Shameless Self Promotion- PLEASE READ BEFORE POSTING

[Joyce]

I would like to say to anyone who cares to read this that Blessed Are the Merciful represents many things. Almost the entire book is set in the Philippine Islands during WWII, so that alone represents man's inhumanity toward man. That theme is carried throughout most of the book because the Japanese are cruel captors, who would rather kill a POW than care for him. They slaughtered 12,500 men on the Death March alone (64 miles), but they continued throughout WWII to refuse the captives food, water, and medicine. 9 out of every 10 POWs who were held captive were killed, not in battle, but slaughtered through neglect or cruelty.

It also represents why I called the book Blessed are the Merciful. There really were five couples who decided to get married right before surrendering to the Japanese. They had all heard the horrifying stories of what the Japanese had done to the Chinese earlier in the war. The women were especially terrified of them because when the Japanese went through Manchuria, they raped most of the women, killed the men and children, and then burned their villages, so that there was nothing left. Yet these five couples had the faith in God and in their love for each other to stand in front of a chaplain and repeat their wedding vows in the midst of a battle they knew was going to end up badly. The couples knew, at the very least, they would be separated for 3-4 years, and that some of them might not survive at all. Yet they felt that faith that continues to inspire us today to marry and have children in the eyes of God.

I have no idea if the five couples lived through the rest of the war, but we do know that they were separated and that both the women and the men were starved. The men had it much worse, however, and thousands of men who fought valiantly for our country were slaughtered needlessly by the Japanese. Their is new evidence out which points to medical practices being practiced on the men much like Mengele and the Jews during the Holocaust.

Our Forgotten Soldiers was added to the title because when the men were finally released from enemy camps, they got on their knees, kissed the sand on the beach as the U.S. planes were flying overhead, and cried, "We thought you had forgotten we were even here."

Anyway, the book, Blessed Are the Merciful, Our Forgotten Soldiers, has many meanings inside the book. I hope you will give it a try. Joyce Shaughnessy blessedarethemerciful.posterous.com

Blessed Are the Merciful

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I promise, this is my last post on this giveaway... (Wait - did I post it? Well, regardless: the last)

Are you in Australia? The UK? The US? Canada?
My giveaway is ending Sunday, May 13, and if you're in one of those regions, it's for you.

Paperback book, brand new. I'll sign it, if you like. And there's a bookmark with it that's pretty nice (if I say so myself...)

Check it out:


http://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/sho...