Human survival in extreme conditions is one of the main themes in Ghost Soldiers. The author focuses on both physiological and psychological factors involved in this process. There are several examples of human resilience in this text: 11 men survived the Palawatan massacre in December 1944 and lived to talk about it, thereby prompting the raid on the Cabanatuan camp. The American soldiers survived the losing Battle of Bataan, the Bataan Death March, as well as camps O’Donnell and Cabanatuan. Some POWs, like Chaplain Taylor, survived from Bataan to Cabanatuan and even the Oryoku Maru “hell ship,” followed by forced labor in Manchuria. American spy Claire Phillips survived arrest, torture, imprisonment, and her death sentence in Manila. All these different examples share the similarity of pushing the body and mind to their limits.

The category of physical survival comprises violence, cruelty, and brutality, serious illnesses like dysentery, and chronic conditions like poor hearing and eyesight caused by malnutrition. First, the author makes an important distinction between dealing with violence and gore in combat versus as prisoners of war. He highlights this difference by focusing on the “emotional texture” thereof (110).