, but it was the very least I could do for this soldier.
This book is hard to read. It is a graphic and disturbing story of war. I almost didn't finish it because it was so brutal, but it was the very least I could do for this soldier.
September 2, 2011
fantastic, profound, inspiring and awful all at once.
January 27, 2012
A great read but a sad story.
February 11, 2012
I didn't like the story...because just when you think things couldn't get any worse, they do. But I appreciated gaining an understanding of what the soldiers of The Baton Death March endured.
October 14, 2012
Unbelievable story.
June 27, 2014
A good primary account of life as a prisoner of the Japanese during WW2. Some disturbing accounts in here, but some good messages about hope. A good read.
June 24, 2016
Great Read!
Perhaps President Obama should read this before he decides to visit Japan again. What a slap in the face his visit to Hiroshima was to these heroes.
Perhaps President Obama should read this before he decides to visit Japan again. What a slap in the face his visit to Hiroshima was to these heroes.
June 4, 2025
really great book, similar information to tears in the darkness but a lot more intimate and raw.
February 16, 2012
Horrific, but nicely written.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews