Belly of the Beast
A POW's Inspiring True Story of Faith, Courage, and Survival aboard the Infamous WWII Japanese Hell Ship Oryoku Maru
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Narrated by:
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Dena Pacitti
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By:
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Judith Pearson
About this listen
On December 13, 1944, POW Estel Myers was herded aboard the Japanese prison ship, the Oryoku Maru, with more than 1,600 other American captives. More than 1,100 of them would be dead by journey's end...
The son of a Kentucky sharecropper and an enlistee in the Navy's medical corps, Myers arrived in Manilla shortly before the bombings of Pearl Harbor and the other six targets of the Imperial Japanese military. While he and his fellow corpsmen tended to the bloody tide of soldiers pouring into their once peaceful Naval hospital, the Japanese overwhelmed the Pacific islands, capturing 78,000 POWs by April 1942. Myers was one of the first captured.
After a brutal three-year encampment, Myers and his fellow POWs were forced onto an enemy hell ship bound for Japan. Suffocation, malnutrition, disease, dehydration, infestation, madness, and simple despair claimed the lives of nearly three quarters of those who boarded "the beast".
Myers survived.
A compelling account of a rarely recorded event in military history, this is more than Estel Myers' true story - this is an homage to the unfailing courage of men at war, an inspiring chronicle of self-sacrifice and endurance, and a tribute to the power of faith, the strength of the soul, and the triumph of the human spirit.
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Story
Flight technician Frank Williams and Judy, a purebred pointer, met in the most unlikely of places: a World War II internment camp in the Pacific. Judy was a fiercely loyal dog, with a keen sense for who was friend and who was foe, and the pair's relationship deepened throughout their captivity. When the prisoners suffered beatings, Judy would repeatedly risk her life to intervene.
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Opinion, No Better Friend
- By Sam Thompson on 07-08-15
By: Robert Weintraub
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Ship of Ghosts
- The Story of the USS Houston, FDR's Legendary Lost Cruiser, and the Epic Saga of of Her Survivors
- By: James D. Hornfischer
- Narrated by: Mark Cashman
- Length: 17 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Renowned as FDR's favorite warship, the cruiser USS Houston was a prize target trapped in the far Pacific after Pearl Harbor. Without hope of reinforcement, her crew faced a superior Japanese force ruthlessly committed to total conquest. But the men of the Houston fought back with dignity, ingenuity, sabotage, willpower, and the undying faith that their country would prevail.
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interesting read
- By Laurie on 05-11-07
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We Band of Angels
- The Untold Story of the American Women Trapped on Bataan
- By: Elizabeth M. Norman
- Narrated by: Dina Pearlman
- Length: 11 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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We Band of Angelsis the story of women searching for adventure, caught up in the drama and danger of war. On the same day the Japanese Imperial Navy launched its surprise attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, it also struck American bases in the Far East, chief among them the Philippines. That raid led to the first major land battle for America in World War II and, in the end, to the largest defeat and surrender of American forces.
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A very moving tribute!
- By mark nelsen on 05-17-17
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As Good as Dead
- The Daring Escape of American POWs from a Japanese Death Camp
- By: Stephen L. Moore
- Narrated by: Tim Campbell
- Length: 9 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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In late 1944 the Allies invaded the Japanese-held Philippines, and soon the end of the Pacific War was within reach. But for the last 150 American prisoners of war still held on the island of Palawan, there would be no salvation. As soldiers, sailors, and marines were herded into shallow air raid shelters, Japanese soldiers doused them with gasoline and set them on fire. By the next morning, only 11 men were left alive - but their desperate journey to freedom had just begun.
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A question of compassion.
- By Art Baskel on 04-07-17
By: Stephen L. Moore
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Rescue at Los Banos
- The Most Daring Prison Camp Raid of World War II
- By: Bruce Henderson
- Narrated by: Brett Barry
- Length: 9 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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In February 1945, as the US victory in the Pacific drew nearer, the Japanese army grew desperate, and its soldiers guarding U.S. and Allied POWs more sadistic. Starved, shot and beaten, many of the 2,146 prisoners of the Los Baños prison camp in the Philippines - most of them American men, women and children - would not survive much longer unless rescued soon.
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Edge of your seat story. Great narration
- By Stuart Bruce on 04-16-15
By: Bruce Henderson
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Ghost Soldiers
- The Epic Account of World War II's Greatest Rescue Mission
- By: Hampton Sides
- Narrated by: James Naughton
- Length: 5 hrs and 57 mins
- Abridged
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At once a gripping depiction of men at war and a compelling story of redemption, Ghost Soldiers joins such landmark works as Flags of Our Fathers and The Greatest Generation Speaks in preserving the legacy of World War II for future generations.
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Ghost soldiers
- By Zach on 09-07-03
By: Hampton Sides
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The Jersey Brothers
- A Missing Naval Officer in the Pacific and His Family's Quest to Bring Him Home
- By: Sally Mott Freeman
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 18 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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They are three brothers, all navy men, who end up coincidentally and extraordinarily at the epicenter of three of the war's most crucial moments. Bill is picked by Roosevelt to run his first map room in Washington. Benny is the gunnery and antiaircraft officer on the USS Enterprise, one of the only carriers to escape Pearl Harbor and by the end of 1942 the last one left in the Pacific to defend against the Japanese. Barton, the youngest and least distinguished of the three, is shuffled off to the Navy Supply Corps because his mother wants him out of harm's way.
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Brothers Unbroken
- By Gillian on 05-12-17
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No Ordinary Joes
- The Extraordinary True Story of Four Submariners in War and Love and Life
- By: Larry Colton
- Narrated by: Robert Fass
- Length: 12 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Their names were Bob Palmer, Gordy Cox, Tim McCoy, and Chuck Vervalin, and in 1941, when they joined the Navy, they were not trying to prove their patriotism - they were just looking for a job that would provide "three hots and a cot". But on April 22, 1943, the war took a terrible turn for them. Their submarine, the USS Grenadier, was torpedoed. Listed as lost in action and given up for dead, all four had in fact miraculously escaped, only to be captured by the Japanese.
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Prisoner of War Tale
- By Lynn on 03-20-11
By: Larry Colton
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The Story of World War II
- By: Donald L. Miller, Henry Steele Commager
- Narrated by: Michael Kramer
- Length: 24 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Drawing on previously unpublished eyewitness accounts, prizewinning historian Donald L. Miller has written what critics are calling one of the most powerful accounts of warfare ever published. Here are the horror and heroism of World War II in the words of the men who fought it, the journalists who covered it, and the civilians who were caught in its fury. Miller gives us an up-close, deeply personal view of a war that was more savagely fought - and whose outcome was in greater doubt - than one might imagine. This is the war that Americans on the home front would have read about had they had access to previously censored testimony.
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INCREDIBLE! WELL-RESEARCHED, COMPLETE & UNBIASED!
- By The Louligan on 07-15-14
By: Donald L. Miller, and others
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The Great Raid on Cabanatuan
- Rescuing the Doomed Ghosts of Bataan and Corregidor
- By: William B. Breuer
- Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
- Length: 8 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Before General MacArthur could fulfill his stirring promise of "I shall return" and retake the Philippines from Japanese control, a remarkable rescue mission would have to take place. Captured American soldiers, emaciated and ill from brutal mistreatment, were still being held at the notorious Cabanatuan prison camp. A small band of Army Rangers set out on a daring rescue effort: to penetrate thirty miles into Japanese-controlled territory, storm the camp, and escape with the POWs...
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A Great Story
- By PCB on 11-08-05
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The First Heroes
- The Extraordinary Story of the Doolittle Raid
- By: Craig Nelson
- Narrated by: Raymond Todd
- Length: 17 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Immediately after Japan's December 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt sought to restore the honor of the United States with a dramatic act of vengeance: a retaliatory bombing raid on Tokyo itself. In those early days of World War II, America was ill-prepared for any sort of warfare. But FDR was not to be dissuaded, and at his bidding a squadron of scarcely trained army fliers, led by the famous daredevil Jimmy Doolittle, set forth on what everyone regarded as a suicide mission.
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Heroic Attempt
- By William on 07-20-04
By: Craig Nelson
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Red Blood, Black Sand
- Fighting Alongside John Basilone from Boot Camp to Iwo Jima
- By: Chuck Tatum
- Narrated by: Norman Dietz
- Length: 12 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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When Chuck Tatum began Marine boot camp, he was just a smart-aleck teenager eager to serve his country. Little did he know that he would be training under a living legend of the Corps - Medal of Honor recipient John Basilone, who had almost single-handedly fought off a Japanese force of three thousand on Guadalcanal.
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not as good as helmet or old breed
- By C. Kenny on 01-21-17
By: Chuck Tatum
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D-Days in the Pacific
- By: Donald L. Miller
- Narrated by: Gary Dikeos
- Length: 17 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Although most people associate the term D-day with the Normandy invasion on June 6, 1944, it is military code for the beginning of any offensive operation. In the Pacific theater during World War II there were more than one hundred D-days. The largest - and last - was the invasion of Okinawa on April 1, 1945, which brought together the biggest invasion fleet ever assembled, far larger than that engaged in the Normandy invasion. D-Days in the Pacific tells the epic story of the campaign waged by American forces to win back the Pacific islands from Japan.
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Terrific one volume history of the Pacific war.
- By Bill on 12-01-12
By: Donald L. Miller
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Bloody Ridge and Beyond
- A World War II Marine's Memoir of Edson's Raiders inthe Pacific
- By: Marlin Groft, Larry Alexander
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 12 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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On the killing ground that was the island of Guadalcanal, a 2,000-yard-long ridge rose from the jungle canopy. Behind it lay the all-important air base of Henderson Field. And if Henderson Field fell, it would mean the almost certain death or capture of all 12,500 marines on the island. But the marines positioned on the ridge were no normal fighters - they were the hard-fighting men of Edson's Raiders, an elite fighting unit within an already elite Marine Corps.
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A Masterful Account
- By Arthur on 01-25-18
By: Marlin Groft, and others
What listeners say about Belly of the Beast
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- matthew
- 03-25-16
a truly great story
the story is beyond amazing and heroic. the only con: the narrator's attempt to mimic the soldiers accents is horrible and , at times, takes emotion out of the inspirational story.
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- Athena
- 08-08-22
Narration Is Horrible
The telling of this man’s story, which needs to be told, was ruined by the narrator. Nothing in the story revealed where the POWS , except main character, were from, but the narrator’s contrived accent made them sound like they were all from rural South and uneducated.
The narrator CANNOT imitate a male voice and whoever reviewed the performance before release or selected her needs to look for another line of work.
As for the content of the story, a previous reviewer remarked that in addition to the POW’s story there is ongoing war and unrelated personally to the subject, Myers’s war, which is accurate. The author could have done a better job of weaving that information into the POW’s story. I have learned much about battles and the progression of the War via personal narratives whose main theme is the subject’s personal experience and not a discussion of the War.
Japan as a Nation, committed War Crimes. Every Nation has individual soldiers that commit war crimes, a significant difference. Due to political reasons related to the beginning of the Cold War with Russia, the Japanese were never held accountable for their crimes. Allied victims of their barbaric brutality have never been allowed to be compensated by Japan.
Examples of people driven mad by the conditions they were subjected to by their sadistic captors is at Ravensbrück, Germany’s concentration camp for women.
The media’s focus on the devastation caused by the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki along with political leaders apologizing for the destruction are failing to tell the complete story. Okinawa, Iwo Jima, Tarawa, and Peleliu are just of few of the barbaric battles that resulted in the horrific deaths of not only Allied soldiers and civilians, but Japanese and Axis soldiers as well, often by their own hand. Nor do they relate the story of the Allied civilians, including newborns, held in concentration camps where the conditions and death rate matched that of the Warsaw Ghetto.
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- Jfm
- 05-31-15
Good not great.
This book definitely has it's positives. And the story itself is a good one. However I felt like it was more of a general WWII American POW story than anything with some filler to make it seem longer than it needed to be.
I also felt like Dena Pacitti's voice did not do a great job of portraying anger, fear, etc. but +1 for clarity. Would recommend this book but would recommend others first.
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- jason
- 02-01-15
Great book, but a bit bipolar
If you could sum up Belly of the Beast in three words, what would they be?
Intense, disturbing, boring
What was one of the most memorable moments of Belly of the Beast?
The time spent on the ship
What about Dena Pacitti’s performance did you like?
overall good
Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
no
Any additional comments?
The book is a bit bipolar in that in the middle of the story, the narrator goes off about general information about the war in the pacific. It makes me, as the reader, loose connection with the protagonist as it feels abstract. If the protagonist introduced the information that would be different. I would say the book is 50/50, 50% about the protagonists life and 50% general information.
If this book was broken up into two sections, one about the war, and another about the narrative, that would be great. Yet, as it stands, it is a bit difficult to stay invested in the character when the book keeps switching from historical to biographical.
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- mark
- 10-25-16
The narration style ruined it for me.<br /><br /><br />
The silly voice styles used for the characters just turned me off this book. The story itself was harrowing,but the overall style of slipping in and out of the actual story and the historical events happening at the time was a strange way to knit it all together. Interesting story ruined by the narration.
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2 people found this helpful