When Help Never Came Review

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(More customer reviews)The author is a former American soldier who was stationed in the Philippines when the Japanese attacked. He was among those who retreated to the Bataan peninsula and he eventually moved out to the fortress on Corregidor Island. Captured by the Japanese, he spent the rest of the war as a POW. After his initial stay in the Philippines, he was transported to the Japanese main island where he remained until the Japanese surrender ended the war.
His account is very matter-of-fact and unlike most other stories of American captives under the Japanese, he often speaks highly of his captors. At first the treatment was very brutal, but later there were acts of kindness from the Japanese guards and some civilians. He received fruit and extra food in exchange for work favors and was impressed by many aspects of Japanese culture. His account of how the Japanese guards piled their weapons in an orderly manner and then marched out in military precision when the war was over is recounted with grace. He seems to have little animosity towards those who were once "the enemy."
The bulk of his wrath is reserved for President Roosevelt and the highest members of the American military. He believes that Roosevelt deliberately allowed Pearl Harbor to be attacked, citing the widespread notion in the military that it was where the Japanese would attack if it ever came to war. He also will never forgive Roosevelt's deviousness in telling the American defenders on Bataan to fight on because "help is on the way", when he knew that there was no way that they could be rescued or reinforced. It was a cynical ploy by the American planners to keep them fighting so that the Japanese would be delayed as long as possible.
I don't believe that Roosevelt deliberately allowed Pearl Harbor to be attacked. At the time, few people believed that a task force the size that the Japanese mustered could sail all the way across the Pacific without being detected. In fact they were, the people on the ground just didn't recognize it for what it was. However, I give Sabotta his due, he did his duty and fought till it was useless to fight on, so his right to bitterness is earned.


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Wisconsin farm boy leaves to join the Army. He winds up in the Philippines at the start of WWII and becomes a POW for 3-1/2 years.

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