The Fightin Texas Aggie Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor by John A. Adams

Abstract

Reviewed by: The Fightin Texas Aggie Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor by John A. Adams Donald K. Mitchener The Fightin Texas Aggie Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor. By John A. Adams Jr. College Station: Texas a&m University Press, 2016. ix + 279 pp. Illustrations, maps, notes, bibliography, index. $30.00 cloth. In these pages John A. Adams Jr. provides readers with another heartfelt encomium to his alma mater. The form of tribute he has chosen in this case is a history of Texas Aggie involvement in the first months of the war in the Pacific and of the treatment these men received at the hands of their Japanese captors through the rest of the war. There are constructive things to say about the results of his efforts and there are criticisms that can be made as well. From the beginning of this work it is obvious that Adams is exceedingly proud of a&m. He doesn’t miss an opportunity, for example, to describe a&m’s contributions to the early war effort in the most positive terms. Given the statistics he quotes, that record is indeed worthy of note. He mines university archival materials, memoirs, and interviews for personal accounts of the events he describes and he uses the quotes and descriptions to good effect. The story of a&m’s role in the defense of Bataan and Corregidor is well told as is that of the pow experience of those Aggies who had to endure it. It is in the fleshing out of his narrative that Adams encounters difficulties. We know that the American defense of the Philippines was not the work of only a few individuals. His story is focused so narrowly on a&m students and alumni, however, that one comes away with the impression that their contributions to the defensive effort were somehow more important and effectual than the contributions of others. It is his overuse of superlatives in describing the actions of his fellow Aggies that tends to lead one to this conclusion. Telling the story without the hyperbole would make for a more scholarly and unbiased treatment of the subject. In summation, Adams’s work would make a fine addition to the bookshelf of anyone interested in the contributions of Texas a&m students and alumni to the American war effort during the first months of US official participation in World War II. Anyone interested in a more general history of that period that takes into account the contributions of all participants should read the works of authors such as Ian Toll, from a popular standpoint, or the more scholarly works of John Lundstrom and H. P. Willmott. [End Page 74] Donald K. Mitchener Department of History University of North Texas Copyright © 2017 Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska–Lincoln