When submarines failed to return to port from patrol; they were officially listed by the Navy as “overdue and presumed lost.†Loved ones were notified by the War Department that their siblings; spouses; and sons were missing in action and presumed lost. While 52 U.S. submarines were sunk in the Pacific; the Japanese took prisoners of war from the survivors of only seven of these lost submarines. Presumed Lost is the compelling story of the final patrols of those seven submarines and the long captivity of the survivors. Of the 196 sailors taken prisoner; 158 would survive the horrors of the POW camps; where torture; starvation; and slave labor were common. This is the most complete and accurate record of their captivity experiences ever compiled. Author Stephen L. Moore draws on personal interviews with the survivors; as well as on diaries; family archives; and POW statements to reveal new details and correct longstanding errors in previously published accounts. Moore’s research brought to light the following facts: Most crewmen from USS Perch endured 1;298 days of captivity without their families ever being told that they were still alive. The Perch and USS Grenadier were so badly damaged by enemy depth-charge attacks that their crews were forced to scuttle their ships. USS Sculpin and USS S-44 went down fighting; with only forty-two men from the Sculpin being taken prisoner and half of them perishing on the way to Japan. USS Tang and USS Tullibee; victims of their own faulty; circling torpedoes; had few survivors; five of whom managed to escape from the sunken; burning Tang when it was 180 feet below the ocean surface. As many as six men survived the loss of USS Robalo after it struck a mine off Palawan; but none of those survived the prison camps. The book includes dozens of rare photos of the POWs; many of which have never before been published. Appendices include final muster rolls of the seven submarines and a complete list of the U.S. submariners who were held as POWs; with details of their various camps of internment
#485926 in Books 2014-02-11 2014-02-11Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 8.50 x .90 x 5.50l; 1.08 #File Name: 1590516109458 pages
Review
17 of 18 people found the following review helpful. Important Memoir with ReservationsBy Eileen PollockI have a number of histories by Joachim Fest on my bookshelf; so it was with interest that I ordered Not I. Much of the book concentrates on the author's father's opposition to the Nazis and the effect upon the family. Fest Sr. is immediately dismissed from his position as headmaster of a school because of his anti-Nazi beliefs. The father was a devout Catholic and I can assume his strong sense of rectitude; of realization of right and wrong; with its origin in religious morality; made him determined not to yield even when begged by his wife to do so for opportunistic reasons. For the Fests were now poor; and Joachim was forbidden by the Nazis to go to a private Catholic high school and had to attend what we would call a public high school. Their 70 year old grandfather went to work as employee in a bank to support the family.This was an educated; upper middle class family. The text is filled with references to Goethe; Schiller; Kant - the basis of the German Enlightenment. I found the many detailed accounts of family life a bit excessive. But then there is a passage that shows how Nazism impinged inexorably on the Fests. For example; they learned of the murders of Jews in Russia after the Russian invasion from soldiers returning from the Eastern Front.They had to be careful of everyone they spoke to; as Fest Sr. explained to the two older boys; 10 and 12; one of whom was Joachim.This is a fascinating account of a German childhood in the Third Reich and the treacherous ground upon which the family stood. The parents had Jewish friends; some of whom left suitcases of valuables with them which they buried in their backyard. Their friends; who beieved this too would pass; never returned after the war. Although overcrowded with somewhat tedious incidents; like the escape that was not; it is nonetheless important for the character of the father and what life was like for an anti-Nazi Christian in Berlin during "interesting times".2 of 2 people found the following review helpful. Ironically I love this book precisely for the reason most readers decried ...By CybercuichiIronically I love this book precisely for the reason most readers decried it; in fact that's why I bought it! After reading some of the reviews; Fest account of his education; and how he and his brother Wolfgang were educated under the German Bildung tradition; almost in direct opposition in values to the current at the time coarse populist Nazi regime.This book is his posthumous shortly after he died wrote as a reaction to Gunther Grass; Fest criticized Grass; not so much for having joined; but for having concealed the fact for so many years while engaging in political criticism of others over their Nazi pasts. He said: "After 60 years; this confession comes a bit too late. I can't understand how someone who for decades set himself up as a moral authority; a rather smug one; could pull this off."Fest was born in the Karlshorst locality of Berlin; Germany; the son of Johannes Fest; a conservative Roman Catholic and staunch anti-Nazi schoolteacher who was dismissed from his post when the Nazis came to power in 1933. In 1936; when Fest turned ten; his family refused to make him join the Hitler Youth; a step which could have had serious repercussions for the family; although membership did not become compulsory until 1939. As it was; Fest was expelled from his school; and then went to a Catholic boarding school in Freiburg im Breisgau in Baden; where he was able to avoid Hitler Youth service until he was eighteen.In December 1944; when he turned 18; Fest decided to enlist in the Wehrmacht; mainly to avoid being conscripted into the Waffen SS. His father opposed even this concession; saying that "one does not volunteer for Hitler's criminal war."His father Johannes a bulwark of opposition against the infamous Nazi regime instill the values in to his family even at the cost of his career; derailed by the Nazis his family suffering many hardships; and personal lost because of it. The book if anything it's an example of character against the comfortable moral apathy; and turning a blind eye to the Nazi heavy handed totalitarianism; not only in persecuting the Jews; but in suppressing political freedom; and turning dissent in to a crime punishable by imprisonment; and even worse death; all this in exchange for material prosperity; an end to German humiliation; after the treaty of Versailles; and first the political gains Hitler did; and later his successful Blitzkrieg campaigns turned Hitler and the Nazis in to demigods; you just can imagine the unbearable pressure dissidents of the regime had to bear against the common opinion that the Nazis were on the right track. Just imagine ten years of your enemies proving you wrong; and you holding in to your ideas; and lifestyle who endanger your own survival; because you hold in to moral principles of decency; and Humanism; above the comforts of an easy life for you; and your family.Of course after ten years in 1943; after Stalingrad; and the Alamein; the many defeats after; the incessant bombing by the allies of German cities; the rationing cards; the telegrams of the lost of your sons at the front; and if that was not bad enough you personally dragged out of your home to serve in the Volkssturm even if you were 60 years old or 13 years old! Everybody in Germany could see the high price they paid to moral blindness; but by then it was not only more dangerous to oppose the regime; but even too late to do anything to avoid the catastrophe bearing down in to Germany.Ironically Fest turn to be not an scholar of the Italian Renaissance as originally was his inclination; but a Historian to the German debacle that War World II was; and that can be argued it was also dictated if not by Hitler; at least it was by Historical fate. Writing biographies of Hitler; and Albert Speer between other lesser known books.A little known fact outside Germany and not in the book it's the controversy named: Historikerstreit (Historians quarrel) when he criticized Jurgen Habermas for pointing as unique and singular the crimes of the Hitler's Holocaust vs the crimes committed by the communist Pol Pot; Stalin or Mao Zedong.My opinion a highly readable book if disappointing to those who do no appreciate literature; or expected a sort of thriller memories.3 of 3 people found the following review helpful. Growing up in nazi GermanyBy John L. SeymourJoachim Fest was about 6 when the nazis came to power. He writes a memoir of his family's experiences. His education in the classics was extraordinary; but standard for upper middle class germans of that era. His father was a teacher in a private gymnasium (high school) but strongly opposed the new power; and refused on principal to join the recommended nazi organization. His wife was mystified by his behavior but went along. He was eventually dismissed from his job and because of the reasons for dismissal was not allowed to apply for any other work. Joachim describes the shrinking of the house; patching of clothes; shortage of food. He was eventually inducted into the army toward the end of the war; and eventually became a prisoner of war of the americans. He describes trying to escape; and being recaptured. Due to his erudition he had a good relationship with the American officer who was his prison chief. The german people were in general strongly in favor of the nazis; and by his description; turned blind eye to what was happening to the jews. His brother died during the war; while in the military; due to the bad decision of an officer who thought he was malingering and ignored his illness. It is a very interesting book; particularly in the description of peoples attitudes toward the nazis; and overall ignoring of the disappearance of jews from their neighborhoods. It is worth reading; even if you feel you know what there is to know about this time in history.
