Father Found : Life And Death As A Prisoner Of The Japanese In World War 2

Father Found reconnects a son with his father, who had volunteered from the California National Guard in pre-World War II days for active duty in the Philippines. War commenced and after time on Bataan and Corregidor, the father became a POW in early 1942. Shifted through numerous POW camps over three years, he was placed on the last prison ship to Japan three weeks before American forces arrived in the area. After two different bombing attacks he died, seven months before war’s end. The author weaves the story through interviews with men who knew his father, who were in the same camps, and who experienced and endured similar conditions. The story is told primarily from first-hand reports, diaries, journals, and scraps of paper, often buried and later recovered or hand carried to liberation. The few twenty-five word POW cards that arrived from the camps are shared. Letters to the family from surviving friends give glimpses of life, friendships made, and stories told. The author examines the war years within the hopes, concerns, and feelings of both POWs and families at home. The author tells of his own journey over these years as his research and memory provided it.