The Great Raid

The dis-oriented author dos not normally write movie reviews. It is not that I don't see many movies — I just rarely get to choose the movies I see. With my wife I go to romantic comedies, with my sons I go to superhero movies and with my daughters I go to little chick flicks. This week I got to choose the movie.

I have been reading World War II books recently like Last Stand of the Tin Can Soldiers and Flyboys. For the anniversaries of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, I wrote a blog post and a guest opinion in my local newspaper about the bomb. My mother grew up under Japanese occupation during World War II on Guam so the Pacific War has always been an interest of mine.

Therefore it should be no surprise that I took my wife to the opening night of The Great Raid.

The Great Raid tells the story about the liberation of Cabanatuan prison in the Philippines. When the War started (at least from the American point of view) Japan attacked not only  Hawaii but also Hong Kong, Thailand, Wake, Malaya, Guam and the  Philippines. The difference in these attacks and the attack at Pearl Harbor was that in these others it was an invasion.

General Douglas MacArthur with his American and Filipino defenders were pushed back to the Bataan peninsula and eventually to the island of Corregidor. Under orders from Roosevelt, MacArthur made his retreat to Australia and his famous radio broadcast to the Philippines:

The President of the United States ordered me to break through the Japanese lines and proceed from Corregidor to Australia for the purpose, as I understand it, of organizing the American offensive against Japan, a primary objective of which is the relief of the Philippines. I came through and I shall return.

The defenders at Corregidor and Bataan were running out of food and supplies and there was no relief in sight. In May of 1942, under Major General King, allied forces in the Philippines surrendered. This marked the beginning of the infamous Bataan death march.  Some 70,000 American and Filipino prisoners were marched some 60 miles to prison camps. During this marcc any prisoner who fell behind was killed by bayoneting or being shot. In the end only about 55,000 made it.

The Great Raid is the story of the rescue of some of the Bataan survivors as the US retook the Philippines. Most of the healthiest survivors had been transported to Japan to work as slave laborers. By the time the US returned, only the injured and infirm were left in the camps. The movie shows a heart wrenching scene from a camp on Palau where the prisoners are placed in an air raid shelter and then incinerated alive. The movie does a good job of showing the atrocities the Japanese performed on American prisoners.

The movie follows the green US Army Rangers who stage a daring raid to rescue the prisoners. It is good that we as Americans are reminded what sacrifices our parents and grandparents made. The movie was powerful, patriotic and uplifting — not a bad way to spend $7.50.