Vices & Virtues:
Ethical Dilemmas of a Fading Man
When Sidney Stewart was freed in Manchuria in 1945 after 3 years of imprisonment by the Japanese, the 6’3 American weighed 65 pounds (Goldstein). Stewart was an Army private stationed in Manila in 1942 when they were overpowered by the Japanese. The 21 year-old wasn’t the killing type of soldier. Of course he killed when required, but he wasn’t murderous. He’d been sent to Luzon on the Bataan peninsula after the Japanese invasion and was soon captured after his group surrendered. The deaths began immediately—surrender is not an option to the Japanese who told them “you are not honorable prisoners of war. You are captives and you shall be treated as captives” (Stewart, 84). Treatment was horrendous beginning with the Death March where Stewart and 75,000 others walked 65 miles over 6 days with almost no food or water from Mariveles in the south of the Bataan Peninsula San Fernando in the north (History). Those who attempted to reach water or were too weak to keep up with the group were savagely murdered (History). Stewart arrived at Camp O’Donnell, a Japanese prison camp. In Sidney Stewart’s Give Us This Day, Stewart shared the ethical dilemmas that challenged him during his 3 years of captivity by the Japanese in WWII.
Stewart wasn’t a killer and encountered an ethical dilemma when he was forced to kill. Before surrendering, in a battle on Bataan, Stewart and a Japanese soldier both dove into the same hole to avoid a falling mortar shell. Stewart was able to reach his weapon before his adversary who then surrendered. In the battle, Stewart knew that taking a prisoner wouldn’t be possible. But, he wrote, that he couldn’t make himself hate him (Stewart, 52). “I ha...
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...ory isn’t a typical WWII experience or even a typical prisoner-of-war experience. There was no “shame” (Hynes, 233) or “adventure” (Hynes, 236) as Hynes mentions in The Soldiers’ Tale. And conditions certainly weren’t “surprisingly comfortable” (Hynes, 237). Hynes wrote that “there wasn’t much scope for heroism in a Japanese prison,” (Hynes, 256) but Stewart’s ethics were heroic representations of the righteousness of humankind.
Works Cited
Goldstein, Richard. Sidney Stewart Is Dead at 78; Bataan Death March Survivor. The New York Times. April 5, 1998. Web. 06 April 2014.
History.com Staff. Bataan Death March. History.com. Web. 06 April 2013.
Hynes, Samues. The Soldiers’ Tale: Bearing Witness to Modern War. Viking Adult. Print. 01 April 1997.
Stewart, Sidney. Give Us This Day. W. W. Norton & Company; Revised edition. Print. 17 April 1999.
The soldiers in the Australian camp were not mistreated. On the contrary, they were well cared for. Despite their treatment by the Australians, a Japanese soldier would follow his leader's orders regardless of the final outcome. The idea that being captured meant dishonor to a soldier and his family was enough to drive him to die needlessly.
Guy Sajer’s The Forgotten Soldier is a work notable not only for its vivid and uncompromising account of his experience as a member of the Wehrmacht in World War II, but also for its subtle and incisive commentary about the very nature of war itself. What is perhaps most intriguing about Sajer’s novel is his treatment of the supposedly “universal” virtues present within war such as professionalism, patriotism, camaraderie, and self-sacrifice. Sajer introduces a break between how war is thought about in the abstract and how it has actually been conducted historically.
Michael took into account all three of the classical ethical ideas. He proceeded to take into account what he was taught and trained and did the right thing even though it ended the lives of 19 American soldiers. He looked at the big picture of the options he was handed and did what was best for the war and not just for their lives. Killing unarmed people was not an option for Lt. Michael Patrick Murphy, as he believed every person should have the chance to defend themselves even if they are your enemy. The situation the men faced is a situation no one can wish upon another.
King, Rosemary. "O'Brien's 'How to Tell a True War Story.'" The Explicator. 57.3 (1999): 182. Expanded Academic ASAP.
Hynes, Samuel Lynn. "What Happened in Nam." The soldiers' tale: bearing witness to modern war. New York, N.Y., U.S.A.: A. Lane, 1997. 177-222. Print.
Have you ever thought about what it was like to live during World War 1, or what it was like to fight at war? At first glance of any war piece, you might think the author would try to portray the soldiers as mentally tough and have a smashing conscience. Many would think that fighting in a war shows how devoted you are to your country, however, that is not true. According to All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque, the reality of a soldier's life is despondency, carnage and eradication at every bombardment. Living every day is not knowing if they will eat, see their families, or even if they will awaken the next day. Demeaning themselves from heroes to barely men without their military garment or identity. Remarque conveyed how
O’Brien, Tim. How to Tell a True War Story. Literature and Ourselves. Sixth Edition. Eds.
In this essay I will consider the objections to Virtue Ethics (VE) raised by Robert Louden in his article entitled On Some Vices of Virtue Ethics which was published in 1984. It is important to note at the outset of this essay that it was not until 1991 that the v-rules came up in literature. So Louden is assuming throughout his article that the only action guidance that VE can give is “Do what the virtuous agent would do in the circumstances.” I will be addressing Louden’s objections with the benefit of knowing about the v-rules. First of all, let us discuss what VE is. VE is a normative ethical theory that emphasises the virtues or moral character, thus it focuses on the moral agent. It differs from Deontology which emphasises duties or rules, and Utilitarianism which emphasises the consequences of our actions.
23 .Roger Daniel, Prisoners Without Trial: Japanese Americans in the World War II 1993, Hill and Yang.
The Forgotten Soldier is not a book concerning the tactics and strategy of the German Wehrmacht during the Second World War. Nor does it analyze Nazi ideology and philosophy. Instead, it describes the life of a typical teenage German soldier on the Eastern Front. And through this examined life, the reader receives a first hand account of the atrocious nature of war. Sajer's book portrays the reality of combat in relation to the human physical, psychological, and physiological condition.
O’Brien, Tim. “How to Tell a True War Story.” The Things They Carried. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1990. Print.
Trapp, James. The art of war: a new translation. New York: Chartwell Books, 2012. Print.
In the intriguing novel Redemption At Hacksaw Ridge, by Booton Herndon, the author uses many different aspects such as setting, conflict, and character to contribute to one of the stories main themes. In this World War II novel, the main character Desmond Doss is discriminated because of his religion and his choice of being a medic. Throughout the story, he experiences many hardships both mentally and physically. Both the setting of the Japanese island of Okinawa during the Okinawa Campaign and the characters throughout the story put Doss’s character to the test. These forces also help the author develop the theme. This essay will break down how the setting, character, and conflict help support the stories theme of if someone is showing prejudice towards you, you must
O’Brien, Tim. “How To Tell a True War Story.” The Compact Bedford Introduction to Literature. Ed. Michael Meyer. Boston: Bedford St. Martins, 2003. p. 420-429.
A true war story is never moral. It does not instruct, nor encourage virtue, nor suggest models of proper human behavior, nor restrain ...