Of Rice and Men (Annotated): From Bataan to V-J Day, A Survivor’s Story: From Bataan to V-J Day, a Survivor's Story

At the fall of Bataan on April 9 1942, over sixty thousand American and Filipino troops were rounded up by the Japanese and forced to march 65 miles from Mariveles, on the southern end of the Bataan Peninsula, to San Fernando, Pampanga, in Central Luzon. Anyone showing a slight weakness to walk was instantly bayoneted in the back. Many marchers committed suicide by leaping from bridges. Others were shot for attempting to eat or drink anything.

Estimates of the number of total deaths from the march range from 5,000 to 8,000. Thousands more later died from malnutrition and disease in the abject conditions of the Japanese POW camps.

One of the fortunate survivors was Sergeant Bob Reynolds who penned his combat memoir Of Rice and Men in 1947. With a cool, philosophical perspective, he details the harrowing experience, from bitterly defending Bataan on starvation rations, through the many atrocities of the March, and finally his miraculous survival in Cabanatuan POW Camp and, later, in Manila's Bilibid Prison. 

*Includes annotations.

• Bataan Uncensored
• Bullets and Bolos (Annotated): Fifteen Years in the Philippine Islands
• Ours to Hold It High: The History of the 77th Infantry Division in World War II
• A Year In Treblinka
• My Life in the Red Army (Annotated)
• The Lorraine Campaign
• Zoomies, Subs, and Zeros (Annotated)
• In the Hell of Auschwitz: The Wartime Memoirs of Judith Sternberg Newman
• Old Gimlet Eye (Annotated): The Adventures of Smedley D. Butler
• The Good Shepherd