Tears in the Darkness

I want to tell you about Ben Steele... again.  Ben is the father of one of our friends. I met him a time or two but I have to say, at the time, I really had no idea who or what he was. Truthfully, I didn't really ponder him much at all. He was an older gentleman who seemed nice enough. I had heard he was an artist. Mostly, though, he was just Rosemarie's Dad and I didn't ask many questions about his life. It is a good lesson to me. No one is a blank canvas. Everyone has a story worth telling. Ben got a chance to do just that.

Ben was a Montana boy who went off to war during WWII, ending up in the Philippines. He just wanted to serve his country and get back to being a cowboy in Montana. His life took a very awful detour! Ben ended up among those Americans captured. He endured the Bataan Death March. He survived a horrible sailing to Japan, where he was held as a P.O.W. He was close enough to Hiroshima to hear the explosion when the bomb dropped!

Ben Steele is the key character in the book Tears in the Darkness, written by Michael and Elizabeth Norman.  It is one of the most difficult books to read. Don't get me wrong, it is well written. The problem is, it is brutally honest. The things Ben and the thousands of other Americans and Filipinos endured are so horrible, I could not have imagined it worse.

Ben Steele saw such atrocities! He suffered disease, injury and near starvation. Even as I type these words I know that I am not giving you a good picture of what happened to him. It is so horrifying, I can't quite bring myself to tell you more.

A few years back Mike's Mom gave us the gift of a trip to Oahu. Our first day there we toured Pearl Harbor and learned more about the horrors of war that had occurred in that beautiful place. Somehow I felt that I didn't have the right to enjoy Hawaii until I'd suffered through some of that. I guess that is kind of how I feel about this book. I felt it was important that I finish it; that I try to understand what this kind art instructor from Montana had endured in his youth.

It is a hard experience, even to just read about. I just looked back at my old posts and one year ago I talked of this book, even though I'd not yet finished it. Honestly, after that, I had to put it aside for awhile. Only recently did I bring it out to finish. I do recommend this book, but not for the horrible stories so much as the bright spots that shined out, even during the worst times.  It is incredible to read about the courage those men had. Many risked their own lives to help each other. Mostly, though, I was so impressed by the unbelievable endurance shown by men such as Ben Steele.

The best part, to me, was the place of peace and forgiveness that Ben Steele eventually managed to settle in. After reading all that he went through, all that he saw, it is hard to understand how he finally came to let go of the anger and hatred. It's all there in the book, though.

From the point of historical value, this book really gives more depth to what you may have learned in a classroom about that period in time. I learned so much! Anyone who values historical perspective will find value in this book.

As I prepared this post, I found a wonderful site where you can hear Ben Steele himself tell part of his story to the couple who authored the book. It may take a couple of seconds to load up but I hope you will take the time to listen. Ben Steele also documented many of his experiences through his art. He's a gifted artist and his work is sprinkled throughout the book.

They Have a Story to Tell

Something I was thinking about this morning was the simple idea of how we can live in a community of people without ever really knowing each other.  I live in an ordinary town in Wyoming and it is easy for me to think that we have all lived similar lives.  That notion would be so very wrong!

What brought that up this morning was an article in a Wyoming paper about a long-time local resident.  I looked at the photo of her and thought it possible that I'd seen her before, maybe passed her in an aisle of a grocery story or something.  She looks like an ordinary older woman to me.  Her story, though, is not ordinary.  Well, unfortunately it is not that uncommon, actually, but it is not an ordinary story for a Wyoming woman.

This woman, Inge Kutchins, was the youngest daughter of a Jewish widow.  They lived in Germany and she says she was about the same age as Anne Frank.  In her story Inge downplays anything she suffered as it is not comparable to those who were sent to the camps.  She doesn't seem to think of herself as a Holocaust Survivor, at least not in the way of others who were still in Germany during the worst of it.  However, she was sent from her family at age 8.  She was first sent to Switzerland to live with a Catholic family that was harboring Jews.  Later she was sent to the U.S. to live with a Methodist foster family.  She was just growing back her hair after having it shorn for de-lousing, she couldn't speak English and she arrived just in time to celebrate Easter, a holiday totally foreign to her.  She was just a little girl!

As I read the article I was amazed that she wanted to focus her story on those who helped her.  She didn't seem to want to discuss any cruelties she'd experienced, but rather wanted to discuss her gratitude toward all those who made her story have a different ending than so many other German Jewish children her age.  You see what I mean?  This is not an ordinary Wyoming life story.

I also came to know a little Japanese lady who ended up living out her life in Wyoming.  She had quite a story herself.  She told me of being in Hiroshima as a child the day the bomb was dropped!  Can you imagine?  She was pretty little but couldn't forget the fear.  She said her family had nowhere to go.  Ironically, she eventually married an American soldier.  Who would have thought a Hiroshima bomb survivor was living her life, raising her children, in small town Wyoming?

When living in Montana I once met the father of one of my friends when he was visiting.  He was a nice guy, an artist, but I am sorry to admit I didn't spend any time trying to learn about his life.  Later, I did get to know him more, but not personally.  I learned of a book that told his story.  That book,  Tears in the Darkness by Michael and Elizabeth M. Norman, is an eye-opener.

This gentle, elderly man named Ben Steele, lived through that Bataan Death March.  Although I'd heard of that, I'd never studied the horrors of it.  What he lived through is pretty much unfathomable to me.  He had a story to tell that I never even imagined.

So, you are wondering, what is the point of this post?  I don't know.  I wasn't planning this post at all.  I guess I just think I need to pay more attention to individuals.  It is so easy to overlook people.  Have any of you been surprised when you learned a story behind a person's life?