These survivors gave detailed testimony describing the inhumane treatment they endured. Some got back to headquarters in Australia and then to America. A few POWs did escape with the help of anti-Japanese guerilla forces. If captured, both the escapees and the remaining POWs were severely punished. The author describes the prison life and cruel treatment they endured. The POWs were brutalized by the Japanese. MacArthur rescued only his injured Army soldiers, intentionally leaving behind the remaining hospitalized Navy personnel to fend for themselves. They succeeded, but Burton was eventually captured by the Japanese after the surrender of the Philippines and never returned home.īurton and his injured fellow naval officers and sailors were abandoned in Manila after General Douglas MacArthur surrendered and escaped from the Philippines. As a favor to their doting mother, the brothers attempted to protect Burton by getting him a non-combat assignment in the Philippines. Using short, interspersed chapters of family, military history, and related topics, she also highlights the wartime careers of her uncles.īurton Cross, along with his two older half-brothers, Bill (Freeman’s father) and Benny Mott, served as naval officers during the war. Author Sally Mott Freeman’s main theme is her attempt to learn what happened to her uncle Burton in the Pacific Theater during WWII. The Jersey Brothers is both a history book and a memoir.
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