by Dan Hampton
First published 2022
Lieutenant William Frederick "Bill" Harris stands among the American defenders at Corregidor as Japanese forces close in during May 1942. The 25-year-old Marine, son of a decorated general, faces capture when the Philippines fall. Harris plunges into shark-filled waters and swims eight hours to escape, washing ashore to begin a desperate odyssey across the Pacific theater. A Filipino aristocrat shelters him before he joins guerrilla fighters battling the occupation. Harris attempts multiple sea voyages to reach safety, enduring shipwrecks, storms, and betrayal by islanders who deliver him back to Japanese hands. For two years, he survives the notorious Ofuna prison camp near Yokohama, where guards starve, torture, and beat him daily. Harris teaches himself Japanese to spy on his captors and develops secret communication codes with fellow prisoners. His refusal to break sustains him until liberation arrives on August 30, 1945. Dan Hampton reconstructs this Marine's wartime survival through military records, family photographs, and Harris's unpublished memoir, revealing how one man's determination carried him from the fall of the Philippines to the Japanese surrender ceremony in Tokyo Bay.
Genres: historical-fiction, 20th-century, military-fiction, adventure, action, non-fiction, biography-memoir, american-history
Vibes: emotional, fast-paced, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, fish-out-of-water
Setting: Corregidor, Japan, Pacific, Philippines
Period: 1942, 1945
352 pages · Hardcover · St. Martin's Press
Content warnings: torture, violence