Ben is one of those millions of young men who were children of the great depression. His narrative takes the reader through five years of his life, from 1940 to 1945. It tells of his transition from a normal naive teenager to a battle-hardened soldier fighting a losing battle on Corregidor, and then suffering the harsh, inhumane indignities heaped upon him as a prisoner of war when the Philippine Islands were surrendered to the Japanese Forces on May 6, 1942.

This is a story of survival. How does one survive three and a half years as a POW under a brutal enemy? It shows how an American boy becomes a man by adjusting to a completely foreign environment, every day meeting the daily hardships, obstacles and challenges served up by the unfeeling captor.

Winner of the North American Bookdealers Exchange "BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD" for 1989-90.