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Book Review : Biography/Autobiography

A Study in Valor: The Faith of a Bataan Death March Survivor

by William T. Garner

"Clarence Bramley is a remarkable man," writes author William T. Garner. "He has seen and been a victim of some of the most heinous behavior witnessed in modern times. Yet, his objectivity and his faith have not diminished. Indeed, the opposite is true." Many books have been written about the Bataan Death March, but few have described the deep faith of the heroic men who experienced the horrors of that march. Among the survivors was Clarence Bramley. Tall and lean, he enlisted during World War II with dreams of flying P-40 fighter planes in the U.S. Army Air Corps. But the reality of war often dashes young men's dreams. While waiting for the results of his pilot exams, his squadron was ordered to the Philippines where he serviced the very planes he was hoping to fly. Then in the spring of 1942, the islands fell to the Japanese.
During the years that followed, Bramley experienced the brutal Death March, incarceration in the Phillipines and Taiwan, nightmarish weeks on a Japanese Hell Ship, and forced labor in a prison camp at Kosaka, Japan. He suffered disease and brutality and witnessed the agonizing deaths of close friends and comrades -- but he never lost faith in God.

Weeks after atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Bramley was thrilled to watch American B-29 bombers drop welcome food and supplies to the soon-to-be released prisoners in Kosaka. To celebrate that eventful day, Bramley and others crafted an American flag that lifted the spirits of the weakened prisoners.

Although Bramley survived to join what journalist Tom Brokaw called the "Greatest Generation" in its efforts to build a stronger, better world, he credits his love for family and country, and his faith, for the strength to overcome the harrowing years of imprisonment. In 1945 he wrote to his parents:

"I am humbly grateful for the bringing up you have given me, and though I can never repay, I sincerely pray that I might have the strength to be the man you would have me be. I am thankful to the Lord for the comfort, peace of mind, and happiness that a knowledge of Christ brings; also, for the care and protective guidance and innumerable blessings which have been poured upon myself and my fellowmen through these troubled times."

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