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by Rudy Apodaca (Author)
The events on which this novel is based took place in the South Pacific during World War II. The 200th Coast Artillery, a regiment of the New Mexico National Guard in the 1940s, was activated into the U. S. Army in January of 1941 and sent to the Philippines, where, along with thousands of Filipino troops and units from other American military groups, the men of the regiment were surrendered to the Japanese in April of 1942 by their commanding officer. After being forced as POWs to march their way to their camp of imprisonment in what was to become known as the infamous Bataan Death March, they were imprisoned for some two and a half years and subjected to horrific cruelty and inhumane treatment. Of the 1,841 men of the 200th who began the March, almost half, 819, wouldn't survive imprisonment. During their imprisonment, 750 American POWs, many of them members of the 200th, were placed in the two holds of an unmarked Japanese ship for transport to Japan to work in factories or farms. The ship was soon torpedoed by an American submarine, believing it to be carrying Japanese troops. Of the 750 prisoners on board, only 82 survived the sinking. The prisoners who survived the brutalities during their imprisonment were a living testimony to human tenacity and the will to survive. Their story is one of triumph over adversity. It is a story of human frailty, strength, and forgiveness.
