Give Us This Day

by Sidney Stewart

Book Overview

In April 1942, Sidney Stewart, a 21-year-old U.S. Army enlisted man, was captured at Bataan. For nearly three and a half years, until he was liberated by the Russians in Manchuria, he remained a prisoner of war. Here is his account of this long and terrifying captivity. It is one of the most harrowing and debilitating chronicles that I have read. . . . He describes the ordeal brilliantly; he harbors no resentments apparently, and he has emerged from...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0393319210
• ISBN13: 9780393319217
• Release Date: April 1999
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.62 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.2" x 7.9"

Customer Reviews

Excellent

Amazing book. Should be required of every high school senior to read

Great book, and accurate

I first read this book about 35 years ago when I found in my summer camp's library. Turns out my father, who survived Bataan and spent the rest of the war as a POW, knew the author while imprisoned. He said it was as accurate a portrayal as he had seen.

Outstanding book!

In 1967 a friend gave me a worn out copy of this book. The front page was missing and it was falling apart. It was several months before I picked it up and started reading it. If found out that you cannot judge a book by a missing cover. (The first two chapters starts off slow,... but WOW, after that you cannot put it down!) I have since read this book over five times. I'm a shift captain on Winter Haven Fire Department and I let everyone on my shift read it. When I think I have a bad day,...I think of Sidney Stewart. It also has a Christian theme that is very powerful. My prayer for Sidney Stewart and all those on this horrendous event: I PRAY THAT SOMEONE WILL ENCOURAGE GEORGE LUCUS TO MAKE A MOVIE ON THIS BOOK!!!!! AMERICANS NEED TO KNOW THE TRUTH AND HORRORS THAT THESE SOLDIERS ENDURED. IT WILL BE A THOUSAND TIMES BETTER "THAN SAVING PRIVATE RYAN."

The sacrifices of the men captured at Bataan.

This is truly a heartbreaking book. Mr. Stewart straightforwardly and unemotionally retells his personal story of survival through the Bataan Death March and subsequent captivity, in which he (and his fellow prisoners) experienced extremes of treatment and torture that you and I should be thankful we will never have to endure, an experience every bit as brutal and dehumanizing, as sad and desperate as any experience of World War II (including the brutality of the Holocaust). On top of barbarous treatment by the Japanese they were even bombed (accidentally) by American bombers while being transported in a Japanese warship to a new prison location as the war was drawing to a close. I cannot think of another book I have ever read that humbled me as much as this book and its recounted experiences of Mr. Stewart and his fellow prisoners. If some of these described incidents were given a fictional treatment, I would probably have laughed at their unlikeness (particularly the incident that gave the book its title--one of the most amazing things I have ever read), and yet it is all true. Truth really is stranger than fiction. I really encourage you to read this so we don't forget what the men who fought this war this in sacrifice for their country. I don't think anyone sacrificed more than the men who were captured at Bataan did. All of us should never forget how much they gave for us.

Tribute to Human Capacity to Persevere

This is a classic book pointing up the capacity of humans to persevere in the face of unconscionable deprivation. Sydney Stewart was one of the gallant American soldiers trapped on the Philippine Islands at the outset of World War II. Under-manned, under-armed and under-fed, Stewart and his friends fall into the hands of the conquering Japanese. He survives the Bataan Death March, but his long, arduous odyssey as a prisoner of war is just beginning.Stewart is an eloquent writer and he presents a heart-rending account of his horrific ordeal. That he survived at all is a miracle; that he survived well enough to produced for posterity such a powerful memior is astonishing. Highly recommended.

An amazing story of the human spirit

The story told in this book is almost unbelievable. It is a testament to the extremes of the human condition - the indomitable nature of the human spirit and the nightmarish brutality of which humanity is capable. I found myself gasping out loud while reading this book. Stewart's will to live in the face of undescribable conditions is remarkable. Just when you think the situation can not get any worse - it does and it usually gets much worse. The writing style is simple but not simplistic. The other prisoners become very real and the reader develops interest in them as well as Stewart. My only complaint is that with so much horror in the book, it would have been nice to know more of the story of how Stewart returned to the States, how his recovery went, how he adapted back to regular life, did he visit his friends families, how his experiences affected the rest of his life. I have found that most prisoner of war books like this are lacking in this respect.There are two groups of people who need to read this book: 1) those who think their lives are rough or unlucky, and 2) those who think the use of the atomic bomb against Hiroshima and Nagasaki was uncalled for.